by Matt Moore

Created on: May 28, 2009   Last Updated: May 29, 2009

With the start of summer many parents will be spending their evenings and weekends at baseball fields. They will be cheering their child on, supporting them in their achievements, and keeping their spirits up if they make a mistake. How many of us though have witnessed outbursts from parents and coaches? More than we care to.

Little league baseball is supposed to give kids a chance to have fun, meet new friends, build confidence, and teach kids how to work together as a team to achieve a common goal. But for some parents and coaches it's much more than that! We as parents and coaches have forgotten what it was like to be a kid, and what is important.

The American Footwear Association surveyed 10,000 children about what is important to them when they play a sport. What's surprising to adults is winning at all cost is not number one. Actually it's 10th on the list of what's important to children playing sports. The number one answer by children was, to have fun followed by meeting new friends.

Lately youth sports are about the parents and not the child. Some reasons parents and coaches act this way is they feel there child's success is a reflection of how good a parent they are and that people will see them as a failure. For others, they are living vicariously through their kids, because they did not succeed as athletes and they are able to bask in the success of their child. Either way, we as adults are putting entirely too much pressure on our children to be the best, that we lost sight of what is important.

Let's face it, our children our not playing in game seven of the World Series, and their future multimillion dollar contract does not depend on their performance. Though that's the type of pressure we put on our children. I have witnessed many occasions when a parent or coach has gotten upset at a child for not playing well. Most of us are able to control our emotions but some parents take it too far, and in some cases becoming verbally and physically abusive toward the child. It has even become a bigger issue that leagues have gone to parents signing a code of conduct contract, and if they don't their child would not play. In Jupiter FL they held the nation's first mandatory sportsmanship training program for parents. It outlined what is appropriate behavior so that parents clearly understood their roles and responsibilities in the youth sports environment. Psychologist even coined a term for this. It's called Little League Parent Syndrome or (LLPS).

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