Am I being an irrational sports mom?
Two of my three boys are wrestling. The third isn’t only because he broke his clavicle early in the season (he told me I HAD to include that part).
From the beginning of the season, I’ve had this unshakable feeling that the coach was just too young to be coaching and carried a much too large God complex. I kept quiet.
At a match earlier this week, one of my boys was in the midst of his match when he found himself being held in an awkward position. Rather than actually ‘wrestling’ to get out of that hold, the coach is yelling at him to “hold it, he only had 15 seconds.”
Ok, so maybe I’m not the most informed person on the planet where the sport of wrestling is concerned, but it seems to me that what the coach was having my son do was to play dead until the buzzer.
That pissed me off!
I thought I’d enrolled the kids in the sport to wrestle, not lay out on the mat engaging in a round of pillow talk.
Isn’t that the point of the sport? To wrestle your way out of holds and make sure you’re shoulders don’t touch the mat at the same time in something called a pin?
I really don’t want to be one of THOSE mother’s who bitches and complains from the stands - but to tell a kid to play dead for 15 seconds rather than make an effort to reverse positions with the opponent just seems wrong to me.
Tags: wrestling, coach, coaching, sports, teens
Related Stories
POSTED IN: Parenting
2 opinions for Am I being an irrational sports mom?
Eliza
Jan 31, 2008 at 3:48 pm
Yes I agree, I think I’d be like you. Umm, isn’t the object not to get pinned?
kadi
Jan 31, 2008 at 11:26 pm
I’m going to give you my husband’s opinion on your post. As a seaoned wrestler and coach he had this to offer:
It all depends on whether he had the lead or not and what kind of position he was in. If he was leading and he could preserve his win by avoiding a pin, then it was in his best interest to hold his position.
Sometimes in sports, the best move when you are in the lead and there are seconds left, is to do whatever necessary to protect your lead. Do not give your opponent the chance to get a pin. Even if it means holding an awkward position. If it gave him the win…then the coach gave good direction.
That was his two cents. Hope that helps!
Have an opinion? Leave a comment: