How to Be A Successful Youth Sports Parent

Positive Side

Dark Side

Giving Encouragement

Becoming Over-Involved

• Shouting out praise for a good play or in joy or excitement when a goal is scored or the child gets a base hit is a natural response for any parent.
• Being a parent of a young athlete can require an enormous commitment in terms of time and energy. The majority of parents are strong supporters and encouragers of their children’s athletic participation.
• The influence of parents on good athletes is well documented. In a survey of baseball players who made it to the professional minor leagues, most reported that, when they were young, their parents:
  
  • Provided money to buy equipment
  • Regularly attended their games
  • Provided money for team fees and clinic costs
  • Gave them an allowance during high school
  • Went with them to see major and minor league baseball games
  • Advised them to pursue professional baseball careers
  • Regularly practiced baseball with them.

• While the vast majority feel loved and supported by having their parents present at competitions, in some families the presence of Mom and Dad on the sidelines causes tension in the family, even to the point of negatively impacting on the child’s athletic performance.
• Parents who act in ways that upset the young athlete, or that upset the coaches or officials, can create tension not only for the family, but also for all the children on the field, and often for all the parents watching.
• Even when a young athlete feels encouraged and supported by her own parents, the behavior of other parents can ruin the experience for them. "It wasn’t even my own parents," said one nineteen year-old client , "it was the other parents screaming at the coach and the referee that made most games a misery."

Providing Constructive Criticism

Becoming A Pushy Parent

• Parents are in a good position to offer constructive criticism to their young athlete.
• Many parents provide early coaching for their child. It is very common for a parent to teach a child new skills if the parent also played the game. Skill building of this kind can take place in an informal way, free of the structure of an organized sports program.
• It is more challenging when a parent becomes a coach for a son or daughter’s sports team. You should remember that while you can easily make the distinction between being a parent and being a coach, your children can’t easily distinguish between criticism from “Dad, the coach” versus “Dad, the parent.”

• Problems can arise when a parent’s natural tendency to be supportive and to offer advice clashes with the coaching process in youth sports.
• The greater the skill level of the young athlete the more likely it is that the coach will perceive coaching by parents as intrusive.
• Your child can be put in a no-win situation if you yell out some advice from the stands that differs from what he or she was told by the coach. Who does she obey? You or the coach?
• Your child may view your offering critical advice negatively and unwelcome, especially as they get older. A father or mother who offers constant criticisms of their sports performance frustrates many thirteen- and fourteen-year olds I talk to.
• You may see yourself as a great resource for your child, helping him to learn the nuances of the game, but your child may see you as a parent who cares not about him but about how well he plays.
• The danger is that your child will see himself as an athlete and evaluate his entire self-worth on the basis of how well he plays.

Being A Role Model

Becoming Abusive

• Children learn the skill of self-control by watching you display good self-control skills
• Organized youth sports programs frequently offer parents good chances to model good behavior for children and effective ways to deal with conflict
• Handling a dispute over a clash in game schedules, deciding on who plays what position, making a tough call in a close game - such situations abound in youth sports.
• A parent or coach who remains calm and thoughtful in such situations provides the young athletes with an appropriate role model for handling emotional situations.
• Remember: children learn far more from their own observations of adult behavior than they do from verbal instructions on how to behave.

• Your child can become intimidated by your presence at her games if she hears you shouting at officials.
• Actions speak louder than words. If you tell your child to display self-control and to respect authority but your child sees you losing your temper and yelling at an official at his game, all your efforts will be undermined.
• The sort of fan behavior that may be tolerated at a professional sports contest (such as yelling at players and criticizing an official for what you perceive was a bad call) is not appropriate at a youth sports contest; as more and more youth sports mimic the intensity and competitiveness of professional contests, parents are more and more likely to act like fans.
• Acting as fan at your child’s athletic competition can have serious repercussions. Said one of my patients, a quiet and thoughtful fourteen-year old girl, about her father, “It’s all a bunch of crap, what he says. He has no respect for authority, but he expects me to toe the line. And when I say something about it, he yells at me.”