Parent vs kid

Greetings Team,

today I was,first time in my life,in a role of a playing coach with three kids,as their leader.
Mother of one of them was present too. I was playing my own match and the mother kept coaching her son despite that she does not understand table tennis too much being much more beginner player than her son. She just keeps repeating the words from the boy's main coach who feeds multiball to him on trainings. Sure he is the former National Coach of junior team so he knows his own. But the Lady just blindly repeat his words unaware that the situation must be considered. When I took over the coaching after getting rid of my opponent,the boy listened to me much more than to his mother.

Yes I did a few mistakes for example telling the boy to play services to the opponent's middle but the opponent was backhand oriented and was prepared to cover it with good backhand. I did not see it before as I was playing my own match I just knew that on his wings the player usually chops.
Though the boy was visibly stressed even crying when the mother kept talking to him during matches etc.

What do you think about this, or overall the problem of kids being constantly talked to by their parents who do not have a clue about table tennis?

Thanks
Dan

Hi Dan,

It is important to deal with parents effectively if you are wanting to coach.  The main thing is to set the ground rules very early on so that they understand how they can be useful and also how they can effect negatively their children's progress.