Tim Tebow is a great example of an effective leader for young athletes. He is hard-working, tough in the face of adversity, focused on the task at-hand, willing to sacrifice for the teammates, and encouraging. He has caught a lot of flack for being so verbal and visual with his faith in Christ. Some people admire this, while others despise it. No matter how you feel about his religious expressions, you have to admit that the guy is a leader. Show this to a kid and say, “This is how you lead.”
The Leadership of Tim Tebow
17 12 2011Comments : Leave a Comment »
Tags: Adolescence, Coaching, Maturing, Perseverence, Relationship, Resiliency, Role Models, Sacrifices, Success, Youth Sports
Categories : Adolescence, Athletics, Boys, Education, Physical Development, Relationship
Role Model Wrestler
3 08 2010Anthony Robles, is an All-American student-athlete at Arizona State University, where they describe him on their athletic website as… “one of the top high school wrestlers in the nation… won the Arizona state championship twice after finishing sixth as a sophomore… went 48-0 in each of his last two seasons…” Since high school, he has finished 4th and 7th at the NCAA Wrestling National Championship in the 125 pound division. By all accounts, he is described as humble, hard-working, studious, and friendly.
The twist to the story is that he was born with only one leg and uses crutches everywhere he goes. He can run a mile in 8 minutes on crutches and hopes to get it down to just 6 minutes. For more, check out these videos.
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Tags: Adolescence, Hard Work, Resiliency, Sports, Teens, Youth Sports
Categories : Adolescence, Athletics, Discipline, Resiliency, Role Models
Fit Kids!
24 07 2010
I’m in the midst of researching youth fitness issues, as I prepare to teach cross-country for the first time this year. My wife suggested Fit Kids! by Dr. Ken Cooper. I’ve been familiar with Dr. Cooper’s work for many years; he has a phenomenal (and massive) health clinic in Dallas. He actually invented modern aerobics. Nobody has more breadth and depth of knowledge about general fitness, in my opinion.
All that to say that this book is an excellent resource about kids’ exercise, diet, stress, and sports. He is not extreme in any way, and he bases his opinions on research, not mere experience. It’s a bit old (last updated in 1999), but I didn’t find anything that seemed dated in any way. You can buy it for under $2 from Amazon or $1 on Half.com (my favorite), so it’ll be delivered to your door for about $5. My wife and I highly recommend it, whether you are a youth sports coach, PE teacher, or a parent.
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Tags: Activities, Adolescence, Education, Growing Up, Kids, Sports, Teens, Youth Sports
Categories : Adolescence, Athletics, Education, health, Physical Development
Kindness Matters
5 05 2010Now and then, the tables are turned, and an everyday kid doing a good deed gets some attention.
Let’s all remember that there are plenty of kids out there growing up and making a difference now.
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Sportsmanship is alive
By Robert Cohen
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
It’s such an easy gesture yet it’s rarely seen…the simple act of sportsmanship.
Early in the game played on the lush fields of Westminster Christian Academy in Creve Coeur, Webster Groves lacrosse player Caroline Burk went down with a leg injury. As coach Josh Palacios ran to his player, she was already being attended to by Westminster Christians’s Danielle Pfyl. The two helped Caroline to the sidelines.
These days the act is rarely seen away from the high school playing fields.
Over the course of covering six St. Louis Cardinals games so far this season, this photographer has seen more jawing between pitchers and hitters, both demanding respect. In one instance the banter almost resulted in a bench clearing confrontation.
They could learn just a little bit from Danielle.
Read the Comments from both players here. Wonderful stuff.
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Related Post: athletics-is-a-means-to-an-end
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Tags: Adolescence, Christianity, Coaching, Encouraging, Faith, Growing Up, Kids, Maturing, Serving, Sports, sportsmanship, Youth Sports
Categories : Adolescence, Athletics, Education, Role Models, Social Development
Youth Sports is a Means to a Greater End
20 04 2010Every parent of an athletic child wonders if their kid has a shot at the big time. Well, let’s look at some hard facts related to this question. Just 2 percent of varsity high school athletes will play their sport in college, and only 1 percent will get a scholarship to do so. Let’s take basketball as an example. Roughly 1 basketball player from all the athletes from 8 high school teams will get a scholarship. How many high school basketball players make it to the professional level? 0.03% Yes, that is 3 in 10,000 who make an income playing basketball. Far less will make the big money in the NBA. And very few of them play for very long. The truth of the matter is brutal. 9,997 varsity high school players don’t ever make any money playing basketball; 3 do. Of those three, two will earn about $40,000 a year in a foreign league until younger players replace them in about five years. 1 in 10,000 will gain some fame and fortune playing ball.
