Personal Narrative: My Obsession With Sports

I know exactly where I was the moment that Cal Ripken Jr. retired. At eight years old I remember sobbing uncontrollably on the front steps because baseball no longer had a hero. It is at this very moment of my childhood that I can trace back my obsession with sports. For as long as I can remember sports had always been important to my father. In an effort to be the son my dad never had, I spent hours upon hours memorizing sports facts. Only later in life did I start to become aware of the fact that I was only into sports because I wanted to make him happy. Throughout the years of using sports as a way to forge a special bond with my dad, I discovered that a passion that started out for someone else had uniquely become my own.
Perfection is a common theme in the athletic world, and parents are no exception to pushing the limit. Appleton, Hall and Hill (2011) examined the motivational climates of parents and coaches to see if they push this perfectionistic way of life, specifically within sports, too far. From a child and talent development perspective (Wolfenden & Holt, 2005), all father-coaches are often …show more content…
I was never very good at team sports and so I chose to focus my time and energy on individual activities. Once I reached middle school an opportunity arose for me to play softball on a co-ed church league. I originally joined for fun but there seemed to be a fierce sense of competiveness that slowly emerged over time. One of the main reasons I wanted to look at literature on the role of father-coach relationships is because I played softball with my dad. While I want to center the focus of this paper on my relationship with my dad, I sincerely believe that spending time as his player and teammate greatly impacted our relationship. The literature, and my story, paints an accurate description of a young girl pushing herself towards success in a hope to gain love and acceptance from her