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Reply to "Defusing the HM problem"

The pre season meeting is the place that you nip the problem in the bud. I have always had such meetings.

Let me tell you a little Over The Top HM parent story and how I dealt with it.

It was when my son was 9. He was playing on a 10u travel team and I was not coaching. This was my 1 season in the stands. so I already felt out of place. There were several different styles of OTT HM parents in the stands.

There was the dad who cheered extremely loudly, but only for his son.
There was the mom who had something bad to say about every player, umpire and coach on the field.
There was the grandfather who's mindless non stop chatter was annoying and disturbing, offering useless advise to every player in every situation
There were the parents who had no clue about basic baseball rules and every umpire was out to get their child....
The list goes on and on...

Since I was in the stands, I often brought my video camera to the games. My camera at the time had an integrated microphone that picked up every sound around it. At the end of the season I offered to put together a video presentation for the end of year awards dinner.

I created a really nice video of the teams season. I was lucky enough to capture many of the highlight plays. I edited it down to a nice 10 minute presentation. The best part, that without any extra exiting, many of the annoying attributes of these parents came shinning through on the soundtrack of the video. The video got raves reviews from most of the folks attended, and I made copies for everyone. Though I never sat in the stands again, I have heard from other parents that the OTT HM parents have been a lot less OTT HM in the following years. I guess experiencing yourself first hand on video can be an eye opening experience.
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