Quote:
Originally Posted by sclitheroe
I dunno, hence why I asked. The only parent that comes to mind for me as potentially fitting “that” role was Carl Lindros, but Eric was such an immense talent I doubt his dad had much, if any, impact on his career.
The whole reason it interests me is because I was reading the book Outliers, and it talks quite a bit about the subtle effects of things like birth date on the potential for a kid to make it to the pro’s. It also mentioned that parents were willing to forge birth records to assure optimal placement based on cutoff dates. All of this specifically in youth hockey in Canada.
So clearly a parent that is mildly psychotic enough to lie about a kids birthday and forge documents could potentially have a big impact on how a kid fares early on in their career.
If the difference between 99.9% of players and the 0.1% who make it to the NHL is slightly more ice time at a young age, or getting to be on the team that goes to the better tournaments, etc, couldn’t it be “that” kind of parent that provides the slightest edge?
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I get your point, but you obviously wouldn't have heard of many parents who caused talent players to not reach their potential simply because they quit the game before they ever became known. I know of a few guys I grew up with who were really talented but quit the game at 15 or 16 as it wasn't fun anymore, a common thread seemed to be nut job parents. There's a difference between supporting an elite level athlete who is on the same page in terms of goals and screaming at your 12 year old for not finishing his checks.