The Role of Parents in Tennis Success: Focus Group Interviews with Junior Coaches

Abstract

This study was designed to investigate experienced coaches’ perceptions of the parent’s role in junior tennis and identify positive and negative parental behaviors and attitudes. Six focus groups were conducted with 24 coaches. Content analysis of coaches’ responses revealed that most parents were positive influences and espoused an appropriate perspective of tennis, emphasized child development, and were supportive. In contrast, a minority of parents were perceived as negative, demanding and overbearing, and exhibiting an outcome orientation. New findings included parents’ setting limits on tennis and emphasizing a child’s total development, as well as the identification of behaviors that represent parental overinvolvement and that negatively affect coaching. Results are discussed relative to sport-parenting literature, and practical implications are outlined.

The Influence of Parent Sport Behaviours on Children's Development: Youth Coach and Administrator Perspectives

“…Moreover, as coach-child relationships develop through sport interactions, coaches can provide important insights into how parent-child sport communications influence children's development [27]. Also, the youth coaching role involves extensive interactions with parents.…”

“…Also, the youth coaching role involves extensive interactions with parents. Exploring these interactions provides an additional avenue for advancing understanding of parent sport behaviour and resulting implications for children's development [27,29]. For example, the nature of parent-coach communications regarding children's participation and progress likely provides coaches with unique insights into parent motivations and modeling behaviour.…”

“…For example, coaches appear to report perceived detrimental parenting behaviours more frequently than parents [e.g., [27][28]. Also, coach perspectives have provided a more thorough account of the influence of parent sport behaviours on child development [e.g., [27][28][29]. For instance, Gould and colleagues [27][28] conducted both survey and focus group research into junior tennis coaches' perceptions of parental impact on children's tennis success.…”

“…Also, coach perspectives have provided a more thorough account of the influence of parent sport behaviours on child development [e.g., [27][28][29]. For instance, Gould and colleagues [27][28] conducted both survey and focus group research into junior tennis coaches' perceptions of parental impact on children's tennis success. Of 132 coaches surveyed, the authors found that while coaches believed that 59% of parents positively influenced their child's tennis development via the appropriate provision of emotional and logistical support, they also perceived that 36% of parents played a negative role by interfering with coach-athlete interactions, overemphasizing winning, holding unrealistic expectations, and being critical of children's playing performance.…”

“…Encouragingly, findings have been supportive of the proposed utility of attaining coach perspectives in advancing our current understanding of parent sport behaviour. For example, coaches appear to report perceived detrimental parenting behaviours more frequently than parents [e.g., [27][28]. Also, coach perspectives have provided a more thorough account of the influence of parent sport behaviours on child development [e.g., [27][28][29].…”