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Last Episode, December 20, 2009. Stay Tuned for Dr. Casey's Next Project!
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What Do Parents Say to Their Kids About Tiger Woods' Press Conference?

Given that everyone is scrambling for a unique perspective on the Tiger Woods Press Conference, I was not surprised that several news agencies were in touch yesterday to get the opinion of a Sports Psychologist.

To be honest, only 1 request stood out as providing unique value to our sports families.

Check out my take on tonight's edition of the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric.

In a nutshell, I was asked to comment on the impact that Tiger Woods' press conference may have on the sporting youth.

I believe that when elite athletes make life mistakes that warrant national media attention, it provides parents with an exceptional platform to have meaningful life conversations with their kids. Don't run from it Moms and Dads!

I'm encouraging parents and coaches to ask their athletes, "What qualities do you admire most about Tiger Woods as an athlete?" They will site his discipline, focus, passion, etc. Then follow up with something along these lines, "What if you learn how to develop the same things, but do something Tiger didn't! Take that discipline, focus and passion into other areas of your life like friendships, dating, and academics. Then you will be a very successful and balanced person."

We take for granted that these great life lessons learned in sports are automatically transfered over into other areas of life. But transferring these skills is taught, and using today's press conference to begin that dialog is priceless!

Finally, I believe there is a critical trend that is dangerous to our younger athletes. They are often being encouraged to delay dating until adulthood. The schedule of an aspiring athlete in training is year-round and there simply isn't time most athletes tell me to date. Problem is that we are misleading our kids. We are intimating that they will wake up as adults and magically be prepared to have a successful romantic relationship. This isn't very likely. People learn their relationship skills form their parental role models, but more importantly from their early experiences and missteps. If those opportunities to correct mistakes are being delayed until college or later, the consequences are more significant and costly.

Take home message, if we don't encourage our adolescent athletes to develop as fully abled people, we are raising a generation of future adults who are likely to be imbalanced in their development and ultimately broken. There will be many more press conferences to follow, and worse than that, broken families.

I'm working on parenting solutions, so stay tuned for future announcements!

-Dr. Casey