The Trophy Kids Essay

In the Trophy Kids documentary, the audience is introduced to a series of obsessive parents who want to see their children excel in their respective sport. The parents are all competitors in their own right through outreaching their resources to get their child the best equipment, putting them in competitive leagues, and second best is not an option in trying to see their child be the best. The parents had their faults as well such as overstraining their children, disregard their feelings because of an imposed or sought dream, keeping the children at arm’s length because admittance of pride in their children’s skill perceived as a stifle for their growth, and a singular focus in the sport where a parent’s outburst could demean the other parent’s …show more content…
He is an example of what it means to be an intrusive parent. An intrusive parent is a parental figure who crowds themselves into their child’s competitive and private life and show the inability to maintain an emotional distance from his child competitor” (Ogilvie, 1979). When his father says in the beginning of the documentary “we are getting to know each other” in reality it is Justus getting to know his father’s ambition and his father learning how far he can push him. Their father-son relationship was restructured to resemble a coach-player relationship which brought problems. The coach side of their relationship is ever present and he constantly berates Justus with orders or questions and gets the final say in most things concerning Justus’ life. A pep talk is nice once in a while, but the at home coach makes sure to keep Justus moving forward with unpleasant words such as saying quitting on football would be the equivalent of committing suicide which is great jump in …show more content…
Justus was prohibited from visiting his mother on occasion because his father thought the time with his mother would be set back in development. Youth Sports as Serious leisure says “too often parents and coaches expect children to think and play as adults” and the prohibition of Justus’ visit is an example of his dad transforming recreation into a constant football commitment (Siegenthaler & Gonzalez, 1997). Justus visiting his mother should not be a problem because she is the parent that values Justus for as son and allows him to have a life outside of football. The dispute over Justus having a girlfriend showed that his father had no restraint in asserting his dominance over Justus through fierce words and complete lack of sympathy. The other non-football activities that were disapproved for Justus were technology based such as his phone and IPad. The devices were taken to steer Justus’ thoughts to solely towards football. It is not in the nature of a young individual to be so single-minded and Justus’ father wants to put blinders on him to be goal driven, but a football career is not his goal. All the intrinsic needs for a child such as “Freedom of expression, joy, and emotional release” were deprived from him and substituted for “symbols and signs imposed by the competitive sports” (Ogilvie,