International I Hate Sports Club

Are sporting stars born or made? How do you raise a child champion?

Lee Spurling, known professionally as The Wolf, is 12 years old. His devoted parents, Lavinia and Ian, believe that he is the next Tiger Woods and they spend all their time and energy helping their son to become the best in the world.

Eden Silva, from Essex, is trying to make her mark at the World Under 12 Championships. But will her skills match up to the expectations of her father Roger, who is taking a huge gamble on his daughter's talents?

Giving The Wolf a run for his money is the Iceman, Britain's youngest World Golf Champion - nine-year-old Billy Spooner. Billy's dad has turned his back garden into a golfing range for his only son and is always by his side, working as his caddie or offering him fatherly advice.

Meanwhile, in South London lives one of the country's brightest boxing prospects, 15-year-old Charlie Edwards - the Under 16 Champion of Britain. Boxing has taken over his single dad Larry's house. His garage has become a gym. The garden has a full-size ring and there's a sauna in his bedroom...

Ray wrote:I'd hate to have parents like that too. They're like beauty pageant moms --the moms who force their daughters to enter contest after contest. This kind of thing borders on child abuse.

Set The Video: Trophy Kids, Channel 4, Thursday, 26 March, 9pm

Channel 4 have a bit of an obsession when it comes to looking at weird folk. They sent Mark 'Couldn't Present His Arse Let Alone A TV Show' Dolan to meet 'the freaks' and have featured more than one show on child beauty pageants. Now we get to look at the Trophy Kids (Channel 4, Thursday, 26 March, 9pm) who are shunted around by deranged parents who just won't listen to common sense or that niggling notion in their mind that they are in fact living their failed dreams out through their sobbing child.

*Sports Propaganda* Even those that really, really hate sports, would admit that a certain admiration required for those at the top of their game. I mean, anyone who is the best in the world in their chosen field should be applauded on at least one level. Of course, at the top, it's tough. Very tough. *Sports Propaganda*

So imagine then, you're a kid at the top of your game in your age group. You've got all those pressures to perform that you've imposed on yourself and the added misery of knowing that your mates are at home having a laugh, playing video games and eating their own weight in funsize Snickers... and you've been awake since 6am doing circuit training.

Rubbish.

So then, even worse than all that, is when you've got a parent yelling in your ear all day long, saying meaningless mantras like "PUSH ON!" and "DIG DEEP!" Can you tell I was once regarded as a prodigious talent in sports once? Mercifully for me, my parents didn't kick me up the arse everytime I looked like I wanted a sit down.

In this show, we'll meet dreadful parents saying "All I'm bothered about is Lee's happiness. Nothing else," which, as you will see, is clearly a lie as their child sits by crying their little face maroon. We'll also meet a unrelenting tennis coach who barks; "Without the parent, the kid is worthless!"

This will provide uncomfortable and depressing television. Guaranteed.

Earl wrote:These parents are going to burn their kids out someday. Incidentally, the same thing happens when parents push academics when the kids are way too young. Believe me, I know. My wife, who is a former high-school teacher, has told me how this stuff affects the kids.