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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It is very common for kids to dislike their coach for what ever reasons. Sometimes kids have a legitimate gripe but parents should not allow kids to trash talk their coach. Kids should be brought up to respect other adults as long as those coaches are not abusive in any [...]

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Often when working with athletes I will sense a reluctance in some to try what I suggest. They may even blurt out, “My dad told me to do it another way,” or “My coach told me to do this” or even “My friend says this works for him.” I usually respond [...]

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I read about a new device that parents may be interested in at Lisa Winston’s great blog site. Check this device out – seems too good to be true for baseball parents
 http://gotmilb.mlblogs.com/archives/2010/01/gamechanger_where_were_you_whe.html

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Good article at http://www.zikkir.com/index/109247 - Marye and I agree that parenting can be difficult and no where is that more evident than dealing with all the emotions that go into watching our kids play sports. We love our children so much and want to help them so much that often these factors [...]

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Parents don’t have to give a big speech to inspire their kids and giving one is one of the best ways to alienate kids anyway. Giving short inpirational messages though at the appropriate time is “priceless” as the saying goes. Kids in sports and life encounter many

Following are a few new year’s resolutions for parents for “being there” for their kids:
1. Find an safe area around house where kids can practice their favorite sport.
2. Practice with them when they ask – find the time.
3. Make it fun – set up little contests, tournaments if possible.
4. Point out fundamentals in a positive [...]

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by Former Major Leaguer Jack Perconte
    I have read where the word “You” is the most empowering word in the English language and the best word to use to inspire someone. “You can do it,” “You are the best” and “I believe in you”  are great examples of support to youth. However, it is [...]

Jack’s recent article for Press Enterprise blog
http://blogs.pe.com/moms/2009/11/where-the-wild-things-are-in-s.html

Jack’s Article for Press Enterprise – Southern Californiahttp://blogs.pe.com/moms/2009/10/be-careful-of-the-star-treatme.html

Jack’s recent article for the Press Enterprise Blog – Southern California Newspaper Online
http://blogs.pe.com/moms/2009/10/making-outs-and-i-am-not-talki.html

Following is Jack’s article he writes for the Press Enterprise Blog in Southern California:
One of the top complaints that parents have with youth sports, and it may be number one, is that their child’s coach stinks. This complaint usually comes from parents who feel like the coach is treating their kid unfairly. Their concern is [...]

Success – The old saying “nothing succeeds like success” does make sense. Without positive results in sports, most kids will not want to continue, and that is understandable. Success is sometimes hard to define though and just as important is what I call “the feeling of success.” Often, success is judged by

Patience & Perspective
Now we are talking – there are numerous great concepts when it comes to the letter P pertaining to sports – perspective, pressure, parenting, practice, patience, poisitive, just to name a few.  Over the weeks I will speak of these. The two most important ones, patience and perspective go hand in hand. Every [...]

Negativity – First word that comes to mind when I think of the letter N is negativity. Negativity unfortunately is way too common in sports coaching today. Coaches and parents who are negative are always looking at the downside of  players performances and make it a point to express the negative to their players. This [...]

Love of the Game – Love is the first word that comes to mind when I think of the letter L. The term is often loosely used by parents when speaking about their kid’s interest in a sport. “He/She loves to play” is a common statement and, when true, it is a great thing. The problem [...]

Justify – Not a lot of words beginning with this letter. Of course, coaches and parents should always be judicious with their teams and kids when making decisions about athletics. But one of my favorite words is justify. Most kids stop playing sports not because they get burnt out but because they cannot justify working [...]

 
Hope – This is one of my favorite concepts that is so important in youth sports. It is so important because it is something concrete that parents and coaches can give kids that can make all the difference. You see, another person cannot give a player confidence for that is something they must attain on their own.  But, [...]

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 [...]

Fundamentals
    If you have been following my writings over the last few years you know that this is the concept(s) I discuss the most frequently. To me, this word contains the two most important ideas pertaining to youth sports. Youth sports is albout developing fundamentals and having fun. The two go hand and hand. It [...]

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