Quote:
Originally Posted by CoachKandSportsguy
Listening to a lot of olympic athletes' back stories, I am struck by the number of athletes who knew by age 9 that is what they were born to do. The high jumper from Louisiana was the best, jumping with a stick by age 5. .
How many non athlete's readers here knew what they wanted to do the rest of their life as a pursuit by the age of 9?
for me I was trying to figure out how to get ready for school on time by the age of 9, never mind see a sport on television or elsewhere and want to do that the rest of my life, or be in the olympics.
anyone have this type of work/sports epiphany?
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Undoubtedly there are kids who are "naturals" in whatever sport. Unfortunately though there are also parents who, for whatever reason, push their children into whatever sport the parent thinks the child should excel in. There are many articles and studies that address this and the psychological danger it can pose not only to the child (and very often the parent) but to other family members as well.
cpa-counseling dot com has a great article on this; "Are You Living Vicariously Through Your Child?": a short article that nevertheless goes into some detail about parents who (often even without knowing it) are living vicariously through their child(ren) and the harm it can cause. In many cases we see and marvel at the end result as some barely-adolescent kid achieves national acclaim for super-achievement in whatever sport, but are not aware of (or choose to ignore) what may have happened along the way: family relationships damaged, financial hardships on the part of the family as they pour their resources into assuring that l'il Jennifer makes the big stage, and kids who suffer and are traumatized as they are forced into excellence. It exists. And it can be a scary thing.