Your Competitive Drive Vs. Your Child’s  Judi Brown Clarke  Judi
Brown Clarke, a silver medalist in the 1984 Los Angeles
Olympics, is the director of diversity at the Beacon Center for
the Study of Evolution in Action.  August 2, 2012  There can be
a fine line between supporting your child’s athletic
opportunities and actively driving the process.  What matters is
that your child finds joy in a good effort and realizes the
importance of ethical principles.  As an Olympic silver
medalist, former professional coach and parent of children in
sports, I am very conscious of where that line is, and where I
am in respect to that line. I have to constantly ensure I am not
projecting my intense competitive drive onto my children, and
that I am letting them develop and mature their own motivations.
I often see sports-minded parents limiting their children's
opportunities to have unorganized playtime. As soon as their
child displays a potential of talent, the child is immediately
placed in a structured team and becomes