Role of parents in motivating adolescents basketball players in sport

Sport plays an important role in the lives of many children. Sport is important not only for the athletes themselves, but also includes other important participants: parents, coaches, referees, teammates. However, in the current period more attention is being paid to children’s sports activities and the influence of parents on the education of young athletes. There is a tendency to note that parental involvement in children’s sports can be diverse. As the researchers highlight, it is important for parents to understand that they should show the young athlete as many as possible ways, to introduce to different sports so that the young athlete later could find himself/ herself, to enjoy sport and to have positive experiences. However, resent research shows that parents’ desire to see their offspring succeeding, and parents often forget what really matters in children’s sport. Therefore, the role of parents in motivating adolescent basketball players in sports is the object of this research. The tasks of the study is to reveal the importance of parents’ (mothers and fathers separately) role in motivating basketball players (15–18 years of age), regarding of the athletes age; and to reveal the importance of parents’ (mothers and fathers separately) role of motivating basketball players regarding athletes experience in their career. The following research methods are used: Analysis of the scientific literature; Quantitative study: Questionnaire; Mathematical statistics methods. Basketball players of two basketball schools (n = 75) participated in the questionnaire survey. The results of this study have demonstrated that mother’s and father’s role is important in both age groups (15–16 years old and 17–18 years old). In autonomy support range (scale) mother’s role is stronger and more important for younger players than in group of 17–18 years old athletes. Basketball players with more experience (7 years or more) have bigger father’s involvement than players with less experience (6 years and less). With bigger and longer experience in training and competitions basketball players have stronger father’s involvement and support in their careers