Nominate Coaches for PCA's Double-Goal Coach� Award Presented by Liberty Mutual
 Coaches are among the most important and influential people in children's lives. For little or no pay, the best youth and high school sports coaches spend countless hours preparing their teams to win while teaching life lessons through sports.
You know these Double-Goal Coaches. Now let us know about them.
Click here for our online nomination form so that you can honor the Double-Goal Coaches who make the greatest impact on your children and your community.
Under a new partnership from Liberty Mutual, the global insurance company that partners with PCA on the Responsible Sports program, award winners will receive a $250 cash award, a trophy, and recognition on PCA's website and in Connector.
Award finalists will be notified in January, and winners -- chosen by a panel of college coaches -- will be announced in February.
The Double-Goal Coach Award presented by Liberty Mutual is part of PCA's National Youth Sports Awards Program sponsored by Deloitte.
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Ask PCA: Conflict With Another Family Affects My Husband and Son
We struck a nerve with last week's question about parents paying players for scoring goals. You generated near-record traffic to the blog, and opinions almost unanimously opposed payments to players.
Thanks as always for your strong-yet-civil comments! Now, this week's question:
"My husband, while coaching our son's 7- and 8-year-old football team last year, had a public disagreement with one of the parents after telling the players to stop their horseplay on the bench. That incident scared him out of coaching, even though we thought we'd resolved the conflict with the other family.
"Now, the other family has persuaded our league to place my son on a team where he does not belong, and the league has done so without even hearing our side of the story. We should have had some say. It's just not fair to my son. So what would you do? My husband wants to have a talk with the parents. Me, I wish it would all go away, and I don't want to bring any negative attention to my son. Any advice would be helpful."
-- Anonymous in Culpeper, VA
Here is PCA Director of Training and Evaluation Joe Scally in response to last week's question -- "Parents Paying Players for Scoring Goals."
The question is "Why pay kids to score a goal?" Kids love to score goals. They don't need a monetary reward to be motivated. In fact, research indicates that if a kid gets something of real value (and $5 is of real value to most 11 and 12 year olds) for doing something, they will tend to think they did it for the reward. This undercuts internal motivation. In addition, it may send the message that goal scoring is more important than the effort the whole team makes that leads up to a goal. This probably undercuts the approach the coach is taking with the team. Better to have some rewards for hustling to get a ball, passing to a teammate, or playing good defense.
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Sports Parenting Tip Excerpted from Jim Thompson's "The High School Sports Parent": Talent Trap
 Focusing on talent can be a trap.
Carol Dweck of Stanford University, author of Mindset: The New Psychology of Success (and a PCA National Advisory Board member) has identified two different mindsets that possess enormous implications for sports parents.
The first is the "fixed mindset," in which one sees one's ability as set. Either you are talented athletically or you aren't. Either you are smart or you aren't. This mindset is a dead-end because whether you succeed or not is determined by something totally outside your control.
If your teen does something well, either on the playing field or in the classroom, Dweck's research offers clear guidance on how to respond.
For example, you might say, "Wow, that was a great play. You are really good!" This focus on talent reinforces a fixed mindset and the idea that your son or daughter has little or no control over his development. A tough challenge in the future then becomes even tougher because talented people aren't supposed to be stumped by a challenge.
On the other hand, you could say, "Wow, that was a great play. You've really been working hard, and it's paying off." This reinforces a growth mindset that her good play is a result of her effort, which will more likely cause her to try harder in the future when faced with a challenge that stymies her initially.
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Support PCA
Positive Coaching Alliance is a non-profit committed to character-education though youth and high school sports. To achieve that mission, PCA relies heavily on financial support from members and donors.
Donate now and have twice the impact.
Thanks to the generosity of two anonymous family foundations, all donations made between now and December 31, 2009 to PCA's Annual Fund will be matched dollar-for-dollar up to $100,000.
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