The influence of parents on Rhythmic Gymnastics training

In Rhythmic Gymnastics, as in most sports, parents have a very important role in their children's sports life, even having a definite influence on it. This is because parental encouragement directly affects the children's relationship with sport, both in childhood and in adult life (FREDRICK and ECCLES, 2005). Thus, the objective of this study was to verify how the presence of parents during Rhythmic Gymnastics training can influence the relationship of gymnasts with the sport. This research was approved by the Ethics Committee of ESEF/UFPEL under process nº 5,195,294, with a total of 36 participants, 34 mothers and 2 fathers of gymnasts. Gymnasts/daughters, aged between 6 and 21 years old, practiced RG in clubs, schools or teams federated by the Gymnastics Federation of Rio Grande do Sul. As a collection instrument, a semi-structured questionnaire was used, sent by Google forms. As a result, it was found that 66.7% of fathers did not attend their daughters' training, while 33.3% of them were present at training. Of those who attended, 58.3% attended all training sessions, 25% attended once a week, and 16.7% attended one training session per month. Thus, it is understood that while some did not participate directly in their daughters' training, others were always present. Bringing the question of what impacts this presence, or not, could bring to the gymnasts. It is known that parental support encourages children to practice sports, but it can also come with greater pressure (Costa et al, 2021). The presence of the parents during training makes them watch both the moments of success and mistakes of the daughters, which can make them pressure them to train more, or give too much opinion about what the daughters should do to improve, which can increase the pressure on the gymnast, as well as potentially disrupting the coach's work. However, for the sons it is very important that the fathers show that they care about the sport they practice, and watching their daughters train is a way of demonstrating this. In addition, children consider it important for parents to understand their sport, so that it is possible to share their experiences in a better way, and also for parents to be able to make more informed comments about the modality (FURUSA et al, 2021 ). Therefore, attendance at training sessions would facilitate parents' knowledge about the practice of Rhythmic Gymnastics, improving this interaction. However, an important aspect is that parents understand their daughters' preferences in the way they participate in sport, what forms of encouragement they prefer, whether they like verbal encouragement or prefer their parents to just be present, whether they like parents to focus on their results or just their effort, or even if they prefer that parents do not attend training, but are available to learn and talk about the sport with them. Therefore, it is understood that the presence of fathers in training can help to demonstrate their interest in the sport practiced by their daughters, but, for the support offered by them to be positive, it is important that they understand their daughters' wishes about their role in that environment.