Children are being driven away from the sports field by overbearing parents placing too much pressure on them to perform, a top sport and recreation official says.

Lawrie Stewart, a senior adviser for Sport and Recreation New Zealand - the Government body charged with supporting sport and exercise - said many schoolchildren no longer found sport enjoyable.

Speaking at the School Trustees Association conference in Christchurch yesterday, Mr Stewart said the pressure on young people to achieve high standards of performance athletically was causing many to ditch sport.

"Yes, competition is healthy but at that young age the result isn't as important as the fun of play.

"Five-year-olds should be experiencing play and games."

Some parents were pressuring young children to hold adult expectations about their performance, Mr Stewart said.

"The adult structure and expectations of sport are being driven into a younger and younger age group.

"They want the best for their kids, but sometimes they let their own views of what sport should be get in the way of what kids' idea of sport is."

Olympic gold medal-winning triathlete Hamish Carter said it was possible that some children were being burnt out if they became involved in regimented, highly focused training programmes.

"When I was a kid playing sport, I'd pretty much play everything.

"If they specialise too early and become extremely focused too early, it can be extremely disruptive for their development."

For primary school children, competitions and tournaments that allowed them to choose whether to compete seriously or for enjoyment were ideal, Carter said.

"With the Weet-Bix Tryathlon kids can be super-competitive or do it for fun. They come along and have a crack."

Wellington city councillor and former international cricketer John Morrison said teenagers had always drifted away from sport, but it was a reflection of their changing priorities.

"They grow a bit older, the parents don't have as much influence and they make their own decisions."

Taking part in competitive sport helped to build character and both mistakes and successes on the sports field taught young people valuable lessons in life, said Mr Morrison, a former top-order test batsman.

"When you're sitting in the dressing room having had your middle stump taken out first ball in a test - that's character-building."

A 13-year old boy was training to qualify for the USA Roller Sports' junior national team at an international competition of inline skating in China.

Dad apparently really really really wanted his son to make the team.

The boy began competing as an amateur inline skater when he was 8-years old. From about that time his father started taking him to a storefront clinic to receive anabolic steroid injections.

Pop also gave him other performance-enhancing drugs until at least August, 2005.

Alas…the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency finally tested the boy and found the drugs in his system.

They tested the dad, too and found his head empty.

Proof - sometimes kids should be allowed to choose their parents.