No screaming in the car required

This article was SO difficult for me to read through. I almost didn’t make it past the very beginning because it absolutely broke my heart.

If you’re reading this post, you are probably NOT at this level of crazy sports parenting, but still, please “get” THIS message …

“Screaming at your kid in the car on the way to a hockey game isn’t going to get them to the next level. Having a 12-year-old kid run six miles after practice isn’t going to turn them into Jonathan Toews.

You know when you actually get good at sports? When you’re having fun and being creative. When you’re being a kid. When you don’t even realize you’re getting better, that’s when you’re getting better. If you’re not engaged in what you’re doing, it’s as helpful as taking the trash out. It’s just another chore.

But that’s not what some parents, even normal ones, want to hear…

When I was in the NHL, I’d be doing my off-season workouts at the gym with Daniel Carcillo and some other NHL buddies, and we’d look over and see 12-year-old kids doing the same two-hour workout we were doing, with a trainer screaming at them the whole time. Half the time their parents would be there, yelling at them, too.

And it’s absolutely comical. It’s doing nothing…

All this hardass training stuff is just fluff…

Let that be your guide.

Now if your child WANTS to train, that’s one thing. Making them train because you think it helps “guarantee” an outcome, is quite another.

Don’t fall for the BS of, “It doesn’t matter, as long as they are ‘successful,’ then I did my job.”

The ends do NOT justify the means.

You will not be happy with just “doing your job” as a parent when your child is out of school, out of sports, experiencing success, but doesn’t care to come home for Christmas or to talk to you regularly, if at all.

Remember to keep the BIGGER picture in mind. The one that surpasses college and includes the rest of their life and yours, not just what can or *might* be accomplished between now and the end of education and sports.

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