In 1993, having being appointed coach of an under-11 team in the Washington DC area, my first order of business was to hold a meeting with the parents of the players. On the agenda was a discussion on guidelines for parental involvement and, in particular, the role of the parents during training sessions and matches.

The basic rule was for parents to refrain from giving technical advice to the players, that any information provided by the parents be in the form of verbal encouragement (good effort, well done, etc.).

The reason provided to the parents was that the coach's responsibility is to impart technical guidance to the players and interference by the parents would serve to confuse rather than help the players. For example, if the coach instructs the player to refrain from kicking the ball aimlessly forward and to concentrate on passing to the side or backwards if an effective forward pass is not possible and the player's parents are screaming for the player to kick it forward, the result is confusion on the part of the player.

Young players, in particular, are extremely impressionable and want to please and might be contemplating something like: my status on the team could be in jeopardy for not fulfilling the objectives of the coach and my status at home could be in jeopardy for not fulfilling the objectives of the parents.

It may not be exactly as explained, but you get the point.

The same guideline was implemented during my coaching spells at Somerset Eagles, North Village and the national youth teams. The result: players entered the field with clear ideas of their responsibilities and were able to express their interpretation of those ideas in relative comfort.

All of that is to say that during my observations and from reports received from some youth matches so far this season, it seems parents and spectators in general are spending entire games screaming at the top of their voices to their own players, opponents and referees (often the same individuals who would not volunteer to receive training as an official referee).

Nothing positive results from this kind of behaviour and it has to cease.

Youth players participating in under-13, under-15 and under-17 divisions should not be subjected to this practice despite the "importance" of competing for points and championships.

Amazingly though, such behaviour is widespread at matches in the under-seven, under-none and under-11 divisions and these divisions are non-competitive (no points and no championships). Absolutely amazing!

It is with little wonder why far too many players in Bermuda are afraid of doing anything other than kick the ball aimlessly and as far away from them as possible. Quite often, many players develop the 'art' of making themselves unavailable for the ball. Further, this unacceptable behaviour is often the root cause for young players to quit playing football at an early age.

Football, despite being a sport the main aim of which is to win, should be an enjoyable activity. Developing young players into competent senior players is a time consuming process. In fact, it takes at least 10 years to achieve. In general, the stages of development are divided into two phases ? the romance period between five and 11 years in which the emphasis is on participation and fun and the technical mastery period between 12 and 19 years in which participation and fun are still important with the addition of learning to compete.

The problem is that within the negative environment described, the romance period becomes the period in which the young players become disillusioned with the game and sometimes sport in general.

A message for adults ? youth football is not your game. Youth football belongs to the young players.

To this end, if you are unable to say anything in the long-term interest of youth football and, most importantly, its participants then it's better to refrain from saying anything at all or better say it to other adults in the absence of the young players.

The current practice, especially in light of the social challenges of our youth, is doing an incredible disservice to our children.