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Connector -- December 11, 2008
In This Issue:
 
National Conversation on Good Coaching Case Study #9: "Televised Teachable Moments"
 
Help PCA Match The Jenesis Group's $500,000 Challenge Grant
 
New Jim Thompson Book: Positive Sports Parenting
 
Win $5,000 From Nike's and Ashoka's GameChangers for Programs Benefiting Girls
 
Coaching Tip: For Holidays, Teach Players to Give The Gift of Full Emotional Tanks
 
Good Coaching Case Study #9: "Televised Teachable Moments"

Thanks to all of you who responded to our previous "Good Coaching Case Study" titled Trophy Time. We received a wide range of responses from old-school to New Age, demonstrating a variety of ways to keep character-education paramount in youth sports. To read all the comments, click here.

 

 

Now, consider our next Case Study:

 
Televised Teachable Moments
 
While watching sports on TV with your child, you see coverage of an incident, such as any of those listed in Positive Coaching Alliance's Bottom 10 Moments in Sports or
Top 10 Moments in Sports.
 Realizing that this is a "teachable moment," how do you react?
  • Which of our Top 10 or Bottom 10 Moments provide the best opportunity for a conversation with your child? Why?

  • Using any of our Top 10 or Bottom 10 Moments as an example, what do you say to your child?

  • Do you want your child's coach to discuss such incidents with your child? Why or why not?

Share your thoughts at the Case Studies blog and by printing out this Case Study for discussion at youth sports events and organizational meetings.

As always, thanks to our co-conveners who distribute Case Studies through their websites, e-mail newsletters and publications, making this a true National Conversation on Coaching:
 
American Medical Society for Sports Medicine
American Youth Soccer Organization
Institute for International Sport
Little League International
Michigan State University's Institute for the Study of Youth Sports
National Association for Sport and Physical Education
National Federation of State High School Associations
Pop Warner Little Scholars, Inc.
USA Volleyball
USA Water Polo
US Lacrosse
Help PCA Match The Jenesis Group's $500,000 Challenge Grant
To help PCA through these difficult economic times, The Jenesis Group has issued a $500,000 challenge grant if PCA can raise matching funds by February 27, 2009. If you appreciate PCA's impact on your youth sports community, this is the perfect time to give.
 
Every dollar you contribute does double duty due to the match by The Jenesis Group, the family foundation started by the late Ronald L. Jensen. Based in Dallas, the latest city to welcome a PCA office, The Jenesis Group has long supported PCA's effort to develop character in youth through sports, because of Ronald Jensen's belief that when giving to a cause "you have to go generational to have an impact."
 
While we face a once-in-a-generation economic downturn, you can still help the next generation benefit from Positive Coaching by clicking here to donate now.
 
New Jim Thompson Book: Positive Sports Parenting
Following is an excerpt from the fifth book by PCA Founder and Executive Director Jim Thompson, Positive Sports Parenting: How "Second-Goal" Parents Build Winners in Life Through Sports.
The Big Picture and You

This book describes a model of sports parenting that focuses relentlessly on the Big Picture. We call it the Second-Goal Parent.
 
There are two broad goals in youth sports: striving to win and building character so kids develop into successful, contributing members of society.
 
As important as winning is, Second-Goal Parents let coaches and athletes worry about the first goal of scoreboard results. Second-Goal Parents have a much more important role to play: ensuring their children take away from sports lessons that will help them be successful in life. Remember, that is the Big Picture. And attending to this is much more vital than being an extraneous back-seat coach.
 
Now, there is nothing wrong with caring about whether your child's team wins or loses. Go ahead and care about it! Likewise, there's nothing wrong with giving pointers when your child asks for them.
 
But the lifelong impact you can have - that no one else can in quite the way you can - is on the life lessons your child takes away from the sports experience. No one can be there for your child in this way better than you. No one.
 
If you embrace your role as a Second-Goal Parent, it will transform the way you see youth sports. It will help you seize the teachable moments that will come your way again and again because you are looking for them.
 
What might have seemed like a disappointing loss or a failure by your child becomes an opportunity to reinforce resiliency. A tough competition in forbiddingly hot, cold, or nasty weather can prompt a conversation with your child about learning to enjoy challenges. Whether your child succeeds or fails on the playing field, you will be able to use the experiences to reinforce the kind of person you want him or her to be.
 
Positive Sports Parenting: How "Second-Goal" Parents Build Winners in Life Through Sports is available for holiday gift-giving at www.positivecoach.org/store.
 
Win $5,000 From Nike's and Ashoka's GameChangers for Programs Benefiting Girls

Nike_Final

Nike, in conjunction with Ashoka's Changemakers, invites you to visit www.nikewomen.com/gamechangers for a chance to win $5,000 to put toward programs that benefit girls and women in sports.
 
GameChangers is a competition and community in one. It's a contest against words like No. Can't. Sorry. It's a group of people out to beat the barriers holding women back. It's a belief that together we can beat anything and change everything.
 
To share stories, nominate potential grant recipients or enter your own ideas for the chance to win $5,000, click here.
 
Coaching Tip: For Holidays, Teach Players to Give the Gift of Full Emotional Tanks
In the spirit of the holiday season, coaches and parents can teach youth athletes life lessons about giving...and giving in a way that improves a team's performance. The key is to use the PCA principle of Filling Emotional Tanks. To learn how, click here.

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