Mandatory Reading For Any Sports Parent

[tirapell]

Every parent should read this at the start of each sport's season every year their son/daughter competes. I have a son now and I definitely don't consider myself an exception. Great article.

This seriously should be mandatory reading for parents before purchasing your kids' USA Wrestling card or SCWAY card. I think wrestling is worse than team sports because the parents are even more focused on their own kid. There is no team.

http://www.thepostgame.com/blog/more...-sports-parent

[California USA Wrestling1]

Every parent should read this at the start of each sport's season every year their son/daughter competes. I have a son now and I definitely don't consider myself an exception. Great article.

This seriously should be mandatory reading for parents before purchasing your kids' USA Wrestling card or SCWAY card. I think wrestling is worse than team sports because the parents are even more focused on their own kid. There is no team.

http://www.thepostgame.com/blog/more...-sports-parent

Great post Adam! Thank you for sharing! I agree a must read! Make it fun, and enjoy the sport! Whatever sport it is!

[TwoDogs]

Every parent should read this at the start of each sport's season every year their son/daughter competes. I have a son now and I definitely don't consider myself an exception. Great article.

This seriously should be mandatory reading for parents before purchasing your kids' USA Wrestling card or SCWAY card. I think wrestling is worse than team sports because the parents are even more focused on their own kid. There is no team.

http://www.thepostgame.com/blog/more...-sports-parent

I don't think it's worse in wrestling, I just think it is easier to see a crazy parent. At a little kid football game or baseball game or something like that the parents have a little distance between them and the game being played, usually you'll hear the comments comming from the stands. At a wrestling tournament the crazy parent is usually sitting matside while the match is going on.

Great post! Parents do need to keep sports fun for their kids or the kids will quit eventually.

[Bgphsh]

Awesome article.......It certianly made me do some soul searching..Thanks Coach.

[OCTitansHC]

definetly will pass this along to the parents in my youth club

[Dirk Diggler]

Maybe they should have done a story on beauty pageant moms and the reasons why we have overweight moms dressing their 6 year old like a 21 year old. Ten times worse than any sport parent I've seen and more damaging than just a "ride" home and a 'talk' about a game.

Chances are you are a competitive athlete because your parents are competitive too. That trait is learned more often than not. I've seen wrestling matches with kids and both wrestlers hands get raised and everyone goes home with a medal regardless of outcome or placing. Classes on jump roping without the rope so kids don't feel bad because they don't have the coordination to 'jump over a rope'.

Unless it's abusive, let the parents be parents. The problem I have with this article is that it gives a basis for conduct which others use to judge other parents. Of course a 'game' or 'athletic' event should be fun. It's always fun when you win or have no reason to win when 'everyone' wins. It's the lessons one learns from losing or failing, even if it's the smallest of mistakes. Sometimes the lesson is the smallest mistakes can have a huge consequence. Sometimes a coach won't point that out and it's left up to a parent. Especially if the coach is one of the new breed of everyone wins.

Sportsmanship should be expected from both child and parents, at all times. That should be the extent of telling a parent 'how to parent'.

Dirk

[tirapell]

Dirk, I don't think these are absolute guidelines, but we all know what the article is referring to. And remember, these were all the SUCCESSFUL athletes that were polled over 3 years (professional, Olympic, collegiate). It's not like these boys/girls got the "everybody wins" treatment their whole lives.

Sports is so popular and it's perceived importance is so high, that often times the ways we'd coach advanced athletes are used by parents on their 6-year old.

Everybody can take it how they wish. Personally, I've had a bit of experience with coaching and I'm going to re-read this and take a breath before my son plays.

[ex-coach]

Fun is another key word. When one talks about having an equiptmentless activity, sometimes it is as simple as the kids have a little more fun being on the exact same level as the kid that does not have that same equipment item. How much fun is it for a kid to play something when all their kids can not play? I do not think the point is to not compete, as much as it is for the kids to have fun while competing. AN good example of this might be Tiger Woods, not doubt a phenom at a young age. When he was a high school freshman he made the freshman basketball team at Western high school, a few weeks into the season his father made him quit the team. How was that fun for him, where was this need for competition then, it only mattered on the golf course, guess he had to look for fun away from sports when he was an adult?

When Adam mentions cards, I think of all the parents at local weekend wrestling tournaments, how many parents want to hang with there kids in the stands all day as opposed to helping out and having adult interaction with others. Let the kids play, let them pick-up a newspaper and play tag with their fellow wrestlers inbetween matches, don't make them into mini-adults because he or she might get to tired from playing with their friends inbetween matches. Let it all be fun!

Thank you for the post!

[Bruins Coach]

Maybe if Tiger would have stayed in basketball he would have had fun and not made so much money in golf-thus not having as much "fun' as he did later in life and getting in trouble for it???

The article is great and should be used as a overview outlook on youth sports but you can't expect some parents not to take more than one role (most of us being coaches and wanting to help our children). I prefer to not coach my kid and I know that I will not always be right, but when I feel my child is not properly learning something specific or a bad aspect of the sport, I need to step in and correct it. NOw don't get me wrong, I will hope to not be that "crazy" parent that every coach cringes when seeing, but love helping in every way possible.
I took the idea of the car ride home being seperate from the sport itself as something to tryout and let correction of technical aspects of the sport be covered at practice times (so bring a notepad and write down what you think you would want to tell your child in the car and reference it at practice).
Thanks for the article

[ex-coach]

Maybe if Tiger would have stayed in basketball he would have had fun and not made so much money in golf-thus not having as much "fun' as he did later in life and getting in trouble for it???

The article is great and should be used as a overview outlook on youth sports but you can't expect some parents not to take more than one role (most of us being coaches and wanting to help our children). I prefer to not coach my kid and I know that I will not always be right, but when I feel my child is not properly learning something specific or a bad aspect of the sport, I need to step in and correct it. NOw don't get me wrong, I will hope to not be that "crazy" parent that every coach cringes when seeing, but love helping in every way possible.
I took the idea of the car ride home being seperate from the sport itself as something to tryout and let correction of technical aspects of the sport be covered at practice times (so bring a notepad and write down what you think you would want to tell your child in the car and reference it at practice).
Thanks for the article

I don't think it was the money part as much as being taken away from experiencing something fun with his peers that was the point, rich or poor, kids can still have fun or not. I think we do our kids a diservice by putting labels on them, if you have a little fun you will not be as successful.