The "Soccer Coach Syndrone"

[BowHunterGA]

Morning all,

How many parents have struggled with instructing their own kids regarding hunting, fishing or other endeavors but find that other youths the same age will listen intently to every word you say? I call it the "Soccer coach syndrome" and recently while hunting in South Carolina I had it occur again...... This was part of our adventure at Wild Things the week before Christmas, please take a few minutes to read the full story here:

  The Soccer Coach Syndrone

[ronp]

Good job and good story.  Thanks for sharing.
 

[Doc Nock]

Indeed, but I do not think (?) that condition is restricted to parent-child relationships.

I think the old saw, "Familiarity breeds contempt" might come into play...but it's so much easier to see between a parent and child...

I was in Management Development and Supervisory Training in my career and while Sr. folks could advise younger upcoming managers on how to deal with people, it was often pointed out by the older ones that not until their underlings came back from our training sessions, did they start to "see the light" and espouse what their Sr. Counterparts had tried to convey... all for naught, but now it seemed that the younger folks were all afire with the "new" same information.

Bottom line is that I share your respect for the Father in the story...not all egos can relinquish being the sage expert in any relationship and kudos to him and to you for helping young Luke find a better path!  

[McDave]

Good article.  Sometimes I've seen a son hang on his father's every word, more often not.  Same in business between workers and their supervisors. A lot of dynamics involved, from resentment over past experiences to the overall charisma of the "mentor."  Having had more or less the normal amount of good and bad experiences with my sons, and not being overly charismatic by nature, I find it best to wait until I'm asked for advice, and then I'm prepared to have it ignored.  Oh well, it makes me happy to be asked once in a while, whether they take my advice or not.

I find in an introductory archery class of a dozen kids, typically two just want to clown around, eight have varying levels of interest and attention spans, and two hang on my every word and really seem to want to learn it.  It is tempting to spend all my time on the two who really seem interested, but the goal of the class is for everyone to have a good experience, even the clowns.  And who knows what effects there might be down the road? The clowns might be the ones who turn out to be avid archers and bowhunters down the road, while the ones who showed the most interest might simply be exceptional children who show a lot of interest in everything they do and might never pick up a bow again.

[Cyclic-Rivers]

Good article.

[Roadkill]

Great article.  I trained Marine recruits and on graduation day the parents often remarked how much of a change the young man had made and how did we do it!  Part of it the vast majority was a DI, the other part of it was the syndrome   My 4-H kids are the same.  The neat thing is people learn from us, and we do not know we are "teaching".  Good post

[Green]

Great experience and story Steve.  Thanks!

[GreyGoose]

Same in Scouting, Sunday school, etc. Maybe it means we teach our children one thing well - to pay attention when (other) adults are speaking.