Positive Parenting in Sports by Former Major Leaguer Jack Perconte

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    I have received this comment many times from parents over the years, “Would you make him a major leaguer.” I always respond with “only he can do that, but I will try to instill the correct fundamentals and impress upon him the importance of a great work ethic.” To avoid having

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Now is a good time to think about your kid’s sports schedules for next season so that your young athlete is prepared for each sport they may play. It is especially good to be aware of any sport that

Reprint from Jack’s Press Enterprise Blog – Southern California Newpaper
http://blogs.pe.com/moms/2009/09/not-so-harmless.html

 
Burnout – Another common word when talking about yout sports. Burnout occurs when playing the game just stops being fun anymore. The causes of burnout generally occur in three ways – over-playing, over-sporting and over-expecting. Kids are often heading for burnout when one or more of these situations occur: 1. When they play one particular sport too often or [...]

Winning – The first word that comes to mind when thinking of words that begin with W and sports is winning. It is often debated whether coaches of youth should play to win. I believe it is OK to play to win, even at ages as young as 8 years old. Does that mean allot of emphasis should be [...]

Quit – An obvious word when it comes to the letter Q is the word quit.  One of the great things about youth sports coaching and life lessons that parents and coaches can teach youth is the idea that one should never give up in competition and in their pursuit of their goals. This obviously [...]

Inspiration
-  This is an obvious word that initially comes to mind when I think of words beginning with this letter. Many parents get frustrated with their kids because they do not show much motivation to play to practice their skills. Often, motivation comes from within a players innate personality so that is hard to change with many kids. However, [...]

Goals – I am not a big believer in short term goal setting when it comes to youth sports. Examples of short term goal setting would be saying you are going to average 20 points a game this season or hit 15 home runs this year. I know that probably goes against most self-help and how [...]

Attention – Getting the attention of players can be difiicult. Their attention span is often short and when they are around teammates and friends it tends to be even shorter. A couple of techniques I use to help this situation was