This is a tremendous video of young athletes talking about their parent’s behavior in the stands. They also talk about how this behavior affects them while playing. Finally, they ask the child how they wish their parents would act in the stands. The comments from these young athletes are eye-opening.
Joe’s Perspective: The overwhelming feedback from these kids is chill out, tamp it down, let me play my own game. Over-coaching or yelling from the stands makes the players anxious, embarrassed and/or stressed. The message to parents seems to be, just show up, be my parent and smile. As a parent, this is an important message to hear. However, I wonder how many parents are receiving this message.
Your Turn: If you had advice for your parents in the stands, what would it be?
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Basic cheers is all I’d really wanna hear
Understand that you don’t understand so just basically be
I think encouragement is very important, but I think you should say things after the match to make sure that I can focus on the match.
I just wanna hear them cheer
It would be nice if they just cheered on.
Keep calm, you can shout but don’t be obnoxious about it
They should be cheering them on
You can cheer. I’d prefer not to much. A little bet I’d say is anxiousness but a portion is concentration.
You can be excited just don’t overdue it, if you don’t know what’s going on don’t just yell it catches my focus during my matches.
Don’t cheer for me
Show support but calmly
Be how ever much supportive you want to be, but at the same time be respectful to the people around you
My advice would be to leave the coaching to the coaches and the screaming needs to be kept down. I say this because I don’t think the parents know how it effects their kid and other when they are playing or on the side lines
I would tell them that we know what we’re doing and there’s no need to get all wild and that they should leave the coaching to the coaches.
I would tell them that we know what we’re doing and there’s no need to get all wild and that they should let the coaches do their job.
Well to me I think that if your not a coach or dong have any coaching experiences or not involved in any teaching methods I would just suggest leave all of your child’s skills or lack of skills that need progress to the teacher or coach and when your cheering I would say to keep it positive and not too disturbing to other parents.
Well to me I think that if your not a coach or don’t have any coaching experiences or not involved in any teaching methods I would suggest leaving it to the actual coaches themself because that may cause some children to be confused because they won’t know who to listen to.
My parents do well on the stands currently. Not coaching me or too loud but still cheer me on.
My advice would be for the parents to know that them yelling or scream doesn’t make the athlete a better player it actually makes me get in my head a lot and mess up more
Advice for my mom and her boyfriend in the stands would be to maybe just cheer and not so much of just yelling out of no where, move your feet, or cmon!! because that would just make me feel embarrassed or maybe even stressed because i can’t focus on what i need to really do in a game that coach keeps telling me over and over again to do in practice.
I love the support and encouragement but I don’t need another coach when I’m on AND off the mat.
My advice to my parents is that they may cheer often, just make sure not to go over the top, because it makes me anxious and a little bit embarrassed.
Just don’t get mad when people make a mistake or even at me we are slowly adjusting and learning by times goes by.
i would say to just watch the game and that the coaches know what their doing and if i’m not doing the greatest, don’t tell me how to do better, that’s the coaches job.
for me, i would enjoy cheering and signs of enjoyment. however, i don’t want any signs of disappointment or annoyance especially at teenagers because it’s condescending and inappropriate behavior especially from a parent.
Yelling at an athlete does not better the situation , let the coaches do their job , we aren’t making mistakes on purpose!
For me I don’t mind them cheering me on while I play, but when they yell and try to coach from the sidelines it makes me anxious and tends to get me even more frustrated and in my own head
My parents are pretty good about their behavior in the stands, but they do get mad at the refs sometimes. So I would want them to just relax more and let the coaches get everything solved.
i enjoy the basic cheering but not sideline coaching
To equally cheer for every player on the court. To keep positive and not yell negative comments at the players. We know what we need to fix!
to stay calm and don’t get upset or start yelling or anything when someone messes up and that we know what to do and they don’t need to tell us
I love the support and encouragement but I don’t think i would ever need another coach when I’m on and off of the court some times.
I would tell them that what ever they see is me trying my best and it’s embarrassing when you are screaming at me from across the court.
I would just want them to support me even if it’s embarrassing.
I think my parents cheering helps encourage me but I think they could be a little quieter about it.
to just be supportive, don’t get confrontational and be respectful to refs
I would tell them that we know what we’re supposed to be doing and that we will be listening to our coaches instead of them.
Encouragement and motivation from my parents is what helps me do better.
They should just enjoy watching their kid playing. Constant yelling and arguing is disruptive.
My dad and mom are on completely opposite ends of the spectrum. My dad pushes me on and cheers and yells and gets really into the game or meet, and if I don’t work my hardest then he’ll definitely make that clear to me. While my mom wants me to have fun and not get injured and is perfectly content with clapping and cheering politely. While I think my dad can go a little over board sometimes he stays respectful and doesn’t get super loud or super angry, and my mom is just awesome and perfect. I wouldn’t change a thing, I have a good balance of both sides of parents.