How does the relationship between parents and coaches affect young athletes?
Increasingly, the world of youth sport has become a highly commercialized endeavor. The days of parents having their children play in the local volunteer youth sport league just for the fun of it are quickly disappearing and have become an almost quaint throwback to simpler times. Instead, more parents are making significant financial investments in hiring coaches who are skilled in developing the abilities of young athletes as they set their sights on securing a college scholarship or even an eventual lucrative offer to play professional sports for their child. The stakes are high and can lead to a strained parent-coach relationship. Unfortunately, the child or young athlete who is at the heart of this discord is the one who may suffer the most.
