We have all met people with so-called “Type A”
personalities: driven, competitive people who believe they can do a better job at work, coaches who
believes that their way is the only way, and live to prove it on the
field, the court, or the stadium, and, yes, sports parents who are determined to
prove that their child is the next sports
superstar. What motivates such people is a need which can become addictive, so much so that there are those who suggest that
adrenaline/epinephrine addiction should be considered in the DSM (the manual classifying mental disorders) as an
addiction, alongside addiction to illegal drugs.
Having pushed our children's need to compete and win -and the surge of adrenaline it creates - parents create a craving which makes it hard, when the season is over, for young athletes to slow down and relax. Worse, we may be raising children for an unhappy
future, when the wins they achieved in sports are not an everyday
occurrence, for a life in which they end up always searching to re-live their “glory days”, and kids who haven't developed an appreciation for small victories and the simple pleasure of relaxation.
