Positive Parenting in Sports by Former Major Leaguer Jack Perconte

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Having taught youth for a great number of years, I have encountered a great number of skill levels in kids. A few of my students have gone on to play major league baseball and many were cut from their

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Over the years, one of the most trying situations I encounter as a youth coach is dealing with the “Know it All Player.” More often than not this player tends to be a young teenager who is not afraid to be bold and let me know  that his way is better

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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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A few posts back I wrote about always being on the lookout for little inspirational quotes to have ready to say to athletes. Words are great but not as good as actions, of course. With that in mind, here are the three key ways to motivate athletes:

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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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Previously, I had written about my favorite word when talking to athletes was “we.” It gives off the feeling to youth that all (parents, athletes and players) are in it together and that the athlete does not have to figure it out or go it alone on their

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     I work with baseball and softball palyers all the time because that is what I do for a living. Inevitably, when I begin talking to a group of players, many of them will immediately look elsewhere than at me. Is that a little annoying? Yes, but the

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If you are a coach or parent and are not reading blogs and articles at sites like this one http://baseballparentguide.blogspot.com/2009/12/too-much-emphasis-on-winning-not.html then you are not maximizing your potential as a sports parent and/or youth coach. I

Sports Coaching Philosophy

Coaching Philosophy
    It is important for coaches at all levels to have a philosophy of coaching. Of course, this philosophy should be arrived at based on the age of athletes and the competitive level of the league the athletes are playing in. For example, travel leagues tend to be more competitive so this [...]

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

There are a number of considerations adults should take into account before volunteering to coach youth sports. Youth sports coaching is not as easy as it may appear because there is the responsibility of helping youth and at the same time keeping parents happy at the same time. With this in mind, adults should keep [...]

     Another common concern parents have is that their child has no confidence. Often, they would ask me to help build up their child’s confidence. Of course, I would work on that because that is what good coaches do. Of more importance, I felt, was to make sure the young players had an overall optimistic [...]

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 [...]

Youth  – Things are getting tough down here at the end of the alphabet. Not a lot of inspiring words or words pertaining to sports beginning with X,Y or Z so I am improvising a little. Y is for “Youth” sports and that is the point – it should be all about our youth. Parents and [...]

Xample – OK, I know I am cheating a little on this one but I want to keep the streak going. Everyone knows how important it is for coaches and parents to lead by example.  Just as important, especially as players reach the high school level, is that players learn to also lead by example. [...]

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 [...]

Understanding - ”I understand that just because a skill is easy for me or appears easy from the sidelines, does not mean it is easy for everyone.” ” I play to win, with the understanding that player development and fun are of equal importance.” “I do my best to understand each player’s personality so I can determine [...]

 
Trust -
The obvious word that comes to the sports mind with the letter T is Talent. Talent is a combination of God-given athleticism and some develped skills and generally manifests itself at a young age in kids. The word that I want to talk about is trust because this is an extrememly important concept when parents and coaches work [...]

Resiliency – Another one of my favorite words with regards to sports. If nothing else, kids who play sports learn to be resilient because of the failure which all athletes will encounter. Even the best players have to learn to deal with loss and failure and this usually builds up a resiliency that serves them

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 [...]

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 [...]

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, [...]

 
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 [...]