UtahBMX.com

its kind of mind boggling how many of us are trying to live through your children.....i mean who tried as a little kid to ride and couldnt so you have to give your little squirt a new ear lobe so you can cram more crap in his ear.....little guys worried about crashin and his eyes are about to wrap around his helmet and then you see the silly paps around the corner rippin him a new one all i can say is you try it and then see who needs to rip who a new what..you will gain a new respect for your little tike tryin to peddle his heart out and your in the top berm yellin peddle ....try a good ol good job and get the kid a hot dog he was here because it was fun and now its just school hes tired or runs to his friends and stays out way past the time you wanted to leave...excellence comes with dedication and love not a new bike and tears of fear remember this next time you look at the scale and your over-weight and the little guys in the back ground tellin you its your turn to be peddlin..do it for love and FAMILY!!he has plenty of time to go pro let him have the fun while he can!!!!!!

I totally agree with you knucks. Well put! When Justin doesn't make it to the mains, in his mind, he's won cuz he's finished the race. He doesn't have the competitive edge like other kids his age. You'll never hear me get after him for not winning a trophy. I will be out there hollering to pedal but I also throw in a "Way to go" or "You're doing AWESOME!" The look on his face when he crosses the finish line is priceless. It's all about having fun and wearing the little tike out so he'll sleep at night.

While I'm sure this situation happens from time to time, I really haven't noticed it all that much here at our local tracks. Hopefully we have a better breed of parents here in Utah that encourage their kids through positive reinforcement, instead of resort to the verbal abuse described above.

When and if my daughters decide to start racing again, I'll always be proud that they tried their best and crossed the finish line, win or lose.

Competency and Perception as it Relates to Burnout Categorized By Age

Burnout can be attributed to views of competency and perception. An understanding of these principles can lead to further bridging of the gap between parents or coaches and expectations, and the motivating factors that will keep racers performing their best each race.
Children 4-7 years of age- Children this age have a limited view about competence. They almost always perceive themselves as all or nothing when it comes to competence. They either do things well or they don't, they either have friends or they don't, their mother helps them out or she doesn't. How does this fit into racing. Well, kids this age are unable to compare skills with others independent of what place they finish in the race. They see themselves and others as all finishers.
At this age, the main concern is the journey around the track, and not the finish. It is wise for parents and coaches to also emphasize the "how much fun" factor, rather than placing emphasis on what place they take. Parents usually invest a great deal of money and effort for their children to race. This is especially true at nationally sanctioned races. If your child does not qualify, or does not do well in the main, then emphasize the experience. As the Dali Lama said, " If you lose, do not lose the lesson."
Children 8-12 years of age- Children these ages are the most influenced by parental beliefs and attitudes about their competency. In 1999, Babkes and Weiss examined parental influence on children's competence motivation dimensions. They looked specifically at the children's perception of parental influences and perceived competence, affect, and motivational orientation. The second thing they looked at was parent reported attitudes and behaviors for these same psycho-social outcomes. Categories included advocacy (or the encouragement to

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participate) the beliefs about athletic competency, positive performance responses (positive and negative reactions to performance of their children), expectations and pressure, involvement
(instruction and attending games) and role modeling (affect toward and participation in regular physical activity.)
Results from the first study goal indicated a significant and moderately strong relationship between children's perceptions of parental beliefs and behaviors and their sport experiences. Children who reported more positive perceptions of their mothers and father's competency beliefs, responses to sport performance, and the role modeling behavior reported higher perceived sport competence, enjoyment, and intrinsic motivation. However, a non-significant relationship emerged between parent-reported beliefs and behaviors and children's self perception, affect, and motivation. The combinations of the two results infer that children's perceptions, not parents' report, of parental influence are more important contributors to children's psychological well-being.
The study reviewed strongly supports the role of parents in children's competence motivation. Specifically significant relationships were observed between parental support and pressure and children's affective responses to participation (enjoyment, anxiety), perceptions of athletic and sport specific competence, motivational orientation (i.e., preference for challenge, use of internal criteria) and achievement behaviors (physical activity involvement).
Other studies concerning elite athletes who compete on a year round schedule like BMX found interesting results. High level gymnasts who train year round from ages 7-16, who started at a young age, had participated for an average of five years, and spent an average of 19 hours participating in their sport, reported parental support was positive for 75-90 % of the time.

