Commentary: What the David Beckham documentary tells us about controlling parents in sport

MELBOURNE: In the Netflix documentary Beckham, the footballer is asked how he coped with the abuse of his entire country after the 1998 men’s football World Cup.

David Beckham responds: "I was able to handle being abused by the fans ... because of the way my dad had been to me."

A poignant scene shows Beckham’s mother Sandra struggling with how hard his father Ted was on their son. Ted’s shouting often brought David to tears. When asked if he was too tough on David, Ted says: "No ... if I told him how good he was, then he’s got nothing to work at."

Throughout the documentary, Ted’s behaviour is rationalised by Ted and even Beckham himself as necessary to support David’s sporting trajectory. But David also said he was scared of his father’s feedback and felt compelled to practise for hours every day.

Other athletes with similar stories include Tiger Woods, Andre Agassi and Australian Jelena Dokic.

Too often, controlling behaviour by parents is portrayed as necessary for success as an athlete. But the evidence shows this idea is false. In fact, such an approach can be detrimental to both a child’s chances of sporting success and their well-being.

And it’s not just a problem with elite sport; our research shows it’s also occurring with community sport.

Our research found about one in three people we surveyed said they’d experienced abuse by a parent during their time in Australian community sport.

Psychological abuse by parents was reported by just under a third of our respondents, and included behaviours such as excessive criticism, insults and humiliation, excessively training to extreme exhaustion or vomiting, and ignoring a child following a sport performance.

The controlling and abusive behaviours described above have been