When parents want to be coach

19/08/11: When parents want to be coach - I was sitting on my portable chair, with my latte and croissant on Saturday morning at soccer, enjoying the morning sun and the banter of our tight group of parent friends. The field is pretty, I’m tucked up and warm and the trees are beautiful.

If I could hear the birds over the yelling of some parents round the field, the morning would have been perfectly pleasant! But that’s my point, it’s not pleasant. Because parents seem to feel they can dupe the coach and yell from the sidelines.

I know aggression at sports matches is well documented, but this is different. It seems our children can’t be left to play a game without being encouraged with yells, directions and general counsel. As far as I’m concerned we have a coach for that, and a perfectly reasonable one too. If my son needs me yelling encouragement and direction at every move on the soccer field, I can’t imagine how he’ll cope with life. I think he’d rather be left alone. That doesn’t mean I don’t chat before hand or after, but just not during the match, when the boys need to work as a team, concentrate on each other, their coach and the task in hand. Leave them be, I say and let the coach take their rightful place and do their job! Without interference.

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