There is limited data on youth sports in the United States or presented by the U.S government. But from our daily experiences, one can easily say a good number of American families have their kids involved in either, soccer, dancing, volleyball, football, softball and the list goes on. The youth age group can be split between the ages of 6-12 and 13-17. The Sports & Fitness Industry Association (ASFA), “In 2008, 30.2% of youth ages 6 to 12 were active to a healthy level through sports, organized or unstructured; by 2015, that number had dropped to 26.6%, according to SFIA. Among 13- to 17-year-olds, the rate fell from 42.7% to 39.3%. ” (2015).
As the owner of sports company, with part of the business dedicated to youth sports and precisely beach volleyball, EZ SPORTS TRAVEL has an experience of having kids, youth and adults at our training camps, classes and clinics. In my experience, most parents generally want to get their kids to play a sports they are interested in. One of my parents athletes who takes beach volleyball lessons with me says, she prefers them to take the same sports so it makes it generally easier for her to bring them and don’t have to take them to different areas around town for different sports. Amanda is in the middle because all her children do play beach volleyball but also play other sports. So, as much as she enjoys bringing them to my clinics, she still has to take them to golf and chess events.
There a few instances I have had to deal with overbearing parents who practically have to tell me how to coach the kids and how to play them in games when I was a coach. As surprisingly as this is, this was when I was coach at the University of Wisconsin Stevens Point, helping with the female volleyball program. A few times, some dad or mom would tell me to play their child, or complain about how I coach, tell me how hard I was with the athletes etc. Sometimes it is hard to balance between being strict and maintain discipline, giving everyone play time, and keeping parents in check. The last one can be the challenging one sometimes. I am sure I am not the only coach that has to deal with this.
According to Dr. Hoch, “there is a segment of parents who try to coach children during games. You’ll often see them standing near the sidelines, barking instructions across the field or gym floor. This causes a major problem for athletes, because instructions by the parent may not mirror what’s being taught in practice by the coach. As a result, there is a major conflict with respect to expectations” (Hoch 2017). In this case it is important as a coach to set oneself for success. It is good to set up a restricted area of access where they can’t be close to the kids, educate the parents on the consequences of interference during games, articulate expectations from parents early and establish boundaries, have a monitor watch parents to identify clear cases of interference and also ban the parent based on parent contract with consequences well established therein.
Reference:
The Aspen Institute (2015). Facts: Sports Activity and Children. Retrieved from, https://www.aspenprojectplay.org/the-facts
Hoch D(January 17, 2017). Dealing with parental inference in coaching.Retrieved from https://coachad.com/articles/dealing-with-parental-interference-in-coaching/
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