Well, considering that she intimidates most men, that was something else. ;)
Hey, my dad used to toss softballs at me! Was that wrong?!
My dear mother, Chesterfield dangling from her sneering mouth, could sidearm like the second baseman for the NY Giants she wanted to be as a girl. When it hit--ouch. She also wanted to play football for Frank Lahey at Norte Dame. Typical 1930s tomboy who never quite got away from that.
So she was from the "tough em up" school of parenting. I didn't mind it. This helped me learn to become an exceptional left-handed pull hitter. Still can't field worth a damn, which was why I did little but pinch hit in little league :(. When I did, the field would shift, and I would swing early, thus making me a marked man for the following school year.
No, your father did you good, because you responded in a positive and healthy manner. The Rodhams were a traveling circus act without a name or destination and Hillary! has all these unresolved rage issues from childhood that seem to keep playing out daily through her power plays and Byzantine-like skullduggery.
Perhaps her father should have moved her into interests more mundane and less taxing for a rather ugly and lonely little girl. Unfortunately, he didn't and we're stuck with the product, I suppose.