So kids may dream of playing pro ball, but it’s a fantasy for all but a very, very, very few who are extraordinarily talented, extremely hardworking, and exceedingly fortunate to avoid injuries and be seen by the right people at the right time.
So, is it foolish to pursue excellence in sports in high school? Absolutely not! But it’s essential that student athletes understand that sports is a great teacher, but it’s a lousy employer (because it isn’t hiring). Athletics is a means, not an end. It can teach young people valuable lessons and instill noble character traits that are extremely useful in their careers and in their relationships.
But too many kids and parents are burdened with the belief that they can do it. They will be the next LeBron James, Roger Federer, or Albert Pujols. I say “burdened” because the overwhelming evidence says that they will not achieve anywhere near that level of success. And the result is a young life that is very often ultra-competitive, over-scheduled, and hyper-stressed. Burnout is common. Injuries can be severe (torn ACL’s and rotator cuffs among preteens are not unusual now). Resentment often looms ahead.
Stephen Durant is an expert in youth sports, and his book Whose Game Is It, Anyway? has some excellent advice for parents and coaches of great young athletes.
1. “Emphasize the development of virtue and character over scoreboard outcome. The development of a good character — the ability to control passion, emotion, and behavior — will always stand children in good stead on and off the playing field… Children, at any talent level, can only be truly successful in life if they possess good character. Becoming an emotionally balanced person of courage, fairness, self-discipline, and strong ability to work as a member of a team, sets up a person for success in any endeavor, in any place” (Durant).
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Tags: Activities, Adolescence, Balance, Education, Growing Up, Sports, Success, Youth Sports
Categories : Adolescence, Athletics, Education, Parenting, Social Development
Our Food Crisis
3 03 2010As a middle school track coach, I get the privilege of educating young athletes about the importance of eating and drinking things which will help them feel better as they practice and perform better in competition. It’s a crash course in nutrition, but I am amazed at how many of them will make real changes in their diet, based on just a little bit of education and motivation.
Jaimie Oliver is a pioneer in this area, and we all have something, if not a lot of things, to learn from him about how to help kids grow up well. This is for the benefit of all kids, not just the obese.
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Tags: Adolescence, Coaching, Education, Growing Up, health, School, Sports
Categories : Adolescence, Athletics, Education, Physical Development, Self-Discipline
Poor Sport Dad
13 02 2010My sister has two kids (10 and 13), both of whom are very athletic, and their family truly enjoys participating in and watching youth sports. We like to swap stories about our kids, and inevitably many of them are about something crazy that has happened in sports. Here is the latest…
“Last night at Hailey’s basketball game, we were playing a team we’ve beaten 3 times before, and this time they were out for blood. Never mind the obnoxious lady coach teaching her kids to throw elbows and “get ‘em!” but 
there was something even better. I loved the Dad and his teenage son, sitting right under the basket, who decided that in the second half they would wave their arms and yell and laugh while our girl was shooting a free throw. They did this twice, and then a dad from the same team went over to tell them to stop. They didn’t! It was hysterical and SAD. After the game one of our very shy moms confronted him. She told him “Good game, your girls deserved to win” and then went on to tell him how inappropriate his behavior was. You could see he was clearly shocked at this confrontation, but sadly he told her “your team has beaten our team 3 times, and we wanted to win.” These girls are third and fourth graders!”
Here are my thoughts on this scene:
A. It doesn’t shock me, although it is fairly rare to see someone THAT immature and moronic in the stands of youth sports.
B. I am so proud of the two parents who confronted him about his terrible behavior. We need more of them.
C. The referees, or the tournament director, should have stopped the game to confront him and thrown him out of the gym if he refused to stop.
