You would think Inverness had hosted the Olympic Games. In reality, it was Inverness Head and their child had competed there six times before. Now, this is by no means downplaying the excitement of a junior athlete’s first (or hundredth, as the case may be) head race, as these events keep spirits high during the dark, dingy winter months. Parents were lining the banks, cheering and shouting as if their children have just secured gold for Team GB, a heartening sight for any junior athlete.
Junior rowing is one of those sports that demands intense commitment from both athletes and their parents. Early mornings, multiple training sessions, endless travel, and the eternal smell of damp kit are just some of the sacrifices made when their child first picks up an oar. Gone are calm weekend mornings with lie-ins, relaxing family holidays, and any chance of a spontaneous break. Instead, the calendar is now filled with race days, training camps, and early starts.
It’s therefore inevitable that parents become heavily invested in their child’s sporting career. In fact, without parents acting as volunteers, mini-bus drivers, and designated snack suppliers, many junior rowing clubs would likely collapse.
But, at what point might parents overstep? At what point does involvement become unwanted extra pressure rather than encouragement?
The parent-child dynamic can be nearly impossible to navigate on both sides. While this is by no means a call to parents to stop supporting their children, junior – especially teenage – athletes are more susceptible to pressure than is often assumed, especially in today’s age of constant comparison. As such, I believe parents should support without creating added pressure that their child is undoubtedly already feeling from a highly intense training environment.
Screaming from the bank
Hearing your name shouted from the sidelines can be the final push an exhausted junior needs to cross the finish line. It can be a reminder of the beaming parents waiting on the pontoon, with their phones at the ready to take pictures to share on their Facebook pages.
But, in their desire to encourage their child to dig deeper and push further, parents also run the risk of inadvertently crossing a line in their child’s mind. It’s one thing to shout encouragement from the banks; it’s another to furiously pedal alongside, delivering live tactical feedback. When this line between parent and coach is blurred, the child can feel immense pressure to live up to their safe person’s expectations. Teenage athletes may be afraid that “losing” will be letting their loved one down.
Parents should try to remember – it’s their child’s race, not theirs. Rowing is a highly intense sport and there are some fantastic coaches meeting the technical needs of young athletes. A parent’s job, therefore, is encouragement and showing up at the finish line, no matter what the result.
Parents as volunteers
Parents don’t just spectate, they volunteer their precious time to clubs, organising regattas, marshalling in the bitter cold, and helping clubs keep running. The problem arises when that commitment morphs into perceived control by the child.
When parents invest so much time and emotion, it’s easy to conflate their child’s performance with their own effort. For young rowers, this creates an invisible pressure. If every race becomes a referendum on parental pride, the joy of the sport can quickly fade. Studies on youth athletics show that excessive parental involvement can harm self-esteem, increase burnout, and even lead to young people quitting the sport.
Rowing teaches resilience, teamwork, and discipline – skills that stay with you long after you stop rowing. However, those lessons are learned best when being on the water feels like a place of freedom, not expectations. Children are going to make mistakes. They will have bad outings and that’s OK. Parents should be supporters, not substitutes for coaches, and children need the space to fail, learn, and grow on their own terms.
At the end of the day, the majority of young juniors at local clubs won’t always remember how many medals they won or what their race times were. They’ll remember their family showing up, to cheer, to listen, to encourage. Sometimes the best support a parent can give isn’t coaching in every spare moment or nitpicking their child’s technique around the dinner table, but instead offering a supportive ear – or shoulder at times – and helping to support their club.
