Vanity In Sports Psychology

Issue: parents are often focused on winning, vicariously living through their kid, and protecting family pride. They are often outspoken, live in a constant need of vanity, just as narcissistic as their kids at times, are fixed minded, and are biased with no room for an open mind. They often say “Do your best” and ask the question “Did you win?” instead of “how did you play and did you meet your process and performance goals for the game?”

In the scenario, perhaps the parents are to blame because the byproduct of their efforts to raise their kids with a focus on winning versus effort resulted was a disaster. Perhaps this is the disaster, discussed by Burton & Raedeke, that awaits an athlete that focuses too much on outcome without developing the action plan to achieve it (Burton & Raedeke, 2008). Perhaps the athletes are reflecting their parent’s attitudes and patterns of behavior?

Parents will be the most difficult group to work with as a coach and as a sport psychology consultant. In many cases, schools cannot afford a sport psychology consultant so the coach may be left with this job. In any case, the relationship with the parents needs to be one that is positive and emphasises a support network. Without a support network, the athlete will be less likely to fulfill their commitment to working
The sandwich approach starts off a conversation with positive remarks about one’s strengths. Any criticism or correction are placed in the middle and is future-oriented feedback. It’s the meat of the sandwich. In closing, positive, strength-based comments are made (Burton & Raedeke, 2008). The last comment one makes in a conversation needs to be positive and encouraging since this is the last thing they will remember and will ultimately define the conversation (Grenville-Cleave,