Coaching from overbearing parents on the sidelines "robs kids the opportunity to learn" and has been causing kids to quit sports at a young age, according to a researcher.
Parents could opt for other more encouraging strategies instead, experts suggest, as the junior winter sports season kicks off tomorrow.
AUT research fellow Craig Harrison said kids had been walking away from sports in "droves" as they got older, suggesting that more could be done to help keep in the game.
"Our research basically tells us that we like telling our kids what to do."
He cited "alarming" data suggesting 50% of kids, who played sports, left by age 11, while another 70% would leave by the end of their first year in high school.
Harrison explained the three sidelines archetypes, which he found during research.
The first two types of parents included those that provided "praise and encouragement" or "criticism, but both were overshadowed "overwhelmingly" by "instruction".
"What we saw overwhelmingly was instruction - three times the amount of comments that were coming from the sideline were instructing our kids what to do," he said.
"That's actually probably the most concerning part of sideline parenting."
Looking on and 'screaming out the answers'
Harrison explained: "You could think about it as the maths classroom, where kids are doing the times table, and the parents are sitting around screaming out the answers.
"It's just not something that we see, but when it comes to sport, that seems to be what we've always done.
"If we want kids to get the true benefits from sport, then we actually have to let them make their own decisions. They have to see what's in front of them, in the complexity that is in sport, and actually make a decision.
"When we're always telling them where to be, and when to pass, and when to kick - that actually robs them of the opportunity to learn."
Meanwhile, parental "criticism" would rarely be a "particularly enjoyable experience" for kids, which was often a reason for them to leave the game.
"What we know is that if kids hear that enough, or sometimes if they just hear it once, then they decide that sports' not for them.
"We want kids to stay in the game. It's a great form of physical activity. It's a great form of connection with their peers.
"We believe that sports are a wonderful thing, and we want kids to stay in it for life."
The youth sports researcher said parents should think about the character strengths they want their kids to develop during sports.
"What is it that we want to help our kids to develop?
"What are those characteristics that we know sport can deliver? On things like kindness, loyalty, and teamwork - the true character strengths. "Think about those, and look for those, and encourage those and praise those and just let the kids play."
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