D. I feel sorry for the man’s kids.
E. Like my mom said about my own baseball coach who used to lose his mind on occasions, “Kids can learn from bad examples as well as good ones, if parents talk about these things with their kids.”
In the grand scheme of things, we need to remember that youth sports is a series of kids games with referees and coaches to keep things moving along well. It’s a game. And sometimes it takes a jerk in the stands to remind us of that.
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Tags: Coaching, Youth Sports
Categories : Adolescence, Athletics
Get Out and Play!
10 02 2010Yesterday afternoon was a cold one – a great day to be inside with some hot chocolate. The wind chill was in the single digits. Four inches of snow and ice covered the ground. Inside, we were perfectly warm and dry.
There were five of us (ages 7, 11, 19, 38, 39), standing around in the kitchen eating some chips, crab dip, and cookies for an after-school snack. We were kicking around ideas of what to do for the next hour before dinner.
Option A: Watch TV (The Muppet Show on dvd) or internet videos (Super Bowl commercials)
Option B: Play a video game (Guitar Hero)
Option C: Play a board game, cards, or BananaGrams
Option D: Get all bundled up and go sledding.
Sledding seemed like the most fun but would require the most effort by far. I didn’t really want to mess with finding five sets of hats, gloves, boots, snow pants, and jackets, and the cleanup is always a hassle too. However, I thought that I really needed some exercise, so we went for it.
It was the best part of the day by far – full of danger, excitement, laughter, and fun exercise. Yes, it required a lot of preparation, some patience, some fighting against the bitter wind, and some counseling of the 7 year old. But what an experience! The picture of three kids mashed together in a big plastic sled, about to shoot down the hill, is worth a hundred times more than any kind of picture of those kids sitting in front of the television.
We all need more of this.
“Life is about being out, and experiencing it!” Tiki Barber
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Tags: Activities, Exercise, Outdoors
Categories : Adolescence, Athletics, Physical Development
Beyond Beauty and Athletics
23 01 2010Athletic talent is instant karma for the social status of any young man. In modern American mythology, the quarterback is the hero.
It’s easy for the athletically-gifted boy to be well-respected and popular because he is always among the biggest, fastest, strongest, and most coordinated boys in his grade. Anytime there is a physical contest, which is pretty much every hour of every day in a boy’s life, he succeeds. He gets picked first – maybe second – every time. And that is just the beginning of the fun. Win or lose, his God-given talent is on stage for all of his peers to see, sometimes garnering instant applause. Later, he will bask in the glory of hearing others review some great move or play he made. His friends will enter his bedroom to see a wall full of trophies, ribbons, and medals. In high school, he will see his name and picture in the local newspaper. It’s “The Life” for a boy.
For the most elite athlete, he doesn’t feel the NEED to be a good student, have a witty personality, or have great social skills. In some cases, he doesn’t even need to practice as hard as the others. He just needs to put on his shoes and go play ball and success happens because he has IT – the gift of athleticism. So, he gets self-esteem automatically, friends easily, and it can spoil him to the point where he is no longer developing in other important areas. His peers allow him to coast – and not grow up well.
And so it is with the beautiful girl. Everybody knows who she is. From the earliest age, people stare at her, trying to figure out what makes her so pretty. What’s her secret? All of her pictures turn out well because she is naturally photogenic. Her facial features are perfectly symmetrical with high cheekbones and bright eyes. Her skin is clear and bright. Her hair easily folds into the latest hairstyle, and her figure just gets better each year. She is Venus, goddess of love and beauty, who needs no decoration or modification. In modern mythology, the beautiful cheerleader is the goddess who captivates the hero.
She simply smiles politely, and everybody adores her. She doesn’t have to speak intelligently, get good grades, or have a snappy sense of humor. Her name is written on binders at school, and all eyes are on her in the halls. Read the rest of this entry »
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Tags: Beauty, Growing Up, Maturing, Media, Role Models, Sports, Success, Teens, Youth Sports
Categories : Adolescence, Athletics, Parenting, Physical Development, Social Development
Liars, Cheaters, and Role Models
1 01 2010This week on the car radio, I overheard the most obnoxious sports radio talk show host furiously ranting and raving about how corrupt professional and big college sports have become. It went something like this: “Don’t let your kids idolize anyone in sports today! It’s an ugly business, full of greediness, lying, cheating, and everything that is wrong with this world. There are no role models in sports anymore!“ To me, it was a shocking rant because his livelihood is made from talking about sports, yet there he was betraying his industry with the most extreme language. He didn’t “pull a punch” or let anyone off the hook. 
