PositiveSports.net

Study: Positive sports climate promotes better adjustment in kids and less depression

Mary Fry, associate professor of health, sport and exercise science, co-authored a study that surveyed nearly 400 kids who took part in a National Youth Sports Program athletic camp.

They found that children who strongly perceived a caring climate both regularly felt joy in positive situations and were able to properly handle negative emotions and experienced fewer instances of depression. A positive environment allows adolescents to not worry about being judged, chided, laughed at for making mistakes, not being as physically gifted as peers or being able to express emotions.

“That’s a big deal for kids,” Fry said. “When you’re in an environment where you can’t express your emotions, you tend to be more guarded. It just reinforces the important role teachers and coaches play.”

Read the full Medical Xpress article here.

 

Let Kids Play: The Positive Impact of Youth Sports

As youth sports advocates go about the business of generating and sustaining support for youth sports, it helps to have a set of educational resources for funders, sponsors, partners, administrators, coaches, and parents.   This two-page outline from Let Kids Play (a Canadian organization) concisely summarizes key benefits of youth sports.

Download this resource in pdf format...

 

As Girls Become Women, Sports Pay Dividends

Separate studies from two economists provide strong evidence that team sports can result in lifelong improvements to educational, work and health prospects for girls. 

Read the full article at the New York Times...

Introducing the Power Series

The Power Series is a new set of handout tools to help coaches and parents teach positive life skills through sports.  Each tool is a simple one-page handout based on  the life skills outlined in the Positive Youth Sports Model.  The tools are designed for athletes in any sport from middle school through high school and competitive club levels. 

Click here to learn more and download your Power Series tools

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Making the Case (Part 1): Defining the Value of Youth Sports

 By Steve Horan, PositiveSports.net

As the economy continues to sputter we are seeing youth sports budgets cut or eliminated in the school and community setting.  This is the first in a series on making the case for youth sports funding. 

Everyone involved in youth sports thinks the athletic experience is valuable.  But if you ask ten different people to describe that value, you are likely to get ten different answers.  This makes it hard to advocate for youth sports funding in a systematic way.  In this article we suggest a three terms for describing the value of youth sports: Return on Investment, Positive Youth Development, and Community Benefit.

Return on Investment

As a society we invest billions of dollars in interscholastic and community youth sports.  We do this because we expect some value in return for our investment.  What in your opinion is the 'return on investment' society receives in return for its investment in youth sports?  Be ready to state your viewpoint in terms of 'return on investment in sports' when you are advocating for funding.

It is also important to remember that every dollar spent on youth sports is a dollar not spent on something else.  This is the 'opportunity cost' of investing in youth sports versus some other alternative use of funds.  When you are advocating for funding, remember that if the decision maker in front of you is going to say ''yes' to youth sports funding, she is probably going to have to say 'no' to something else.  You need to arm that person with enough information to make that choice in favor of youth sports.

Positive Youth Development

If we were to ask a room full of youth sports advocates why we should invest in youth sports, we would get a variety of answers including 'character building,' 'health promotion,' and many more.  When advocating for youth sports funding, it is important to be able to describe the value of youth sports in clear and concise terms.  At PositiveSports.net we say that sports done well promote positive youth development in terms of school engagement, healthy living, positive character, self direction, teamwork, leadership, and community engagement.  When youth sports programs teach, enforce, affirm, and model these positive life skills, the entire community benefits. 

Community Benefit

The community benefit of youth sports is hard to measure at the individual program level.  But we do know from research that young people engaged in positive sports are more likely to be positively engaged in school, and more likely to resist many (but not all) risk behaviors. There is some research evidence that former athletes are more likely to engage in things like voluntarism and voting when they reach adulthood.  There is also practical evidence that sports bring communities together as people convene to watch sporting events and do the myriad things it takes to support youth sports programs.  Taken together, all of these factors argue for the community benefit of youth sports.

Summary

We can be stronger advocates to the extent we use clear and compelling language in making our case for youth sports funding.  The terms introduced in this article - return on investment, positive youth development, and community benefit - are tested terms which should resonate with those making decisions about youth sports budgets. When you can authentically say that 'Our sports program is worth funding because we deliver a high return on investment in terms of positive youth development and community benefit,' you will not have won the game yet, but you will be taking your best shot.

Thank you for promoting positive youth development through sports!

Making the Case (Part 2): Stating What We Teach

By Steve Horan. PositiveSports.net

As the economy continues to sputter we are seeing youth sports budgets cut or eliminated in the school and community setting.  This is the second in a series on making the case for youth sports funding. 

 

In Part 1 we suggested that we can be stronger advocates for youth sports funding in terms of positive youth development and community benefit. The next step is to define and state the life skills we aim to teach in youth sports.

 

Positive Life Skills

Positive life skills are those skills everyone needs to develop into healthy, ethical, caring, and responsible people.  In the context of youth sports, we have the opportunity to help young athletes learn many different kinds of positive life skills.  In the Positive Youth Sports Model we identify seven life skill sets which we can help young athletes develop through sports.  These are not the only life skills worth teaching to young athletes, but they are a start.  The list includes:

• School Engagement
• Healthy Living
• Positive Character
• Self Direction
• Teamwork
• Leadership
• Community Engagement

Stating the What We Teach

Defining and stating the life skills we teach puts us in better position to make our case for youth sports funding.  For example, we should be able to say:

Our sports program is worth funding because we deliver a high return on investment in terms of positive youth development and community benefit.

