Sports parents?

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I was going to post this in the rant thread, but I'm interested to hear all your stories, if you have them.
I took up ice hockey recently and as part of our training we do an hour of skating skills development a week. Most of the players that attend this session are children under ten who want to take up the sport, with a handful of adults honing their skills like yours truly.

I know this isn't exactly news, but hockey parents are FREAKING CRAZY!

Seriously. Even though they pay for experts to coach, these people sit on the sidelines, scrutinising their child's every move, and either call them over to give them extra 'advice' or berate them for their mistakes after class. You can hear them screaming at us during scrimmages I've been attacked by a few of these parents. They accused me of trying to hurt their child (when the kid can barely stand up on skates whether i'm nearby or not) of 'hogging' coach's time (when he gives me advice) or just being a 'stony faced cow.' (its called concentrating, moron!) Hell, one yelled at me because I asked his child very nicely to hop off my hockey bag. Thing is, I don't like being yelled at and having people think I would intentionally harm a little kid. But I really hate seeing kids crying during or after training because of something their parents said, I hate seeing good kids start bullying other kids their parents keep comparing them to, and I hate seeing a kid hurt himself doing a skill he isn't comfortable with because his dad called him a chicken. These encounters left me sad and confused. I mean, having AS means I try to get down with acceptable behavior by studying NTs, and thinking about how I would want them to treat me. Then psychos like this come along and people act like its normal? What do!

So. I would love to hear sports parent horror stories anyone else here has, and how you dealt with it.

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http://defeatingthedoginthedaytime.blogspot.com/

the trials and tribulations of a girl pretending to be normal

Someone once defined sports to me as “grown men trying to get a ball into a hole, and taking it way too seriously.” Sports turns some people into utter psychopaths, and I consider what you’re describing a form of child abuse. I’m lucky that I never had parents who viewed sports as a religion. My dad tried to get me into baseball, but it bored the hell out of me. Now I’m interested in golf. Go figure.

lol my Dad's a marathon runner and because i was relatively good at sports in school he decided it would be fun to take us over the park to 'train' on the tracks at weekends. it was not. annd after all this time i still don't understand what this 'handicap' was he went on about, despite it seeming to be quite an important feature.

my cousin does athletics now and my nan gets really into it. bit of a 'sports parent' is she.

I've nothing against parents taking interest in their child. But it's like they've decided that this is how the kid is going to define themselves before he's even played his first game. Their children show up to thier first practice in full hockey gear, and they don't even know if they like the sport yet!

The incident that got me this angry happened two days ago. I broke my ankle a few weeks back, and this was my first training session back. The skating coach knew this, and took me aside and asked me, "Have you skated on it since the accident?"
I literally said, "Well, I - " before this woman sidled between us and started asking him why her daughter hadn't moved up from the beginner's group yet! Coach wasn't having any of this, and stepped around her to talk to me some more. But this woman would not be ignored. She shot me a filthy look and kept talking, so coach had no choice but to listen, and began leading him away. He very bravely kept calling back to me, but I gave up and walked off. That's not the sort of person I want to compete with attention with. He did get his revenge during the session by yelling at the girl in question while her mother was in earshot "Look how Xayah does her turns - you should be doing them like that!" ( ) but I don't understand how advocating for your child involves being rude to and manhandling her coach!

_________________
http://defeatingthedoginthedaytime.blogspot.com/

the trials and tribulations of a girl pretending to be normal