I was sitting with the Coaches when a swimmer from another team came up to his Coach and told him that his mother was going to buy him one of the new $400 swim suits. He asked the Coach which one would make him swim fastest. The Coach said if you want to get faster tell your mom to bring you to practice more often. It will save you the $400.
3 weeks ago I was at American Nationals BJJ tournament and as part of the UFC event they also had a high level youth wrestling tournament, 6 and under, 8 and under, 10 and under, etc in all weight classes These kids had come from all over the country and it seemed like it was most likely an invite only type of tournament because their were lots of individuals there but did not seem to be lots of full teams of wrestlers and coaches that traveled as a team. The problem this created is that the kids were coached mostly by the parents. They let the parents sit around the circle of the mat while their child/athlete competed. The behavior I saw from these parents was out of control. In swimming I see parents yell at their kids during the event all the time but the kids heads are under water and the swimmer rarely can hear a parent yelling. During the Wrestling Matches the parents were sometimes inches from their athletes face yelling at them not to be a quitter and getting very upset. I saw 3 times where they had to bring in an extra referee to stand between the Parents and the kids. Then when the match was over the parents went crazy. Now just to be fair it was a very intense environment, these kids were competing at a very high level. I saw 8 year olds doing suplexes on other wrestlers. I was very impressed with the skill set of the kids who attended this tournament and I would guess that most of them were state champions or region champions and none of them were used to getting beat. You could see it in almost every match. When one kid knew he was not as good as the kid he was going against the tears started to fall. The amount of intensity that was there was incredible. I think the kids were crying because they had a fear or disappointing their parents more then actually losing the match. I would really like to take some of these kids and see if they are qualifying for NCAA's in 8-12 years.
Then two weeks ago I was at the Kids World BJJ tournament. First the quality of the kids was great. The parents did not seem to be too over the top. Sure they were cheering and holding up signs but for the most part the parents accepted defeat easily and complimented their child on a job well done. Only once did I see a Parent get upset and that was because the kid started crying and ran to the edge of the mat and fell down crying uncontrollably. I am not sure if the parent was upset about the kid losing or the behavior afterward. The parents seemed to be much better.
My question is why? My short answer is that most parents in swimming and wrestling have an existing knowledge of the sport. They may have participated in it in the past and they think they have the ability to coach their kids. I think with BJJ it is so new to most parents they really don't understand it well enough to be obnoxious. Do you think there is validity to this or are BJJ Parents just more respectful then other Sport's parents?
