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Positive Coaching Alliance Connector
September 8, 2010
David Jacobson, Editor |
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Coaching Tip: Help Youth Athletes Achieve Effort Goals
"Effort Goals" are key for coaches who are striving to keep their athletes focused on improvement. In the framework of PCA's "ELM Tree of Mastery" (where ELM stands for Effort, Learning and Mistakes are OK), youth athletes who expend maximum effort can consider themselves "winners" no matter what the scoreboard says. That is because the habit of maximum effort will pay off in many ways, in sports and beyond, throughout their lives.
Coaches who help their athletes set and achieve effort goals give them something to strive toward that is completely within their control, such as how often and how hard they chase every loose ball. Free of attachments to scoreboard results -- which are subject to much the athlete can't control, such as the quality of competition, officiating, weather, injuries and other bad breaks -- athletes can focus on maximum effort. Often, that approach will lead to improved scoreboard results, too!
You can click the video screen above, part of the Liberty Mutual Responsible Sports Program Powered by Positive Coaching Alliance, to see PCA Trainer Molly Hellerman introduce effort goals to her youth soccer players.
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Ask PCA: When Coaches Poach
Thanks for your answers to our most recent "Ask PCA" question from an organization that is considering required mentor coach counseling for coaches who struggle to uphold the organization's Positive Coaching culture. To review that question and PCA's answer, you can continue scrolling through this item, but for now, consider this week's question:
What Can I Do When Coaches Poach My Players?
"I coach girls in 6th to 8th grade. Each year, not even a month into our season, a local high school coach invites our better players to a club team tryout that is held before our season is over. I have a real problem the way they aggressively recruit our girls, sometimes inviting 4th- and 5th-graders to play. Anybody have any input on how to handle it?" -- Name Withheld
Following is the previous "Ask PCA" question and PCA's response: "We have had problems with a handful of coaches who have taken PCA courses, but who remain resistant to change, aggressive toward kids and maintain their win-at-all-cost approach. Rather than just releasing these coaches, our board has discussed requiring that they undergo one-on-one counseling, at their own expense, perhaps with a mentor coach. What is PCA's view of that approach?"
PCA Response by Jim Thompson, Founder and Executive Director
This is similar to a coach who asks what he can do with a player who doesn't get with the culture of the team, obey the rules, etc. The fastest and most effective way to deal with the problem is to get his attention by sitting him on the bench. And let him know that he earns playing time back when he exhibits specific behaviors you want to see, such as filling teammates' Emotional Tanks.
A coach can do this without getting angry, in a matter-of-fact way that communicates that he'd really like to see the player improve his good-teammate skills so he can play again. Many coaches don't want to do this. Perhaps because reducing that player's playing time will hurt the team on the scoreboard. But it's an effective method of improving a player's behavior.
Similarly, if a league wants a coach to behave differently, it could put the coach on probation, especially with a message (if truthful) along the lines of, "We'd love to have you continue coaching with us because you have so much to offer, but we need you to change in these ways...."
I suspect your organization has not yet taken this step because the coaches in question are good technically and do well on the scoreboard. But if the leaders of the organization want a positive, Double-Goal Coaching� culture there, they can't compromise on how coaches treat players.
Mentor Coaching can help. That's part of the reason PCA created its Mentor Coach Institute. Whether or not you combine a Mentor Coach approach with probationary measures to help your coaches improve, a symbolic first example can get the attention of the other coaches.
If a particularly bad example of a coach is fired, suspended, put on probation or the like, it will send a signal to the rest that the leaders mean business. If nothing except talk has happened in response to bad behavior, the coaches engaging in the bad behavior likely assume that they can keep doing what they are doing.
Read all the Ask PCA blog comments on this question.
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What Is Your Back-to-School Resolution?
With just about every school now in session, Friday Night Lights shining, college football kicked off and the new PCA Connector flag flying its fall colors, we thought this would be a good time to consider some back-to-school resolutions.
Reading advance copy from Jim Thompson's upcoming book for high school athletes -- Elevating Your Game: Becoming a Triple-Impact CompetitorTM -- which emphasizes the importance of having a "teachable spirit," I personally am inspired to add to my coaching education.
Writes Jim: "Someone with a Teachable Spirit is a sponge. A sponge seems like a lowly thing, but what gives sponges a form of nobility is how they soak stuff up and grow in the process. Triple-Impact Competitors are sponge-like, ever hungry to learn, constantly on the lookout for ideas, tools, inspirational quotes, anything that will make them better."
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