School Engagement. We teach our student athletes the importance of making the grade in school by setting academic goals, showing consistent attendance, demonstrating respect, fulfilling all of their assignments, and graduating on time.

Healthy Living.  We teach our student athletes to practice healthy habits of nutrition, training, rest, risk avoidance, and stress management.

Positive Character.  We teach our student athletes the importance of positive character including honor, spirit, courage, perseverance, and resilience.

Self Direction.  We teach our student athletes the importance of self direction including self-motivation, self-initiative, self-discipline, emotional self-restraint, and self-directed learning.

Teamwork. We teach our student athletes positive teamwork including commitment, responsibility, contribution, collaboration, and flexibility.

Leadership.  We teach our student athletes how to become positive leaders leaders by modeling the way, working with others to get things done, inspiring each other when things get tough, promoting team unity, and reaching out to help a teammate in need. 

Community Engagement. We teach our student-athletes the importance of giving back to their community by becoming involved in community service as individuals and as a team.

If we do not feel comfortable or authentic in describing our program in these terms (or similar terms), we are not alone.  It is in the nature of all organizations, not just youth sports programs, that we do not always live up to our aspirations.  You can get started by writing down your own vision of the life skills you aim to teach as a coach or program director.  Then engage your colleagues in a discussion about what you aim to teach as a program.

 

 

Life Balance: Research suggests youth need more than sports for positive growth

U.S. News and World Report reports on research from Tufts University suggesting that youth involved in sports plus other non-athletic after school activities gain more positive growth than youth involved in sports alone.  This finding provides more evidence that we serve our athletes best when we encourage life balance.

Click here to read the full article.

New Research on Organized Sports and Educational Outcomes

Can participation in youth sports help kids achieve better educational outcomes?  The answer is yes - in the right circumstances.  Ann Rosewater has prepared a concise summary of the latest research on organized sports and educational outcomes.  Published by Team-Up for Youth, this brief report can help you strengthen your program and make the case for funding in these challenging economic times. 

Click here to download the pdf version of the report.

The Power of Recognizing Role Players

One of the most important things a coach can do to build team unity is to publicly recognize role players who may lack the physical talent to win a starting role but are extremely important to the team.  It is even better when the athletes themselves recognize the value of their teammates.

 

In this short video. 2006 Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year winner Greg Schiano talks about the challenge of fillng the tanks of players who see limited playing time. Listen as Coach Schiano describes how he and his team kept the tank full for a walk-on, second-string quarterback on the Rutgers Football team.

The Lasting Value of a Good Coach

By Steve Horan

 

A good coach can influence an athlete for a lifetime

 

Coaching is one of the greatest vocations to which anyone can aspire.  Regardless of whether they are paid or a volunteer, full-time or part-time, coaches have the opportunity to elevate young people in a lasting way.  This opportunity is grounded in the educational value of sports, and the distinctive role of the coach as teacher, leader, and role model. What coaches do with this opportunity will determine their impact on their athletes and their value as a coach.

 

The Educational Value of Sports

 

Sports provide a distinctive classroom for educating young people. For one thing, sports require a wide range of personal competencies.  Successful athletes need not only athletic ability, but also healthy lifestyles, positive character, self direction, teamwork, and leadership.  For another thing, sports provide immediate and public feedback on performance.  It is hard to think of anywhere else in society where young people get to apply such a diverse array of skills in a such a public setting.  That's why organized sport is perhaps the most powerful vehicle we have for teaching young people positive competitive values in a team environment. We do not always live up to that potential, but the potential is still there.

 

The Power of a Coach

 

Coaches hold tremendous power over young people.  Coaches are teachers, leaders, mentors, and role models.  Coaches decide who plays, where they play, and how much they play.  Coaches also decide who gets taught, what they get taught, and how they get taught.  It is hard to think of anyone in society, outside of parents and the media, who holds this much power over young people.  Some coaches use this power to lift kids up.  Other coaches use this power to tear kids down.  Anyone who has been around youth sports has seen both kinds of coaches.  This is why athletes and parents value good coaches so much.

 

The Value of a Good Coach

 

Good coaches use their power to elevate their athletes.  They coach everyone on the team, not just a chosen few.  They care about their athletes as people, not just performers.  They relate to their athletes with trust and respect.  They want their athletes to do well, and they will do anything they can to help their athletes reach the next level.  They show idealism, enthusiasm, determination, dedication, concern, compassion, and a love of the game.  They, like their athletes, make mistakes.  But they always try to do their best for their athletes. 

 

The value of good coaches is reflected in their athletes. Most former athletes can tell stories about how a good coach changed their life.  The stories are not about how a coach taught the pick and roll, hit and run, breast stroke, open-field block, or scissor kick.  They are about lessons learned in character, self direction, teamwork, and leadership.  Or about how a coach helped them change their self-image from someone who 'couldn't' to someone who 'could.'  The stories usually involve a coach who was not perfect, but truly cared.  

 

If you have had a good coach in your life, or in your child's life, today is a good day to say a simple 'thanks.'  That's all a good coach needs to keep teaching those positive life lessons that change so many lives.