Run faster! Pay attention! Pass the ball! Shoot it now!

Those are the sounds often heard from the bleachers at a youth sports game. It doesn’t matter the age of the children, the season, the sport or the venue.  

We’ve all heard it. And if we are honest with ourselves, we’ve all participated in it, sometimes without even realizing it.

When I refer to “we,” I mean us parents.

The only people giving instructions to the players should be the coaches.

As parents we often forget, or never experienced, what it's like playing as a child in a competitive atmosphere. It's hard remembering a set play, making sure you are in the correct position, or just focusing on getting from one point to another in an efficient way. How about that 5-year-old in center field who discovers an ant hill? Now imagine trying to execute a game plan while three different people yell three separate sets of instructions.

My guess is sometimes the instructions you yell out do make perfect sense. But I also imagine they occasionally go against what the coach wants your child to do.

I see this all the time. A coach is trying to get a player to pass to a certain receiver, run a particular play or take a bigger lead, and a parent yells out something completely different.

I once had to “scold” a parent after a game for yelling from the bleachers to his child that he should steal a base. “If they aren’t going to hold you on, take off,” the parent yelled. We had a 15-run lead late in the game and I had specifically told the players in the dugout that nobody was to take more than one base at a time regardless of where they hit the ball. And under no circumstance, passed ball or not, was anyone to steal a base. Imagine the confusion in the 8-year-old’s mind as he took a one-step lead off first and his father yells for him to take off.

Before you head to the next game, put yourself in your child's shoes for a minute. Think about what it would be like if you were on the golf course, and as you addressed the ball and were ready to take your backswing, someone yelled out for you to widen your stance. How would that shot turn out?

The next time you're going to yell something to your child, try yelling, "Good job, keep up the good work," and leave it at that. Hopefully, the parents around you will follow your lead.

I guarantee your child won't tell you after the game, "Geez, Dad, I missed you yelling instructions to me during the game."

And I guarantee the coaches won't miss it either.

Jon Buzby has been involved in and writing about youth sports for the past 30 years, originally as a coach and board member with his now-24-year-old son and most recently "just as a dad" with his 8- and 10-year-old sons. Jon is an award-winning writer and his latest book, “Not an Expert, Just a Dad … In this Crazy Game Called Life,” is available on Amazon. Send comments or future blog topics you'd like to see to JonBuzby@hotmail.com and follow him @YouthSportsBuzz on Twitter.