This article caught our attention when we read on Mike Boyle's Blog

Please, please read and share this.

Coaches and parents are the problem in youth sports but, they also are the solution. Be a better, smarter, more informed parent. Be a better, smarter, more informed coach. - Mike Boyle

The Article Mike was writing about is...

The Enemy of Excellence in Youth Sports

... and is well worth the time to read. We agree with Mike. This is one of the best articles on Youth Training we've ever read.

Here are a few take away's from it...

Parents:

  • Start educating yourselves on the organizations you are a part of, and the science of athletic development, performance, and child psychology (click here to grab my eBook on this topic). So many parents are allowing their kids to be short changed, led by lousy role models, and even bullied, in order to win a $10 trophy or two.
  • Start letting your kids compete with other kids like you used to as a child, and stop competing with other adults though your kids (and posting the results on Facebook and Instagram).
  • Stop worrying about winning and find better ways to measure the success of your child’s sports program!
  • Please demand that your schools and youth sports clubs hire transformational coaches who value your child and treat him or her with the respect and dignity they deserve in victory and defeat, and then support those coaches!
  • Say something, share this article, tell one person, do anything to make a difference
  • Your money talks, so have the courage to speak up and walk when your kids are not being served.

Coaches: 

  • For those of you who are doing it right, developing athletes and teaching them about sport and life, keep doing what you are doing. I know how hard it is to be a teacher, mentor and trusted ally of your athletes these days, but we need you more than ever. Don’t give up!

  • For those of you who are in it simply for the paycheck and/or your ego, and go around trophy hunting and churning through kids to serve yourself, ask yourself this simple question posed to me by a legendary swimming coach I once met: “How can you be disloyal to a sport that is giving you a life?” You drive kids out of a game you claim to love, and you give a bad name to a vocation that you have turned into a profession. Please change, or please find something else to do, but don’t coach.

By: John O’Sullivan

Source: http://changingthegameproject.com/the-enemy-of-excellence-in-youth-sports/

Read this article - It's worth the time!