Leave the Coaching to the Coaches

Former Olympian, Wendy Bruce Martin:

I made sure that she wasn’t fooling around during practice and that she listened to her coach. So when I saw her fooling around I would yell across the pool “stop fooling around and listen to your coach”. (Yelling at my daughter from across the pool did NOT make her listen to her coach, it made her turn her attention to me and wonder what the heck I was trying to tell her). She of course couldn’t hear me, so I moved my chair close to the diving boards. One month later my daughter was improving at an accelerated rate. She moved her dives up to a higher diving board. My daughter walked right up to the 10 ft. diving board and got in position. She did an amazing front dive. I could feel myself fill up with pride. That was MY daughter. Every dive she did seemed perfect to me and she kept proving to me that she had a chance of making an Olympic team. I was in a cloud. She made me feel like I was a better mom. I wasn’t just a mom; I was a mom of a child prodigy. I created that, I was a supermom. I checked into more diving classes, I talked to her coach about future plans, and I bought her new swimsuits without ruffles. It was time to get serious.

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*UPDATE* 12/1/2014

Comment #65 at ChalkBucket Forum:

Since we stopped talking about gymnastics her enjoyment of the sport has multiplied 10 fold! I previously wanted to know everything and actually thought I was helping. The breaking point for me was at the end of a practice when I caught myself "coaching" my daughter on beam insisting that she do several more reps. I would take the 30 minutes of practice I saw twice a week and decide I knew what she needed. Her "real" coach was much nicer than she should have been to me. I backed off 100 %. And when I did she started loving the sport again.