One of the major difficulties has to do with the working relationship between coach, parents, and Board of Directors. The ability of the coach to work with parents in a respectful and cooperative manner is often times an issue. This is especially true when parents, primarily age group parents, challenge the coaches' authority and ability to make judgments.

If you want your child to come out of his youth sports experience a winner, feeling good about himself and having a healthy attitude towards sports, then he needs your help! You are a vital and important part of the coach-athlete-parent team.

A successful sport experience depends on parents being proactively trained to play the right role on the parent-athlete-coach team. Coaches should take the time in the beginning of the season to educate parents on their very important support position. The coach should appeal to the parent's proper involvement for the team's and their child's success. In parents meetings and in written handouts the coach should present and discuss the correct parent, coach and athlete roles, the “do's and don'ts” for success.

Let’s take a look at the coach-parent relationship from the coach's perspective. It can't be denied that a small per­centage of those who go into coach­ing do so from a desire to feed an oversized ego, for the opportunity to give orders. . . and see them fol­lowed, and that such people can be high-handed, authoritarian and dif­ficult to deal with. Other coaches start out as reasonable people, but harsh experience in parent relation­ships hardens them into an attitude that "It's my way or the highway." Most coaches, though, are reason­able and responsible souls who enter the profession because coaching can offer a rewarding lifestyle.

Some of the knottiest problems that arise in youth sports in­volve the relationship between parents and coaches. Any time another significant adult enters your child's world, it may require an adjustment on your part. You must also be willing to give up some control and influ­ence in an important area of your youngster's life. Taking a backseat to another adult, even temporarily, isn't always easy. But things can get even more complicated and challenging if you find yourself at odds with coaching decisions that affect your young athlete.

If you want your child to come out of his youth sports experience a winner, (feeling good about himself and having a healthy attitude towards sports) then he needs your help! You are a vital and important part of the coach-athlete-parent team. If you do your job correctly and play YOUR position well, then your child will learn the sport faster, perform better, really have fun and have his self-esteem enhanced as a result.

10 Commandments for Swim Parents

Here is some basic information about amylopectin if you happen to come across it on the label of some recovery drinks.

Read up on the most frequently asked questions parents have about swimming and their young athlete(s).

What does it mean to "Fuel for Performance" and how should your swimmer go about it? Former USA Swimming staff member Charlene Boudreau has compiled some information to help answer those questions.

Q: My daughter is in 7th grade and plays soccer and basketball, swims, and runs track. One of our friends has suggested that she just focus only on soccer and not waste her time playing these other sports, as it will help her get the edge and might even lead to a college scholarship. Should she specialize in one sport?

Before reading any further, think for a moment about what you believe to be 'fun' for your swimmers; the factors you think they would identify as fun. Oftentimes, coaches assume that when age group swimmers talk of fun, they are talking about playing games, goofing around, unstructured practices,...which would detract from productive, focused practices.

Every swimmer looks forward to the championship season, including that exciting and welcome relief called “taper.” Swimmers adjust to reduced training volume and emphasis on meet performance at the end of a season. For most swimmers, this adjustment is both physical and mental.

One way of trying to identify the kids who are going to be early maturers and late maturers is just by eyeballing them. In childhood, early maturers tend to be taller, heavier, and have more muscle mass than their peers. Alternately, late maturers are generally shorter and very light and Lean in child¬hood. Often, however, the late maturers end up being taller as adults because they are in the childhood growth phase longer

In and of itself, being an early maturer or a late maturer is not a concern. However, the potential short term and Long term ramifications if one ignores maturational differences are of concern.

There are three phases of sports development:

Check out these insightful statistics on 10 & Unders ranked when they're young versus the importance of rankings once an athlete has reached a later point in their athlete development.

Psychological Development is an extensive area of study that we will attempt to identify several elements of psychological development that may be especially important for parents to understand.

Learn about how young athletes grow and develop and how that can impact their performances.

Find out how parents should be aware of how social relationships associate with sport participation.

How often do you think about the amount of and type of praise you offer your child? The wrong kind of praise, or praise used too frequently or infrequently can cause difficulties.

At one time or another and for a variety of reasons, most athletes think about quitting. Sometimes a decision to quit comes as a shock to parents, but at other times the warning signs leading up to the decision are very clear.

What is mental toughness and what can a parent do to help their athlete in this area. Read more to find out.

Watch this video for tips from Debbie Phelps on how best to support your child.

Before reading any further, think for a moment about what you believe to be 'fun' for your swimmers; the factors you think they would identify as fun. Oftentimes, coaches assume that when age group swimmers talk of fun, they are talking about playing games, goofing around, unstructured practices,...which would detract from productive, focused practices.

In terms of the educational benefits of sports, children can learn from both winning and losing. But for this to occur, winning must be placed in a healthy perspective. We have therefore developed a four-part philosophy of winning designed to maximize young athletes' enjoyment of sports and their chances of receiving the positive outcomes of participation.

Find out what to look out for when using extrinsic rewards with your athletes.