Build them up, don't tear them down!!!!

In the past I have bought up how parents or coaches can sometimes push a kid too hard too young. Well I bring this up again because while at the track on Monday I saw something that was kind of disturbing to me. As I was running my laps I noticed there was a boy, if I had to guess an age I would say 11 or 12. The boy was a bit overweight. I was doing speed workouts so I would run a few laps then walk a lap. When I walk my resting lap I like to watch the other people and see what they are doing, call me a creep or call me just curious. Anyway this boy was with a young man and lady, they could have been his parents or a coaching pair, I am not really sure. First they had the young man running laps. I have no problem with this, he was going at a nice, comfortable pace and made it around twice. Next they took him over to run the stairs. Okay, the track I go to has a fairly long set of bleachers and if you are going to run them the normal way you would go up run about 15 yards then go down, run another 15 yards go up run another 15 yards and come down, run another 15 yards go up run another 15 yards and come down, this would be 1 set. I happened to be standing right below the steps stretching so I was able to hear the young man tell the kid to do 3 sets. 3 sets for an adult would be rough, 3 sets for an overweight kid would be brutal. The kid was struggling and at times looked like he was going to pass out. The lady stepped in and tried to help him keep moving, but the more I watched it seemed all she cared about was doing the steps herself. The boy made it only for 1 set before the young man called him down to the track to tell him how he was not trying hard enough. The young man decided to show the kid how he can run a lap and go straight into the steps and do a set. Kudo’s to you dickhead for showing up an 11 year old. At this point I am done running and I am just sitting on the bleachers watching this all go down. As the young man made his way around the second lap, the lady was pointing out to the kid that he needs to work harder so he can be like the young man. Once the young man was finished with his showing off he called the boy over to the field in the middle of track and had him do some planks. I consider myself to be pretty in shape, my body may tell another story but I can hold my own when it comes to workouts, planks are even hard for me. The boy was having problems from the start, and both adults were once again telling him he wasn’t trying hard enough. Once again both adults felt the need to get in a plank position and show how good they can do them. The boy started to cry and got up and walked away. You would think at this point one of the adults would of went after him, but nope instead they both finished their planks and walked over to the boy and told him to quit crying, and he is being a baby. As they were leaving the track they made the kid sprint up the stairs, all while still crying.

I am not a parent and I do not know what the line is where an outsider should step in. I really wanted to jump in tell the adults to chill out and show them how to help the kid without belittling him. Then part of me wanted to challenge the young man to a race and beat him and start making fun of him as if he was the child. Like I said I don’t even know if they were his parents or not. I pray to god they aren’t because I feel bad for that kid if he has to deal with that shit on a daily basis. I just wasn’t sure if I would be overstepping my bounds if I said something. If they are the parents I don’t think they would want an outsider telling them how to do something with their son. If they were the coaches they were probably set in their ways and thought what they were doing was right. It took a lot for me to hold back and say something, and I am not the type to get involved in matters like that.

My main question is at the end of the day what did that kid gain from that workout? There is no way he left that track feeling better about himself, if anything he was bullied by adults. There is a right way and a wrong way to help younger people out with workouts. You need to have patience and you need to understand it may take them a bit longer than you would like to get the hang of things. Build them up don’t knock them down. I don’t think people understand that when you break a child down like that you are turning them off from doing anything like that again. You want to know why I started running when I was young and still continue too, because my coaches made it fun for me. There was times they had to reprimand me, but they never made me feel less of a person. I understand sometimes a person needs pushed a little to start things, obviously this boy was overweight and needed some help but once again there is a right way and a wrong way.

If you were in my situation what would you have done?