Sport and Parenting – GOLD MEDAL PARENTING – PART TWO

Published by Wayne Goldsmith on October 1, 2024

In part one of this article we looked at different types of Sporting Parents.

Here are a few more……see if you recognise anyone you know.

6. The “My Child is Better Than Yours” Sporting Parent

Typical Behaviour – Starts every sentence with their child’s name and their child’s sporting achievements.
Positives – None
Negatives – Puts unnecessary pressure on the child. Puts strains on the child’s relationships with other athletes and team mate.

7. The “Coach my Own Child” Sporting Parent

Typical Behaviour – Sets additional training for their child. Often found writing down details of their child’s workout set by the coach, so they can repeat them at home.
Positives – High level of interest in child’s sports career.
Negatives – High pressure, parents generally unable to be objective about key sporting career decisions. Kids may not get much needed rest and recovery time between training sessions and games.

8. The “more interest in other kids than my own kids” sporting parent

Typical behaviour – Talks to other sporting parents about what their children are doing, how much training they do, what they eat and so on.
Positives – Seen to be a team player.
Negatives – Comparison with own child may be counter productive.

9. The “my child is the greatest athlete in the world” sporting parent

Typical behaviour – Praises their child excessively for every achievement – usually in front of other less successful athletes. Invariably blames other people for any failures.
Positives – Unconditional support of the child.
Negatives – High level of expectations and pressures on the child – long term issues with confidence and self esteem.

10. The “I gave up my life for you” sporting parent

Typical behaviour – Seen berating child after every training session and competition about all the time they waste taking kids to training and games. Also known as the “guilt” parent.
Positives – Supporting of child’s sporting career.
Negatives– Pressures and guilt if the child wants to retire or change sports. Child scared of negatives rather than inspired by positives.

11. The “I know more than the coach” sporting parent

Typical Behaviour – Undermines coach’s decisions and training methods in front of their child.
Positives – None.
Negatives – Undermines the child’s faith in their coach which may in turn lead to disciplinary issues between coach and athlete.

So if we all know the types of sporting parents we DON’T want to be and we all know the types of sporting parents we DON’T want to work with – what types of sporting parents are great sporting parents?

See part three of this article soon.

Wayne Goldsmith