IntelliSport

Summary

Misplaced comments from parents can have significant negative impacts on a child’s athletic development. In particular, when parents make instructional comments during competitions, children often become confused and experience slower development. Further, when parents focus their comments on winning rather than on enjoyment or skill improvement, young athletes show decreased motivation and slower learning processes. Thus, coaches should educate parents about the power such comments have on the development of their young athletes. As parents become more educated about athlete development, children will show greater enjoyment of sport and improved performance, and the coach’s job becomes easier.

The Power of Parents

Nov 24th, 2009

Experts: Lindsey Blom, Ph.D.Dan Drane, Ph.D.

Feedback Matters

In a recent article*, the authors explore how parents can have a strong impact on their children’s sport experience by providing emotional support for their budding athletes. While this support is often helpful to athletic development, eager parents can often become a negative force. One source of detrimental involvement arises when parents make or shout negative comments at youth sports events (children between the ages of six and 14).

Comments from parents have a strong impact on a child’s athletic development. When parents provide positive feedback regarding their child’s ability, effort, and sportsmanship, children show greater enjoyment of sports, are more willing to accept challenges, and have higher competence and motivation. However, when parents provide negative feedback, children show decreased enjoyment and increased anxiety, which leads to lower levels of performance and motivation. These children also show higher rates of quitting their sport.

In a recent study, Lindsey Blom and Dan Drane found that of the comments of 110 parents at youth sports games, 31% of the comments were positive (reinforcing their child’s skills) while 28% were negative (correcting their child’s mistakes). The remaining comments were neutral, neither positive nor negative.

Instructing or Meddling?

Comments from parents take many forms, and a large portion of these are instructional, also known as coaching from the stands. However, instructional comments from parents often produce negative consequences in young athletes. Such comments interfere with the decision-making process of young athletes, and come at a critical time in a young athlete’s development - when he or she is learning the ‘feel’ for the game. Because skills are not automatic at early stages of development, young athletes must devote a lot of mental energy to performing a given task. Thus, young athletes become confused and frustrated when receiving many, often different, verbal instructions from parents and coaches during an activity. This confusion results in decreased athlete motivation, impaired learning, and inhibited performance. As a result, parents should be mindful of the timing and nature of their comments, and should frame their comments to create a positive learning environment for youth.

Further, young athletes who become dependent on verbal feedback during activities often fail to fully develop their own sensory feedback systems. While such feedback can be positive when offered in the correct way, parents should be careful to make sure their children don’t become dependent on verbal queues. This is especially since the feedback parents offer is often just plain wrong (from a coaching/technical standpoint).

Winning Isn’t Everything

Parents can also have negative effects on youth development when winning is emphasized more than skill development or enjoyment. This is particularly true because parents have been shown to provide more negative comments when their primary focus becomes winning the competition. This focus on winning has been shown to distract young athletes, who report feeling lower levels of enjoyment for sport, and less focus on learning and skill development.

Finally, the most common time for parents to make comments is while the ball is in play or while competition is in motion. However, since this is the most critical time in skill development, parents should not use this time to make corrective comments. Instead, parents should offer corrective comments during breaks or between competitions.

Next Steps

Often, parents don’t realize that their comments are having such a strong positive or negative impact on development. Thus, coaches should educate parents about the power parents have on the development of their young athletes. With awareness, many parents will improve their behavior and become more positive forces in development. Coaches can relay information in this article at a meeting, or by printing off copies of this article for distribution to parents. As parents become more educated about athlete development, children show greater enjoyment of sport and improved performance, and the coach’s job becomes easier.

By IntelliSport

Tags: Parent

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Implementation

  • Educate parents about the potential negative consequences of making instructional comments during competitions. Encourage parents to make such instructional comments during breaks or between competitions. Further, encourage parents to focus their comments less on winning and more on enjoyment and skill development.
  • Education of parents can take place at a meeting, or by printing off copies of this article for distribution.
  • Remember that dealing with parents can be politically challenging. Try not to make enemies when trying to influence their behavior. Thus, approach this topic carefully. When approached the right way, you can make parents feel more involved with their children’s development, and you can help parents play a positive role in their child’s athletic career.

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