When Parenting and Sports Goes Wrong

My wife called me this morning to tell me about a story she watched on "Good Morning American". This story was about a father who gave his son a cocktail of performance enhancing drugs as early as the age of 13 to aid in his son's persuit of being a champion speed skater.

As a new parent myself I can't wait for my daughter to participate in sports. Both my wife and myself both grew up on participating in Athletics and being a part of a team. We both agree that the experiences we had while playing sports growing up help shape us into who we are. We can't wait for our daughter to have those same experiences.

Now, I have to be honest when I say that I can't wait to share with my daughter everything I have learned about performance enhancement. We all think our children have the potential to get college scholarships, be a champion, make it to the pros, etc. But, there are healthy and non healthy ways to go about it.

Here at Ullucci Sports Medicine I work with many youth athletes and some of them want to be here and some are here because of pressure from Mom and Dad. But, What I notice is that most of these athletes are over training and most of them don't have the time to be a kid. Now, I fully understand that to excel at a sport it takes hours of dedication and practice. But, kids these days are participating in the same sport year round. There is no diversity and no "off season". When people think about rest they think of a negative impact on training. But, it should be though of as a positive impact. If you coach or if you are a parent think about how much time you put into focusing on rest. Not much time. Coaches you probably think 4 and 5 times as much on what to do in practice than what you instruct the kids to do when they are not practicing or on a off day. Think about it do you focus on rest and what to do on a day off at all?

Rest or Off season should be viewed as a period of Active Rest. Even on days off active rest should be emphisised. Time off or an offseason athletes need to be active. They should go for a easy jog or play a different sport. For example if you are a soccer player. Instead of spending your off day working on foot skills or going for a distance run to stay in shape. Play some basketball or go for a swim. This will work other muscles and help you from falling into a rut of over training.

Now, what does this have to do with the dad who gave his child performance enhancing drugs. Simple, RECOVERY!!!! Young athletes don't take the time to recover. They just go and go and go. We have to remember they are YOUNG ATHLETES not professionals. They are going to school, doing homework, doing stuff around the house, and some may even hold a part time job. Add thoses stresses with the practice and training time. When do they sleep and when do they recover. Burnout hits many athletes when they reach high school and this can have a negative impact on their whole life not just there life as an athlete. These athletes will look to rebel. They will lose intrest in not just their sports but in school, socializing and etc. They become withdrawwn and can show signs of depression. Think about what got you involved in sports as a kid. It was fun, it was to be part of a team, and it was how you built confidence in yourself. As a parent or coach you may not outwardly pressure your kids to win or get a scholarship or be the best. But, kids are not dumb they have instincts that you and I have lost. They read people extremely well. So they will sense the need to win they will sense the need to be the best. A quote by Paul Brown the former coach of the Cleveland Browns was this:

"You can learn a line from winning and a book from losing."

As a coach and a parent it is your responsibility to teach kids the life lessons from athletic because they won't understand some of their feelings. Be a guide to them. Don't push your feelings or your needs on them. Help them understand that losing is a disapointment. Teach them that winning is great success and that it shows that good things come from hard work. Help them learn that sometimes you can work hard and prepare well but sometimes you just fall short and that is ok as long as you gave your very best. These are just some of the lessons to be learned from athletics. Athletics are supposed to build character not destroy it.

I think about this family and how this father has destroyed this family and this young athlete's future in his sport. It is just a terrible sign of were we are heading as a society. To learn more about this story this is the link: http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/ESPNSports/story?id=4211036&page=1