Sports for Your Child

Unless your child is at an age where the score of the game isn’t tracked, winning counts and losing hurts.  The original quote was “It’s not whether you win or lose, but how you play the game.”  I believed this for a long time, but as I found out in my first year of coaching, losing is not fun at all.  I would prefer if the quote went like this “It matters if you win and how you play the game.”

The funniest quote that I read on the subject was “It’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how you place the blame” by Oscar Wilde.  I also read a witty comment that the person who originally said “It’s not whether you win or lose, but how you play the game” obviously lost a lot.

Getting back to my first year in coaching; my best friend at the time had a vision where kids could play to have fun whether they won or lost.  We went 1-7 and, believe me, when you see kids crying in the huddle you know they’re not having fun.  That was when I realized that if you want kids to have a lot of fun in sports you have to each them how to win.

You can’t go out on the field and play to win, either.  The best way to win is to work hard and smart and then focus on execution.  If you focus on winning only your eye is on the outcome, and not the moment.  The best teams are focused entirely on the ‘moment in time’ and that moment continually moves forward.  If players continually focus on the present, they can’t possibly beat themseleves up for making a bad play.  This is the best way to have a ’short memory’.

Work hard and smart, train diligently, focus on the moment and you stand a great chance of winning.

Happy July 4th weekend, everybody.

Rich Rosdal Coaches Corner, Parents Parlor, Player's Panacea focus, lose, moment, outcome, present, team, win

The last blog was about looking at losing in youth sports as a lesson in life.

Today we’ll look at the flip side of the coin:

• What it takes to win
• The drawbacks of the most competitive levels of youth sports
• The casualties associated with winning

You, as parents and coaches must decide the level of competition in which you want to be involved. If you want to compete at the highest levels, this article is for you.

Winning requires a team effort, not only on the field, but in preparation for the task at hand. Herculean effort in a game, alone, is not enough for a team to win. For every hour of play there must be a considerable amount of time allotted for practice. Teams must work in tandem to be successful and it all starts with focused, organized practices. In every practice, there are several ingredients that should be included:

• Slow Jog
• Dynamic Stretching
• Skill Building
• Understanding of Plays
• Repetition of Plays
• Scrimmaging
• Conditioning
• Goal Setting

Of course, there are other facets of a game that a coach can cover in practice, but a smattering of those mentioned above are usually included in practices.

Attitude is extremely important if you want to win. There must be a common understanding of the team goals. Players should be encouraged to be positive and to strive for mastery of their position.

Winning, like everything else in life has some drawbacks. There will be times when a child will have hurt feelings. This is necessary for the child to grow. Of course, some coaches will be more positive than others, but even the most positive coach will have to communicate very clearly for the player to grow. As with losing, hurt feelings sometimes make us try harder.

Committing to a winning team means that losing is possible. Winning teams need to use losses, or potential losses as a motivating factor in their preparation. A loss is not the end of the world but, sometimes, it sure feels that way.

All of the items mentioned above are important, but conditioning is critical. A tired player in the fourth quarter of a football or basketball game will just not work hard enough to win. Work the players hard and when you think it’s enough, work them more for good measure.

Unfortunately, sometimes kids don’t make the grade, which brings us to the casualties of winning. A player who is not contributing on a winning team will receive diminished PT (playing time). Unfortunately this creates a vicious cycle. The player must play to get better and the player must get better to play. On occasion, it’s a good idea to drop the player to a lower level of competition so that they can get more playing time. Both of my children had such experiences at younger ages and now play at the highest level of competition for their ages.

Winning is much better than losing, but it ain’t perfect.

We’re interested in your opinion on this subject. Please feel free to comment.

Rich Rosdal Coaches Corner, Parents Parlor attitude, competitive, lesson, life, lose, sports, win, youth