Comments on: Should Parents Watch Sports Practices?

By: Should Parents Watch Gymnastics Workout? « Gymnastics Coaching

Should Parents Watch Gymnastics Workout? « Gymnastics Coaching — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 00:07:15 +0000

[...] Sports Girls Play – Should Parents Watch Sports Practices? [...]

By: brad cooper

brad cooper — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 09:01:01 +0000

Hi Char,
If your child likes a challenge, she’ll enjoy swimming. My humble advice to any parent starting their child off in swimming is this. Don’t expect the coach’s words or deomonstrations (or remonstrations!) to translate into orthodox “correct” movement. Movement — especially in a counter-intuitive leverage environment like water — serves anatomical imperatives before it serves form. Novice swimmers are wobbly for a long time. Your child’s instructor can never make your child improve as fast as the child who gets more practice….regardless of how good or bad their instructor is. Every swimmer has a unique style. World record holder Janet Evans swung one arm high and the other a little wide. The pedants and classicists hated this and would ring her coach up at all hours telling him how to improve her! Optimum attendance rates for competitive training are sometimes expressed as “age minus 5″. In other words a competitive 8 year old might train 8 minus 5 = 3 times a week. Turn 9, bingo, its 4 times a week. (60-90 minutes a time). These are only norms…not commandments.
Regards Brad Cooper

By: Char

Char — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 14:28:32 +0000

Brad – thanks for adding your insight! We have a rule that at least one additional adult always has to be present for a practice. Due to the nature of our training facility it is a rare occasion that there would ever be only two adults present.

My youngest is really taking to swimming so we are now in the process of finding a swim program for her. I may email you for some pointers.

By: brad cooper

brad cooper — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 04:11:11 +0000

I have been a swim coach for three decades. I have some literature on all the walls of my pool that says basically…”your child is nourished by regular casual observation”…but which also cautions that “relentless observation is actually surveillance and auditing….which is unhealthy for kids”. By having this information prominent, parents actually become self supervising through peer judgement.
Your point about parents being unable to notice improvement when watching daily is also right…especially when improvements are as incrmentally small as they are in swimming. By the way, I, like most of my peers these days, always insist on at least one parent being in attendance at every session….to provide proprietary assurances for parents. A coach who works without any parent/witness at all is not doing the right thing by his sport in my view. Maybe this is a harsh judgement…but it is looking after the bottom line.

By: Angela

Angela — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 21:21:59 +0000

I don’t believe parents should be at every single practice ever no matter the age. Unless of course the child is small and there is no way to watch without he/she seeing you. I’m all for watching from a distance so they can be free to be themselves.

To stay at every single practice is not always for the best. There can never be any surprise performances and as Char stated in her post, it’s harder to notice the growth as they develop.

I’m also referring to a controlled and professional situation.

I can remember being on the girls soft ball team. I think my Dad was at every single practice there ever was that he could be at. That put a lot of pressure on me as a pitcher to perform well.

Now my Dad didn’t put that pressure on me at all. But, just his mere presence there was enough pressure. Kids are always the hardest on themselves. Sometimes they are even harder no matter the parental disposition.

Now if you are staying at your child’s practice because you think little susie is getting more turns than little johnnie then you’ve got some serious control issues. Life is not always fair and sometimes different kids have different needs. It’s not always going to be about what you think your definition of “fair” is..

By: Adam Kayce : Monk At Work

Adam Kayce : Monk At Work — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 19:50:16 +0000

I agree — it depends on her age, the environment, etc.

Once I saw how my 7-year-old’s soccer team was, I gave her the option if she wanted me to watch, or not. I wanted her to feel the space to be unsupervised, if she wanted, or to feel my presence near.

She said she didn’t really care one way or the other, but I think she liked having me there. (I stayed.)

By: Char

Char — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 19:01:54 +0000

Tracee – I think it really depends a lot on the length of practice, age of child, and venue. For example, I doubt I would leave my 5 year old’s 30 minute swim practice, but I would read a book, take a walk in the vicinity or something similar.

Most of the time my 9 year old has gymnastics practice at the same time as I am teaching it, but I rarely pay attention to her group’s where abouts while I am teaching. One day a week she has practice when I don’t and it is 3 hours long. There is no way I would consider sitting through that, yet there are parents who do precisely that. They are the ones I am concerned with most.

By: Tracee Sioux

Tracee Sioux — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 18:52:32 +0000

I always feel like it’s rude to leave the coach responsible for my kid. I’d love to leave, but I didn’t know that was allowed. Also my kid really likes me to be there, maybe when she’s older she won’t care as much. But, I do have to reign myself in to not interfere.

off topic, but perhaps of interest:

Blogher is inviting women bloggers to take part in an intitiative called Bloghers Act. I’ve responded to their request for nominations of a cause. I have asked Blogher to make healthcare in America their pet issue for this year and posted my request at So Sioux Me – I encourage other bloggers to echo my request. It also lists 3 tangible and easy ways bloggers can influence the change. Earlier in the week I asked the question What Would Jesus Do? Concerning health care in America at http://traceesioux.blogspot.com/2007/07/what-would-jesus-do.html.
Earlier in the week I asked the question What Would Jesus Do? http://traceesioux.blogspot.com/2007/08/bloghers-act.html
Pass it on.
Tracee Sioux
So Sioux Me
Empower Your Self,
Empower Your Daughter
http://www.sosiouxme.com
BlogFabulous
http://www.blogfabulous.com

By: kailani

kailani — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 20:14:38 +0000

My daughter doesn’t play any sports yet. However, I would probably watch at a distance in the beginning. Once she got used to things, then I’d probably let her go on her own.

By: pickel

pickel — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 13:32:09 +0000

As a former school coach I never had a parent sit in on a practice. I would have found this very intrusive and I believe that each school I taught at had a closed gym policy.

However, when I coached middle school I often invited parents to help me, as my team was very large and the girls were squirmy, as they often are. It was a great help and the parents got to see first hand how I ran practices.