The Bike inspection thred got me thinking of this subject

We all started as local racer's name some politics that went on at you local track, or at nationals if you wish

at our local track later in the years it seemed that there was always some parent who thought that he was somebody and his kids were great, so he found a way to get on the board to make thing better for his kids such as bike inspections where there were never anything wrong with their kids bike but we were always sent back to the car for some sort of ajustment after they yanked so hard back and forth on our handlbars they needed ajustment, one year I had a parent put a kid in my moto that wasn't in my class just to wreck me, (he told me this a week or so later) we even had to recount points for the state race one year due to a parent and his so called bad math, and this jerk was an accountant,

I got into BMX because it was an individual sport, I was getting sick of baseball in the summer and all of the parents politics, funny but i got sick of the politics in BMX later on and Started playing Baseball again,,

My problem was with factory teams / managers / loud parents screaming at thier kids. Some of the adults would always seem to forget that we were just there to have fun and be part of something. My dad never put any pressure on me or yelled at me for not doing good. In fact in the factory team days when I would fly out by myself, when I came home he would never ask me how I did, he would just ask me if I had fun. The day I had some one tell me that I had to win or have a comment on how I lost the team trophy I told him that I didn't have fun and it was over. Sorry for the off topic rant but it's some what connected to politics.

Hey LouisvilleBMX that pic of me to the left is at Derby City BMX 1985 NBL Grands in BMXA on the first straight.

The Local "Team of Choice" or team with the TO's kids on it getting breaks by not being called on things that would get other riders DQed. I bet it went on at every track out there Pure BS!

I hear ya Mike, when it stops being fun it's time to quit, or at least in your case dump the Big sponsor and do it for yourself, so that it becomes fun once again.

Mike I remember that pic in the Magazine, I still have it

our local track which was somewhat famous at the NAT scene, would score riders usually there locals at the last jump which was nearly 75 meters from the finish , so if you passed anyone at the line it was too bad cuz your fate was sealed already!

If your daddy wasn't an investment banker driving a beemer they sure looked down their nose at you at that track. And whatever you do, don't rub elbows with the local riders because you would never race BMX in that town again.

I was a swimming coach and a sports writer for a number of years, and it's funny, but a lot of the political issues you guys talk about here are pretty common in just about every youth sport there is -- parents bickering with each other and forgetting the primary reason they're involved in the first place (you know, the kids). The over-involved parents' motives move from being kid-focused to being very ego-centric. It plagues all of youth sports, unfortunately, not just BMX. And it affects their kids performances, though they might not realize it

Now I work quite a bit with Olympic and elite-level U.S. National Team swimmers, and it's funny, because their personal stories are a lot like Mike's above. The best swimmers' parents never kept track of their kids' times, their medals, their records, etc. They came to meets and watched and cheered and encouraged, but never analyzed their kids' performances or were outwardly critical about anything. They always asked their kids if they had fun, and that's about it. I think a lesson can be learned there.

Another thing I thought about regarding over-involved, hyper political parents -- they might be responsible for the demise of traditional, organized competitive sports like baseball, soccer, basketball, and even BMX racing. The U.S. Olympic movement has been trying for a few years now to address why the popularity of sports like skateboarding and BMX freestyle (ramps, street, park, etc). is on the rise, while the popularity of traditional competitive sports is on the decline. My theory is that at one time, kids used to be able to play sports like sandlot baseball to get away from their parents. They used to be able to get a bunch of kids in the neighborhood together and play by their own rules, with their own friends and it was time to be a kid. Now baseball is never a sandlot game. It's organized, with uniforms, parents, and constant supervision. Sports like skateboarding and BMX street riding/trails/freestyle (I think BMX racing kind of falls more under the "organized sport" category) offer the escape into the world of being a kid like the sandlot baseball games of yore used to. Kids are allowed to find out who they are and explore their limits on their own by riding a skateboard or BMX bike down the street. There are no rules, no supervision, just a little freedom these kids crave after being in a world constantly controlled by adults. I'm not saying kids should be allowed to run wild, but these untraditional sports offer a degree freedom (maybe sometimes too much, admittedly) that they can't get somewhere else.