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Parent Rage in Youth Sports
Giving the Game Back to
Our Children
Our Children
By Gwen Morrison
The emphasis on winning gets out of control when overzealous parents become aggressive in their quest for being number one. Recent events show that parents have become increasingly hostile at youth sporting events, and the results can be devastating.
The Pressure to PerformAre parents pushing their children too far when it comes to team sports? Are they pressuring their children to perform for their own personal gratification rather than for the team or the player? Is this causing parents to become overly competitive and often aggressive in their attempts? Is it win at any cost?
"The structure of team sports is outdated and broken," says Scott Lancaster of Somers, N.Y., the senior director of youth football development for the National Football League. "Preconditioning children to value only final results in sports competitions robs them from the joy of spontaneous play and learning new skills in a positive environment."
Lancaster believes it is the way that youth sports are organized, taught and implemented that is at the very root of the problem.
"Kids are forced to play adult versions of games to satisfy an 'adult' thirst for experiencing what they watch on television," says Lancaster, who is best known for revamping the NFL's youth sports programs.
"At my son's soccer game, we had a parent who was substituting for a coach [and] insisted on enforcing ALL the rules of the game," says Kathleen Whitfield of Riverside, Calif. "He also divided the team so that all the best players were playing together. He didn't understand why anyone was upset with him as he ran out the clock arranging inbound kicks with his team lined up in precisely the perfect formation."
When parents and coaches spend all their time focused on the scoreboard, they are bound to lose sight of their purpose: to teach and guide our youngsters in skill development in their sport of choice, to provide encouragement, to build self-esteem and to have fun!