One of the things people who play sports for the first time come to realize is that sports have their own culture.  Athletes and anyone playing in a team sports league learn that the environment there has its own norms and social behaviors which can be quite different from those of everyday life.  This requires an adjustment which athletes must learn to make.  But sometimes it’s not easy, and other times it’s the athlete’s loved ones who struggle.  One amusing story comes to mind which shows one of the many ways that TheSportsTutor can potentially be helpful.

 

Years ago, a friend I’ll call "Linda" had a daughter, "Sally," who experienced some emotional problems in her early adolescence.  Those issues were eventually sorted out and treated, but the experience left Linda a bit shaken and she became somewhat overprotective of Sally as a result.

 

By the time Sally was in her final years of high school things were going much better for the entire family, and Sally chose to try out for the school basketball team.  Linda knew very little about sports, but she was supportive of this, though she remained quite nervous about how the experience would be for her daughter.

 

Sally made the team, but things were very busy at work, and Linda was not able to follow her daughter’s progress as closely as she would have liked, and missed the first couple of games of the season.

 

When Linda finally saw her daughter play for the first time, she had quite a story to tell, and I got to hear about it a few days later.

 

She told me that during a time-out, her daughter’s coach was yelling in a way that seemed overly aggressive.  She said that a lot of the yelling was being directed at Sally, and this made Linda very uncomfortable.

 

"David," she told me, "I was so certain that Sally would be destroyed by this, that I wanted to run down to the court to intervene."

 

"Please tell me you didn’t," I said.

 

She assured me that as hard as it was to watch this, she bit her lip and didn’t move.

 

"Good!"  I said.  "I’m glad to hear that.  Now let me guess.  The time-out ended, and Sally went back out onto the court and everything was totally fine, right?"

 

"Yes!" she said, seemingly surprised that I would know this.  "In fact, when the time-out was over, Sally was smiling.  Smiling!!  I couldn’t believe it."

 

I explained that it is common for some coaches to yell during a game to get a point across.  In this environment, it is what I might call "coach-yelling" or "game-yelling" and is understood as such, and is completely distinct from what is considered appropriate behavior off the court.

 

She told me she understood that now, but not at the time it was happening.

 

"I guess it was clear to Sally though?"

 

"Yes, obviously it was.  You’re right, it would have been a disaster if I had run down there."

 

"No kidding," I said, as we both shared a laugh about it.

 

Sports are full of unusual dynamics like this.  That’s part of what makes them fun and interesting.  But without someone to guide you, it can sometimes be difficult and frustrating to navigate these "special rules" that don’t always apply to everyday life, especially when you are trying to master the physical fundamentals of the sport at the same time.

 

Sports can be challenging for all kinds of reasons, including some you don’t necessarily expect when you start.