I was reading through some of the comments on some old blog posts recently, as they are often enlightening. I came across a few comments, such as: “Are we supposed to be a competitive club, or have fun?” one coach asked. “Are we teaching these kids and demanding excellence, or giving everyone a trophy?” another…
Many years ago, when I first started Changing the Game Project, I travelled to Los Angeles to speak at a parent education day for The Brentwood School. The keynote speaker that day was psychologist and author Madeline Levine. She has written two NY Times bestsellers on parenting (The Price of Privilege and Teach Your Children…
If you are a longtime reader of this blog, you may know that my father was a firefighter on the New York Fire Department many years ago. His father was a firefighter. My brother was a firefighter. But what you may not know is that after seven years on the job, my father was badly…
It’s Tuesday, March 17, at 3pm. It has been a week since I got to watch my kids play soccer, at their final practice before the state of Oregon cancelled all group gatherings and sporting events. It has been 10 days since I watched their last games. And like all of you reading, I have…
I recently came across a great quote from the poet TS Elliot, who says “Nothing pleases people more than to go on thinking what they have always thought, and at the same time imagine that they are thinking something new and daring: it combines the advantage of security with the delight of adventure.” The quote…
People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it. And what you do simply proves what you believe. —Simon Sinek We spend the vast majority of our time in traditional coaching education learning the tools to run a great practice and coach in the competition. Intuitively, this seems to make sense. Yet…
Head to any sports field this afternoon, and you will hear whistles blaring and coaches urging on their players to work harder and compete more. You will see exhausted athletes with their hands on their knees being implored to do one more set, or a coach shout “do it again” when a rep is not…
(This article was submitted by Pete Jacobson, a varsity HS coach in New York for almost 20 years. He also works with coaches of all levels through WinSmarter to help them get better at what they do, have a greater impact and go home happy.) “When you hit your leg attacks well, you can take…
Imagine you went to your child’s algebra class and got to be a fly on the wall. Imagine the teacher was being assessed on your child’s test results in two days. Now imagine that instead of teaching your child how to problem solve, and the concepts behind doing algebra problems, she just took out the…
Dear Out of Control Sports Parent, You. Yeah, you. The one shouting “Get the rebound!!!” to your kid. The one with the heart palpitating so loudly that you cannot contain yourself. The one yelling and complaining about the coach. The one hollering at the 13-year-old referee. The one angry at my kid for making a…