What Makes A Nightmare Sports Parent -- And What Makes A Great One

Scott Alexander

Saw this article on another forum I am a member of. I'm not a parent, but can recall some of these from my youth as an underwhelming athlete.

www.thepostgame.com/blog/more-famil...rts-parent

mgraffeo

Good article, Scott. Having coached both my kids at the U6 level in soccer, it was really, really difficult to sit on the sidelines for my daughter's U8 games and not coach from there (so difficult that I couldn't stop myself most of the time). Good reminder about the dangers of it all.

afrost

A terrific article! All parents of kids in sports should read this. Thanks for posting, Scott!

William Jenks

Soccer is very interesting in that coaching by parents is generally really counterproductive. The kid CAN hear you, and what you say is generally wrong (after a certain age) or at least not what s/he's being told by the team's coach. Racing sports are different in that there's not much stupid you can say. How bad is it to just cheer go go go! :-) In swimming, no one can hear anything specific you say at all!

dotcatlin

This is fantastic. I was a competitive athlete through college and I posted to my athletic friends to see if they felt this way. It also comes at a perfect time as my kids are starting to enter sport. I'm so happy you posted this. Thank you so much. Just another reason why I love EN so much. I learn something/gain something every day!

zildgen

William I would second the parents coaching from the side lines as a major issue. I coach both a boys (U6) and girls (U10) team in a city rec soccer league. Often the parents are telling the kids to do the exact opposite of what we have been coaching them to do and who do you think the kid listens to. We have even had to tell some parents to stop telling them what to do because the kids get so confused. Also I have had parents come to me to complain that there child is playing to much defense and that they want to see them scoring more. They don't get that we play the best players on defense, the skills that we are teaching and they are learning are the same as the forwards and oh yea defensive players can and often do score goals. In fact of 10 girls on my team this year all but 2 have scored and 1 of them is the goalie, the other is the sweeper and she has the ability to score and has had the opportunity to score but is truly unselfish and has makes the pass to a team mate that has a better shot. Alright now that that off my chest I fell a little better.

BTW team is playing for the league championship tomorrow so wish us luck. We will be playing the only team that has beaten us this year.

dotcatlin

My son had his last swim meet today. I cleary saw him come in 2nd in the 25 Fly and I couldn't quite see if he was 2nd or 3rd in the 25 Free. Instead of being ultra excited on the Fly or instead of questioning the latter race I just told him I LOVED to see him swim and it was a great day