July 20, 2018
Street play path to top sport
Black Fern Selica Winiata wants parents to urge their kids to put aside their screens and go play in the back yard.
She’s one of the rugby players featured in the latest set of Weetbix cards, in which she and All Black Rieko Ioane urge kids to enjoy their sport.
She says there’s now alot of pressure on youngsters to train seriously but it can make them jaded by the time they hit their late teens and ready to step up a level.
Climbing trees, getting dirty and having fun are just as important as drills, and Ms Winiata says the skills, coordination and mental attitudes developed in the street games of generations of kiwi kids can translate into prowess on the sporting field.
"What we’re trying to drive home for parents is that as they want their young kid to be the next All Black or next Black Fern or whatever the sport might be, just let them be kids, let them explore, let them fail, because when we fail we actually learn from our mistakes," she says.
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