Linn Andersson

Eng106i
Mariam Alamyar
Parents should have an active role in their athletes life
Parents play an important role for their athlete and have a big impact on their athletes
performance. Parent could potentially be an obstacle for their athlete but could also be the
best and most valuable resource for the athlete. Parents are the people who know you best and
understand how you function in order to perform on top and having an enjoyable life. In order
to be successful and reach your potential you need to have a good team that are functioning
and working on improving the athletes skills and ability in both their sport and academic.
Parents functions as role models for their athlete and form their values and believes. Being
engaged, supportive and motivating as a parent is essential in order to have a successful
athlete. High expectations and pressure affects the athlete negatively in terms of performance
and well-being. Parents should be engaged, supportive and committed in their kids academic
and athletic life without being over controlling or overinvolved. The parents should know the
proper boundaries and communicate with their athlete to see how he or she want them to be
involved. If the parents are uninvolved, the childs athletic performance could decrease and
their academic performance could also be affected negatively.
Parents who are involved in their athletes progress could have positive effects on the
athlete performance and development. It could help the athlete become more committed and
engaged in their practice because they are all on the same page and working towards reaching
the same goals. If the parents are aware of the goals they are more likely to be able to hold
their athlete more accountable and support her or him in the best possible way. According to
Fredrick and Eccles(2004), in their article Parental influence on Youth Involvement in Sport
they stated that parental encouragement are positively associated to the athletes

performance(p.157). The enjoyment and motivation level are increasing with is an important
aspect in order to be successful.(USADA,2004, p.2) Parents are involved in many ways that
are helpful for the athletes improvement and progress, like being coach, financer, chauffer and
much more.(USADA, p.3) When parents are being involved they are able to provide better
feedback and suggestions for changes or actions that would lead to better performance.
Parents also lead by good example in practice like showing up on time, being respectful,
being honest, giving hundred percent effort and being thankful. Parents could also provide
experience that is useful for the athlete in their progress of becoming a better athlete.
Especially, it is important to have supportive parents when the athlete is facing a challenge
because it could be tough finding motivation and confidence during these times.(USADA,
p.3) Having parents that could help you boost your confidence in order to overcome the
challenge easier and faster are helpful for the athlete.
Having the parent involved in the athletes academics can help the athlete get better
grades because the parents hold their children accountable to do their homeworks on time and
make sure that their kid understand the homeworks. They are also able to help their kids plan
and organize their school time in order to be more effective so that the kid could have more
time for fun activities. Parents who help their kids with school homeworks are strongly related
with high academic performance in school. According to Parental Involvement in
school(2013) by Child Trend DATABANK, children who have supportive parents tend to
have better behavior in the classroom and they teacher are paying more devotion to whose
students(p.1). From a report completed by Southwest Educational Development Laboratory
(2002) showed that athlete with involved parents are also better at adapting well to the schools
environment like attending class regularly and good behavior(p.1). When parents are involved
in the athletes school it helps the athlete to better understand policies and curriculum for the

classes. Other positive things that could occur is that parents put more realistic expectation
since they know their kids ability and skill level better.
Some people might argue that parent can get to involved in their childrens development
with could lead to negative effects. Parents could get in the way of the athlete advancement
and could be an obstacle for the athlete. The over involvement could turn to pressure and
expectation which could lead to lack of motivation and decrease in performance (Fredrcik and
Eccles, 2004, p157). Other problems that could occurs is change in behavior, mood as well as
physically. The athlete could find it more difficult to focus, more irritable and tend to go
through emotions. A example of this was that a parents who pushed his son to practice five
hours every day but when the son started college he did not want to continue because it was
not fun anymore.
I believe parents should take an active role in both the kids academic and athletic life
because that could help the athlete development and improvement. Academically, the kids
would get a better understanding of the subject and behavior in a more mature manner.
Athletically, the athlete could feel more commitment and enjoyment in their sport, which is
related to better performance. Support and engagement are two factors that are important for
parent to show their athlete. From my own experience, I see that there is room for
improvement in parents involvement in school for student-athlete. For a student to be
successful, a parents should know what is going on and help the athlete with tasks that are
time and energy consuming so that the athlete could put that on more important things.

References
Fredricks, J.A., Eccles, J.S.(2004). Parental influence on youth involvement
in sports. In
Weiss, M.R. Developmental sport and exercise psychology: a
lifespan perspective, (145-164). Morgantown, WV: Fitness
Information Technology. Retrieved from:
http://www.rcgd.isr.umich.edu/garp/articles/eccles04e.pdf

Taylor, J (2009, Oct. 30). Sport: What Motivates Athletes? Retrieved from:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-power-prime/200910/sports-whatmotivates-athletes

USADA (2014). The importance of parent, coaches, peers in sport.

Retrieved from:
http://www.usada.org/truesport/truesport-report/the-importance-of-otherscoaches-parents-peers/

Stenson, J.(2004). Pushing too hard too young. Retrieved from:

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/4556235/ns/healthchildrens_health/t/pushing-too-hard-too-young/#.VQDr1bCG-A8