Vincent Lewis

English 1201
Professor Artis
11/1/2015
Athletic Enforcement
As a rising factor many parents are getting their children involved with sports. Which
isnt really bad for a parent to do, but its some parents who look for a way to re-live what they
didnt do when they were younger. They take full control over their childs life and dont care
about how it affects their child in the long run. From my stance on parents who are controlling
their children and forcing them to play sports are truly wrong. In my remarks I feel that sports
are affecting children as much as parents due to the masculinity in sports, the effects on the child
who are forced to play sports, and the hyper masculinity of how the child should be while
involved with the sports. These are major issues that come from controlling parents.
Now many things that deal with the effects of children who are forced to play really goes
back to what the parent went through to becoming a controlling parent in the first place. You
have eight types of controlling parent that are categorized which are; Smothering, Depriving,
Perfectionistic, Cultlike, Chaotic, Using, Abusing, and Childlike. Now the controlling parents
that I will be talking about in my paper are the Perfectionistic, Cultlike, Using, and Abusing
parents. The perfectionistic parent is truly afraid of failing and wants to make sure everything is
always perfect, and wants their kids to be truly perfect no matter what. The cultlike parent likes
to join organizations or clubs to feel special about themselves, they make sure to enforce the
rules of how the organizations and clubs are to raise and discipline their child. The using parent
is better much what they are a using parent. They will do anything to make sure that they can

always use their child. They really dont care for how their child feels, as long as their child can
keep doing things to make them look good or keep them able to use people around them theyre
fine with it. The abusing parent is the parent who can use physical or verbal abuse to get there
point across to the child. With each parent they can control their child or children in sports, Way
s that I see is very harmful to the child is that they really dont have a say so in anything really. I
mean with each parent their wouldnt be really any real opinion to speak for themselves as a
child.
A big factor that plays an important role for the child are the hyper masculinity for the
sport that the child is involved in. I interview my coach, Mr. Lack, on how he felt on my topic
towards how as an a coachs point of view on athletes who are pressured into sports. I asked him
a series of questions. The first question I asked was, How do you feel hypermasculinity effects
sports today? He stated that, Athletes look to being bigger, stronger, and faster in the sport
quicker than actually putting in the hard work. The second question I asked was, Have you ever
played with or know people who came from a very successful family being pressure to continue
the legacy their family member left behind? He states, Yes I have, I play with guys in high
school college and even coach guys that came from a successful background. In some cases I
think that some of the guys were pressure to achieve the same success left from their family
members. I then asked, How do you feel about the masculinity towards young kids who want to
play sports? He states that Many kids that live in the inner citys kid want to compete at the
highest level and a way that they do this is by taking performance enhancing drugs in order to
achieve strength, speed and stamina. I gave him another question on, Do you think that many
athletes that are successful in sports have a tough time at home? He states that I think that there
are some kids who struggle from pressured from family because many kids want to do there on

things instead of being what their dad was or what their grandfather was, I think that kids need
their own way I think kids need to decide what the want to do with their future. And that family
does play a role in what the child should do. And for each question I had for him is was a clear
sign that the child should decide what they want to do with their lives. Now why do parents feel
they should control their childs life. I mean why cant they help their child rather than control
them.
Now Messner Michael an author that wrote on controlling parents the book title is
Boyhood, Organized Sports. He talks about how gender plays a role towards being an athlete in
the masculinity world. By how the judgement of gender is an issue, and that for males that they
have to be a certain way and how females should be a certain way while involved in sports. Now
this plays a role on how kids whose parents force them to play a sport really go by what gender
that they are pretty much treat them how the world who look at them. Dealing with gender
identity, family influences, relationships with the father, and the masculinity identity and
commenting to sports, many controlling parents look at this as a way to raise their child.
Belgrave, Faye Z., and Joshua K. Brevard. African American Boys: Identity, Culture, and
Development. They discuss what going on in the African American males point of view of being
pressured. In use of this book which talked about how hyper masculinity affects young African
Americans. It breaks down the how peer influence on hypermasculinity which mainly explains
how as an African Americans this is a problem. It affects the academic standpoint for any athlete
or regular student. Which is due to what friends that are involved in your life that can affect your
future. This book gives key points on how this can relate to a controlling parent but just as an
peer.

I use an article talking about the outcomes of effect that parents do that doesnt turn out
good. The four outcomes are injuries, living vicariously, listening to children, and skewed social
identity. With these four ways they are very harmful on children. Which many parent who
control by their children dont see the outcome of what the damage that their doing. Now this can
be something that the child cant break from.
And many different ways that controlling parents are affecting children. I just feel that a
child should have their own opinion to what they want to do. And that parents should give their
child freedom to play or do whatever they want with their lives. Now its still going to be an
issue that many parent dont realies that they're doing.
Work cited
Messner, Michael. "Boyhood, Organized Sports, and the Construction of Masculinities."
Sociology:
Exploring the Architecture of Everyday Life Readings. By David M. Newman, Jodi O'Brien. Print.
"The Effect of Parents Pushing Their Kids in Sports." Everyday Life. Web. 19 Oct. 2015.

Swaim, Alyssa. "What Are the Effects of Children Whose Parents Push Them in."
Prezi.com. 6 Dec. 2013. Web. 23 Oct. 2015.
Duncan, Neil. Bullying: Experiences and Discourses of Sexuality and Gender. Print.
Handbook of Self-determination Research. Print.
International Review for the Sociology of Sport April 2012 47: 235-252, first published
on April 7, 2011
Belgrave, Faye Z., and Joshua K. Brevard. African American Boys: Identity, Culture,
and Development. Print.
Parental Involvement in Youth Sports: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly Sean P.
Cumming & Martha E. Ewing

Anderson, Eric. Inclusive Masculinity: The Changing Nature of Masculinities. New York:
Routledge, 2009. Print.
My Research Questions
1. How do you feel hypermasculinity effects sports today?
2. Have you ever played with or know people who came from a very successful family
being pressure to continue the legacy their family members left behind?
3. How do you feel about the masculinity towards young kids who want to play sports?
4. Do you think that many athletes that are successful in sports have a tough time at
home?
5. How can an athlete that has legacy pressure push through life?
6. How does the effect of being pressured to being great become a major problem for
an athlete?
7. Can an athlete self-esteem become affected negatively?
8. Does the act of parents controlling their children be beneficial or non beneficial?
9. What is the stance for the an academic athlete who wants to focus on school instead
of sports?
10. Can there be programs to help parents who are controlling towards their children?
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BxhTFjgP8rSzYUI0dExlNGtVblk