Five tips on being a better sports parent from new Rintoul podcast

Article content

Scott Rintoul is trying to use his super powers for the good of kids’ sports.

Article content

The longtime broadcaster — he’s an alum of Sports Page, along with TSN 1040 and Sportsnet 650 — is calling on various contacts he has made over the years for a weekly podcast entitled Better Sports Parents. It debuts Tuesday, with an episode featuring Canadian Olympic alpine skier Allison Forsyth, and can be found on YouTube, Apple and Spotify.

Article content

Article content

Rintoul wants this to be “a resource for all parents — credible people providing them with information, insight, and perspectives that can help them better navigate this complicated world of youth sports.”

Rintoul has two young daughters who are just entering the amateur sports scene, so he is living this firsthand right now. He is focusing on former athletes who have kids in sport now as his guests.

Article content

“Everybody that I’ve introduced to this has been ‘I’m in,’” Rintoul said of his interview subjects. “I think it’s for a couple for reason. Many of us have a nostalgic view of youth sports, and that includes people like this who have made it to the pro or world ranks. They’ve also seen that it’s not quite right now, and they want to try to help to make it better.”

One constant for Rintoul and his guests is that “nobody has all the answers, and every situation is a little bit different. But the idea is that if parents hear a variety of perspectives/advice from credible people who are parents themselves, hopefully they will see or hear something that resonates with them and helps them become better sports parents.”

Here are Rintoul’s picks for five tips from the first batch of episodes.

Article content

Article content

1. The Danger of Excusing Talent (Allison Forsyth)

“Here’s what I would highly suggest we consider: Harm elevates and escalates. And when we teach children who are good athletes that they can get away with bad things, that will elevate. It starts when we go to a hockey or a soccer tournament, and we feel like we’re better than other people. I have hockey coaches and soccer coaches who will not bench young players for horrible behaviour because — wait for it — ‘They’re my best player and we need them to play.’ What message do we think we are not just sending our children, but these are developing brains? The message we are sending children is that you can get away with bad things because you’re a good athlete.”

Article content

2. Pressure is the Real Parent Trap (Jon Montgomery, Canadian Olympic skeleton racer)

“It is self-imposed. The government hasn’t created new laws to say that nine year olds need to be in hockey 12 months of the year, or that 14 year olds were supposed to be able to do double-back layouts on hard ground. These are ideals and ideas that parents and coaches — mostly from a money-generating standpoint — have indoctrinated individuals to believe. That if your kid is not in this camp this summer, he’s going to get left behind, and he might not make that team. And so from a fear perspective, all of these things crop up. And when fear is present, somebody’s going to take advantage of that.”

3. Your Child is Not Their Sport (Rick Celebrini, former Vancouver 86er, director of sports medicine and performance for the Golden State Warriors, father of four elite athletes, including San Jose Sharks forward Macklin Celebrini)

Article content

“It wasn’t until my daughter (Charlie) was playing pretty elite competitive tennis that I understood that most dramatically. If you live and die with every win and loss as a tennis player, then you literally succeed or fail as a person … if you don’t separate yourself from the very important distinction between ‘I’m a tennis player’ or ‘I’m this person that happens to play tennis.’ I think it’s so important for kids, and professionals as well, to have that ability to separate for all kinds of reasons, not the least of which is just so that you’re not mentally and emotionally tied to the roller coaster.”

Article content

4. Question the Status Quo (Andrea Neil, longtime national team soccer player, former Vancouver Whitecap)

“I question the waivers that we sign. It may not seem a big deal. We’re going through paperwork all the time. But I question paperwork that often in the sport world that says, ‘You’re waiving away all rights, even if we’re negligent as a sporting club,’ when I have walked alongside many young girls and men, adults that have been harmed by the sports system. I don’t know that you can say that you’re Safe Sport and that you’re about the health and wellbeing of these young people and also say, ‘But if something goes wrong, I need you to sign this paper to waive away all your rights.’ That, for me, is incongruent.”

5. Let the Coaches Coach, Players Play (Ray Ferraro, former NHLer, hockey analyst)

Article content

“Support, watch, be vigilant. Make sure they have your kid’s best interests at hand. But if you’re coaching while the coach is coaching, then while your son or daughter is playing, he’s got the coach on his shoulder. How can you do that? How can you react? How can you read the play? How can you be creative? You can’t, because you’re trying to please the coach on your shoulder. It just does not work.”

@Seveves

SEwen@postmedia.com

Article content