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Coaching role and responsibility > Theory to practice: Parental influences on kids' sporting success
Theory to practice: Parental influences on kids' sporting success
Issue: Volume 29 Number 2
Background
My mum and dad instilled in me a lifetime passion for sport and all it encompasses. For years they carted a family of five sports-mad kids around to swimming carnivals, footy games and surf carnivals. It must have cost them a fortune in money and time. Now as a parent and coach of my daughters’ netball teams for the last seven years, I see first hand just how important the role of parents is in developing a child’s love of sport. A recent paper published in a prestigious sport science journal surveyed American junior tennis coaches on the positive and negative behaviours they see in parents of the kids they coach.
Research
In order to assess coaches’ perceptions about the role of parents and their positive and negative behaviours in junior tennis, a national survey of 132 United States junior tennis coaches was completed by American researchers. The extent and seriousness/impact of parent-child interaction problems and positive behaviours were rated.
Findings
Parents were perceived by the coaches as very important for junior tennis success. Most parents (59 per cent) that the coaches had worked with were seen as having a positive influence on their player’s development. However, the coaches felt that 36 per cent of parents negatively influenced their child’s development. Positive parental behaviours included providing logistical, financial, and social-emotional support, as well as tennis opportunities and unconditional love. Negative parent behaviours included overemphasising winning, holding unrealistic expectations, and criticising their child.
Coach's takeout
The major outcome from a coach’s point of view is the need to educate parents on both the positive and negative behaviours above. In particular, what effect these behaviours can have on their kids. Coach or club newsletters, parent meetings, coach education, and system-wide promoting of the positive parental behaviours are needed.
Reference
Gould, D, Lauer, L, Rolo, C, Jannes, C and Pennisi , N 2006, 'Understanding the role parents play in tennis success: a national survey of junior tennis coaches', British Journal of Sports Medicine 40,pp. 632-6.