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Involvement, encouragement, and support perceived by the athlete leads to greater enjoyment, perceived competence, and self-esteem that will carry into other aspects of their life. The bottom
line for athletes this age is continued supportive parental involvement and encouragement. Time schedules, work responsibilities, and other real life situations may impede the pursuit of dreams, however, careful planning and prioritizing can go a long way in the case of children and parents this age. Life and racing is a display of balance and skill.
Young people 13-18 years of age also have a need for an individual approach to coaching and parenting in their specific sports. Three domains of competence emerge as salient for teenagers: close friendship, romantic appeal, and skill competence. (Harter, 1985a.) Notice how the top two reasons for participating in the sport are social, and the third is the perception that if they have skill competence, they will have more friendships and romantic appeal. Parents and coaches can tend to have a different focus because of the time, money, and effort required and spent on the sport of BMX racing. Allow for the social interactions to take priority over rigorous practice routines or racing goals. They will find their own desires to grow in these areas may carry them toward measurable goals specific to their sport.
Adults 18 years and older is the group that has the most options as far as varying approaches to the sport of BMX. Any age adult can enter the sport with the attitude of a fierce competitor at the highest levels, or a facilitator to aforementioned groups, or any combination of either. The role you play in this sport is your choice. We have all seen individual attitudes and approaches to BMX racing by adults.
The most efficient and effective parents and coaches can focus on three aspects as you try to increase relevant resources for your racers. They are instruction, training, recruiting.
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Finding proper instruction is tough. Local and larger clinics are mostly comprised of
talented riders who may or may not have the talent of teaching or transferring the information in a practical way to your racer. One suggestion would be attending the clinic with your racer and writing down the instruction the clinician gives. This would prove helpful in that you can translate the information to the specific age of your racer, as clinics are usually given to a large age group of riders, and secondly, you can refer to the information later in a review for a practice. Its not a good idea to review before their race as they will be thinking about information rather than focusing on riding in the mindless state of "the zone".
Training can be the key to success, or the way to take the wind out of the sails of your racer. Make sure training sessions are fun, productive, and have specific objectives that fit the needs of your racer in his specific age category. Using a variety of techniques and practices where results are measured and reviewed may make your training sessions productive. It is best to have productive practices with riders who are more experienced and will help safely train your athlete with positive feedback. Structure is the key. Outline a training session and discuss it with your athlete. If they have any questions or suggestions, take them to heart and find ways to fit it in your sessions in order to build trust and confidence with your racer.
Recruiting the best help, teammates, equipment, and support system can be a complex task. A simple rule-"Find the best!" Avoid sponsors, teams, other riders or people with negative methods of competing in this sport. Avoid the excuse makers like a virus. Coach Wooden was asked how he had such an enthusiastic coaching staff. He said, "I just get rid of the ones who aren't enthusiastic!"
Winning is a byproduct of proper preparation and enhanced performance techniques.

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Nobility is performing better than your previous best. There is room for athletes, parents, and track directors, and coaches to step up to a higher plane to reach for nobility by besting their previous best!

YEAH WHAT HE SAID BUT SLOWER AND IN ENGLISH...

I aggree with Gallo, parents at the local tracks are so positive and try to encourage us to do our best.

My own parents for example, my dad is VERY supportive of us and right as he comes home from work he hitches up the trailer and we go to the track! I'm sure many dad's do that for their kids too. (What about Rick?!? He lives FAR away and makes it to the track the same time as we do! That's supporting your kids!)

Now it is true that some parents do get frusterated with their kids, but before we go ragging on that parents, look at the kids and their behavoir. Some kids throw their helmets and bikes on the ground when they get mad. Sure helmets can be replaced, but it is pricey. Bikes can be fixed, but sometimes that can cost and arm and a leg. When parents see this they get mad, because all they can see is disrespect!

And some people don't have parents who will support them at all! So when you see those frusterated parents, remember that they are out there supporting their kids.

It's hard because one or two angry parents makes it seem like all the parents do that. Thats the worst part.

(okay fine, i'll get off my soapbox now...)

Key points

1-If kids think they are able to race well, they will race more.
2- Kids 4-7 don't understand winning and losing- they see themselves as all winnining because they all finished. Fun, friends, and learning new skills are the main reasons kids race. Interestingly enough parents reasons for sports are usually winning, skills and friends in that order. Parents need to make sure FUN is the emphasis of sport participation if they want their kids to stay in any sport, activity, musical instrument or anything else.
3-Kids 8-11 take on their parents attitudes about winning and losing.
4-Kids 13 and over just do it for the chicks! (or the ladies doing it for the guys...)
5-Adults can choose which of the 3 aforementioned attitudes they want to- or they may take on any number of reasons or attitudes for participating in the sport.

So- what are your reasons for racing BMX?

I race BMX because it keeps me in awesome shape the peoples are great, and I like competitive challenges. BMX provides all of these opportunities.

What about you all? Why do you race, or keep your kids racing?


JS

I have Justin race because we have finally found an activity/sport that wears him out to the point that he actually sleeps all night. I race because I enjoy the rush I feel when the gate is about to drop. It's a feeling of freedom. It's just me and my bike against the track and other racers. The exercise is awesome and WOW, my pants fit so much better when I'm racing. I twitch just watching the races. I want to be out there so bad. It's in my blood and I hope Justin enjoys it as much as he seems to be enjoying it.

I race because it stimulates the mind, body and soul, while fulfulling my competitive desire, all the while reducing the size of my belly.

And I really enjoy taking pictures. I see more and more kids getting excited to have their pictures taken (even telling me where they want their want their picture taken) and that makes all the time and effort worthwhile!

I'd like to say for the chicks too, but I'm married! )

Plus, the comraderie of the riders is tremendous! It's like one big happy family out there, everyone wants everyone else to do well! It's great to be a part of.

Careful Jason!

true riding is a sport and competitiveness comes on any sport but the reasons i enjoyed bmxing was to meet new people and travel the activity part is nice too but i mean when certain ''TO'' jump on kids for being to easy going or havig to much fun and consider it dangerous because they fell onece or twice or happen to cut there kid off at the finish line..not you ian ....ha ha but c'mon its a dangerous sport ie. thats why there are pads helmets etc. so next time a kid comes across a finish line and hits somebody and apologies were exchanged and no harm has been commited give em a break it was all in the sport especially when the kid you cut off lands on you coming off the double in the first straight game is game....when you b.s. in the gte with your buddy stop eavse droppin and rattin it out some of these people arew friends on and off the track..live and learn you never go home sore you never tried hard enough

I race because i like racing.

It's a simple answer but with racing comes many benifits. Weight loss, nice bike, boys , the look on peoples faces when they find out you race...its a fun sport with lots of benifits, wether real, imaginary, or just silly.

*Plus you get to find out about awsome websites such as this and see awsome pictures.

*Plus you get to find out about awsome websites such as this and see awsome pictures.

This site is awesome because of people like you that take the time to read, post, and enjoy the pictures! Thanks to everyone for the support!