Managing Parents: Dave Rotheram

I have recently completed a case study on the parental expectations of coaches of elite rugby league players.

The parents of the England Youth (u16) squad completed a questionnaire about their child’s involvement in the sport and parental expectations of the coaches their children work with. 

Some interesting observations and the implications:

Our elite players participate at school, community club, scholarship club and National level. On average they are coached by over 6 coaches per week. In some cases this led to conflicting information and potential conflict with other coaches, however parents had strategies to cope with this.

When asked about the qualities coaches should possess the highest two responses were that coaches should be approachable and have good communication skills.

Interestingly, subject knowledge was the 3rd most popular response.

Governing bodies now derive much funding from the public purse to grow their sports.  This generates competition between sports. We must be mindful of the expectations of parents when planning and delivering our programmes.

Do you have a strategy for dealing with the parents of your athletes??

Dave Rotheram: RFL National Player Performance Manager, assistant coach Scotland.