Parental Pressure In Student Sports

Ever have parents yelling from the sidelines or through the fence during one of your best games? Many parents want their kids to succeed but push them too hard and too much. Some parents don’t realize is that they are actually harming their kids not helping, parents think it’s support but kids think it’s pressure. Parental pressure does affect student athletics because some feel like failures others get burnout by the time college comes around. Parental pressure is why many kids don’t play anymore. According to Hyman, “By age 13 most kids are done with sports because of the pressure from parents, and are frustrated by the extra hard leagues or the coach and parents who put winning first” (Hyman). Parents don’t think we do our best but we
It puts more stress and pressure when parents talk about how well an athlete will do. “During car rides to games, listening to parents remind us how to do this or that in the game, can be boring” (Wolff and Groehner). If a child gets bored just talking about the game, most likely it’s just going to make them even more nervous and puts more pressure on them if they don’t do what the parents say. “My dad comes to watch all my games. On the way to the games, he gives me tips on how to improve my play or position.” Tips can help rather than having parents force things to happen. Sometimes we can’t always do the play they suggest. Tips are just ideas, so if the chance occurs to do that play. Athletes can confuse tips with directions and expectations. Athletes feel that if that don’t perform up to their parents expectations they will let them down, and no one wants to be stressed out before the game ever starts because parents put too much pressure on
Some of the effects can turn into very serious issues. “Today’s athletes start earlier than ever, with kids as young as 2 or 3 taking sports lessons and joining leagues by age 5. About 26.1 million children, more than half of all 6 to 17 year-olds, suit up and play a team sport” (Hyman). At the age of 2 or 3 toddlers can get hurt way too easily. At the age most don’t have a concept of what is going on during the game. Parents have too much control in our sports, the two and three year olds don’t need to be playing yet. It’s the parents that force the kids to play at that age” (Hyman). When I started sports I was five, maybe that was too young in some peoples eyes, but I was also forced to play. I had no idea what softball was till I started playing. But now it’s my favorite sport and the only sport I do. Some parents focus their kids to play one sport all year around. I did that for two years, I needed a break, it got boring after awhile. Mark Hyman believes that, “Girls are less interested than boys in having parents involved in their sports lives” (Hyman). Half of the girls don’t want parents to coach, one third don’t want advice and 78% don’t want their parents to tell coaches anything” (Wagner). We are afraid coaches will say something to us and punish us for what our parents say. As a girl, I agree with this statement because I don’t like people yelling at me while I’m playing a sport, it just makes me even more mad