He explained with the utmost disgust that all professional and big college athletes, coaches, and executives are tainted by the money, the power, and the fame.
It troubled me as I thought of the players from my childhood who were my role models: Cal Ripken Jr., Lou Brock, John Stockton, Roger Staubach, and Walter Payton. I thought about some of the role models that I have in sports now: Peyton Manning, Kurt Warner, Albert Pujols, and others. Are they in some way corrupt too? Are they just putting on a show for the public? Or are they just the extreme minority — one of just a very few people in the sports industry who have stayed grounded in spite of all the corruption around them? Or is this radio host just off his rocker once again?
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Tags: Coaching, Growing Up, Maturing, Role Models, Sacrifices, Sports, Youth Sports
Categories : Adolescence, Athletics, Role Models, Social Development
Just Believe in Yourself
19 10 2009“Just believe in yourself, and you can achieve anything.”
“Pursue your dream, and don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t do it.”
“If you dream it, you can be it.”
Countless movies, songs, TV shows, and motivational speakers have preached this message. And countless teachers, coaches, and counselors preach the same message. Parents teach their children the same.
So, why would any young person ever doubt it? Most believe it 100% — until they experience enough reality that they realize that it’s a lie that adults tell to make children (and themselves) feel good. It’s just like the Easter Bunny, Santa Clause, and the Tooth Fairy. It’s something that feels good and right at the time, but eventually, life reveals that it’s just not true.
How many boys have spent hours each day playing basketball in the driveway because they knew that they could one day play in the NBA? How many make it? How many can even reach the simple goal of dunking? I know I tried everything to dunk, only to find that I was just not able, no matter how much I believed, how much I practiced, or how much I learned. I wasn’t good enough to play in college either. I wish someone (or several people) had told me something a lot more truthful, such as, “Quit trying to dunk and spend more time shooting because your only chance at playing in college is as a shooting guard. But don’t count on it, since the odds are extraordinarily stacked against it. Studying is much better for you than playing so much basketball.”
How many girls have spent endless hours singing in order to make it in the music business. How many make it? How many can even reach the simple goal of getting the lead part in their high school musical? How many high school musical leads get a recording contract? How many girls will be the next Miley Cyrus or Beyonce? What percentage of American Idol contestants succeed in getting fame? For millions of girls, it just doesn’t happen — no matter how much they believe in themselves and practice and learn and believe some more. It’s a fantasy.
It hinders kids to tell them that they can do whatever they put their mind to. And that’s in addition to the fact that it is a lie. It may be easy, feel-good advice, but it’s not true and it’s not helpful.
So what’s the solution?
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Tags: Activities, Adolescence, Balance, Communication, Education, Growing Up, Hard Work, Independence, Kids, Maturing, Parenting, School, Success, Teacher, Teens
Categories : Adolescence, Athletics, Education, Parenting
Being a Good Loser in Youth Sports
14 09 2009After a weekend out of town at my son’s soccer tournament, I’m a little tired of hearing, “Did you win?” It was, without question, the single-most popular question of the weekend. Even strangers in the hotel would ask my uniformed son, “Didja win?” And each time he would sadly reply, “No,” followed by an awkward silence.
For an 11-year-old boy who loves to win, it’s not easy, especially when you lose all three games. Especially when you drive 5 hours each way to make it happen.
O for 3.
Winless.
Losers.
And yet he and his teammates played so hard and so well. They did all that their coach asked them to do. They pressured the ball on defense. They stayed spread out. In particular, they passed the ball much better than all the other teams. They put together nice plays and took more shots than the other teams. They kept playing hard, giving their best – body, mind, and heart – even when knocked down over and over without a foul being called. Shot after shot would hit the goalposts or just miss the net. But then they’d give up a breakaway goal to the other team.
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Tags: Activities, Adolescence, Growing Up, Maturing, Parenting, Resiliency, Youth Sports
Categories : Athletics, Education
