Does the pressures of winning and performance placed on children by their parents influence a childs interest in sports at a higher level? Can you give me some references to support both sides of this argument?

-- Brent Neumann (neum4925@hsutx.edu), November 18, 1998

Answers

I would be most grateful if you could pass on any information that you might recieve, thanks, Phil.

-- Phil Wood (h9652241@hud.ac.uk), March 10, 1999.

I AM A 5TH YEAR SPORT PSYCH STUDENT , AND WORKED WITH A GYMNASTICS SQUAD, AND THE BIGGEST PROBLEM WAS THE PARENTS, THE EXPECT, THEY PUSH, THEY TAKE THE ENJOYMENT OUT OF FOR THE KIDS. tELL THE PARENTS TO BACK OFF, PLACE THE ELEMENT OF ENJOYMENT INTO IT , AND IF THEY DON'T WONT TO BE THERE, TELL THEM AND THEIR PARENTS IT IS NO GOOD FOR THE CHILDS BENEFIT FOR DEVELOPING THE IDENTITY AND PERSONALITY.

-- David Anderson (crazy.dave@start.com.au), March 02, 2000.

i am a fifteen year old irish dancer who has seen someone focus on nothing but winning. she doesn't care how she performs, or who is there, as long as she wins. she also doesn't work at dancing because it came naturally, so she never learned to work at it or anything else, like schoolwork. her parents focus on her winning, and not caring if she's learning anything in the process. as long as her trophy case is full, no one cares. however, my parents have always focused on how i perform, and not how i place. i think of performance as more important because i have seen what thinking of nothing but winning can do to a person. we both compete in the same category, which is the highest level in irish dancing. this girl has not been affected since her parents have been telling her to win for her entire dancing career. i have begun to focus more on how i do, since i realize that i am competing against world-champion dancers and that i probably won't beat them. this girl however, thinks she can and should beat these dancers. i think that if one focuses on winning and not performance, one starts to believe they deserve to win. if one focuses on performance and not winning, one begins to not care as much how one places and think about improvement. having a good focus on both winning and performance will produce good winners who accept losing but go there thinking that they earned this first.

-- Katie Connors (celticbabe385@yahoo.com), June 27, 2000.

Hi, I am Katie's mom. Irish step dancing competitions are level-driven, meaning you have to win in a level before you can move up to the next. Katie is in the highest level, so she has had her share of winning. I have always tried to focus both her and her sister (who is two levels beneath Katie) on HOW they perform, not whether they come home with medals or trophies. But, as Katie said, we have seen other parents only focus on whether their child wins. If a dancer is naturally talented, and does win and move up, no problem, but if a dancer has to struggle to place high or win, more often than not, if that is the focus, the dancer quits. I do believe that the majority of the kids who continue are self-driven, rather than being pushed by the parents. If the focus is on winning, once a dancer gets to the highest level, when the trophies will mostly likely go to the kids who regularly compete in the worlds, and the rest go home empty-handed, the dancer has nothing to continue dancing for. But if the focus is on performance, they have something to continue competing for: improvement.

-- Jenny Connors (theconnors@nii.net), June 27, 2000.