Are you saying that dad or coach needs to be more of a hard a** or take it easy on his kid? I'm generally upset at a kid when they don;t wrestle what i consider "our match". We always have a game plan. When we divert from that plan and get beat it does get frustrating and i've been known to rip a kid from time to time. I also have a pet peave about kids who cry on the mat( it burns me up inside). With that being said my step dad was a hard a** but rarely got involved with my sports. But god forbid i forgot to feed the animals. He would come down on me with a vengence if I forgot to do a chore. My step dad grew up on a dairy farm and the animals were the income so he wanted to pass that knowlege unto me.I DIDN'T CARE I WAS A SMART A** KID. When I got older I wished that he would have cared about wrestling as much as I did and rode my but a little more often.HE DIDN'T CARE HE NEVER WRESTLED. So now as an adult and a coach I don't sugar coat the facts when it comes to loosing matches. I tell the kid how it is and why it happened the way it did. Some time I question wether I'm handling a situation the correct way but every year of experience gets me closer to the answer.What i'm trying to say is the way a coach or parent deals with a situation is from past experience and we all lead different lives,grew up differently,and had different experiences in life. It's not for me to say how a kid should be handled beacuse i'm not involved in that kids life. We as coaches and parents know our kids the best. For me you better stick to the game plan (or try to)and walk off the mat with pride and an attitude that I will get that kid next time, or your likely to see me, "come down with a vevgence." This tactic has nothing to do with how good the other kid was beacuse we don't worry about other kids. We only have concern for ourselves when it comes to "our match." So in the future if you see a coach ripping on a kid for something it may not be beacuse he lost to a lesser kid or a better kid. It may be entirely the opposite. Hope this helps you gain some perspective about dealing with youth athletics.
