#441 How to Be a Better Parent Coach: A Discussion with Skye Eddy, Jerry Lynch, and John O'Sullivan
Way of Champions Podcast
Navigating Coaching Challenges
This chapter explores the difficulties grassroots volunteer coaches face while mentoring young athletes, emphasizing their desire for support and success. Through personal anecdotes, the speakers highlight the significance of clear communication, trust, and collaboration with parents to foster a positive sporting environment. They also discuss maintaining a healthy balance in the parent-coach relationship, ensuring that the joy of coaching remains intact for both parents and children.
One of the most common questions we get here is could we cover the challenges of being a parent coach. Statistics tell us that on the grassroots and recreational level, somewhere around 80% of coaches are also parents of one of the athletes on the team. As we move into the travel and more competitive older ages, that number shrinks, but as those of us who have coached their kids in a high performance environment know, the scrutiny increases exponentially.
A few weeks back, John received an email from a listener who was struggling with coaching her child in a high performance environment, not sure whether she should drop out or continue, hyper aware of the talk behind the scenes and how it was affecting her daughter, and concerned about her own coaching development.
We thought it would be a great podcast discussion topic, and invited on Skye Eddy of www.SoccerParenting.com to join us. Skye has become the go to resource for parents and parent coaches in the soccer world, as a former All American athlete, mom and coach to two soccer players, board member, and Founder of Soccer Parenting. She has partnered with clubs and state associations throughout the US, Canada and Europe to provide resources, and we are so excited for this discussion today. If you are a parent coach, or know one to share this with, you will definitely want to tune in for some good tips, guidelines and thoughts from the three of us.
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