The Chaotic World of Youth Sports — Vol 29

As a sports parent and coach, I know how complicated youth sports can be at times. So I’d like to share some helpful articles that shed light on the challenges we face… and some humorous ones that might even give us an opportunity to laugh at ourselves. Thanks for reading and please share this newsletter with your social networks.

A big theme in our newsletter lately has been about youth athlete “Self Awareness”…..getting our kids to take ownership of their role, their  performance and their development as players and as people.  Softball Olympian Jessica Mendoza gives parents clear advice:  “Just let the kids play”.  She encourages the counter-intuitive:  Let them make mistakes, let them fail, let them learn on their own, let them learn from one another. Click here to watch the video.

Filling Their Emotional Tank With The Buddy System

 Have you heard about young athletes filling their “Emotional Tank”?  I have to admit, I’m a bit late to the game on this concept.  But I LOVE IT!  Seems to have originated with Scottish soccer coaches.  In short, just like we feed our kids to fuel up before a game, and encourage them to hydrate, we need to make sure they go into competition with a full Emotional Tank. Click here to watch the video.

My Kid Is The Best Player On His Team But…

I was pretty happy about what I heard from an old friend I bumped into this weekend.  He told me that his son was a leading player on his travel soccer  team but he wanted to take the off-season off even though his whole team (and good friends) will be training through the winter.  Best part of the story was that my friend was incredibly supportive of his son. Click here to read the full story.