Unsportsmanlike conduct in grassroots football and on the sidelines at school events is on the rise. How can parents support their child in the right way?
Pushy and shouty parents are the “biggest problem in sports performance”, sports psychologists have said, amid growing concern that pressure and abuse is hampering competitive sport in the UK.
This week parents were banned from attending sports events at a number of south London primary schools due to “concerning behaviours”, including abuse towards officials and children and creating “too much pressure around performance and winning at all costs”.
In recent years, a number of schools have banned parents from attending sports days over bad behaviour, while growing levels of abuse from parents on the sidelines of grassroots football is discouraging people from refereeing.
“It’s the biggest problem in sports performance and it has been going on for years,” said Stephen Smith, the chair of the British Psychological Society’s sport and exercise psychology division.
