David Haye defends being a pushy parent as he vows son, Cassius, will become a tennis star
Former heavyweight champ says drive led to his success
FORMER heavyweight boxing champ David Haye has defended “pushy” parents - arguing that a tough approach taken by his own dad stopped him descending into a life of crime and drugs like many of his school pals.
Haye, a dad-of-one claims he pushes his own son, Cassius, to excel as he wants to become a professional tennis player when he grows up.
The boxer told the how he once told the eight-year-old to “practise more” instead of crying after he came second in the hurdles race at a school sports day.
He said: “It was really heart-warming to see how distraught he was.
“He won every other race, every other heat and he just clipped the top of the hurdle and he came second out of his whole class, but he considered the whole sports day to be ruined because he didn’t win every single thing.”
Haye said that he consoled his son but went on to tell him that “maybe if you practised more then maybe you wouldn’t have clipped it”.
The former champion's comments come after Sonal, the mum of 10-year-old winner of the Channel 4 quiz programme Child Genius Rhea, came under fire for being "pushy" after she objected to one of the answers - seeing another child get booted off the show instead of her daughter.
Haye, 35, hopes that his son – named after Cassius Clay, who became Muhammed Ali – will become a professional tennis player.
The youngster trains for eight hours a week and has been competing since he was four.
Haye became WBA heavyweight champion in 2009 and came out of retirement this year.
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He said that he owed his success in the ring to his parents’ no-nonsense approach as he grew up in Bermondsey, south east London.
He told the newspaper: "When the other kids were smoking and getting stoned and drinking cider in the park [my parents said], ‘you can’t get involved in that because that won’t assist you in becoming the heavyweight champion of the world'.
"If I was going to do something, coming second in it was not really an option for me. You have to be the best at what you can do."
He said his "fear of my dad getting angry" kept him in line, adding: "If I didn’t have that positive male role model and disciplinarian, I don’t know what would have happened.
"A lot of the guys who I know got banged up or died of drug overdoses or have become crackheads."
Experts disagree on whether being a "pushy" parent really helps or hinders children’s prospects.
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation, a development charity, has argued that making kids believe in themselves and setting goals for them can boost their confidence and performance.
But David McCullough, an American teacher, argued in his 2014 book "You Are Not Special" that such parents were likely to make their children "anxious, dependent, narcissistic and careerist".
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