How to Overcome Obstacles when Suggesting Changes to
Your Child’s Youth Sports Experience.
Many parents have emailed me agreeing with the fact that youth sports needs to be revolutionized and changed. However, despite all the ideas that have been offered on this site, and my radio show The ABC’s of Sports on Sirius Sports Central Channel 123, they don’t know how to get these ideas incorporated with their child’s league, or they are met with resistance.
Most often as a parent you are faced with what seems to be an enormous task of changing the way sports are conducted in your community. Between the politics, tradition, and the fact that most people don’t like change, you face an uphill battle to change anything.
As with any significant change it does not happen overnight. There are several things you can do now to begin changing the mindset of your youth sports community.
- Form a parent committee in your league that collects the thoughts of kids and parents on what they like and don’t like about the league. After gathering this data, share it with League Administrators and everyone else in the league (parents, kids, coaches, officials, etc.). Once you understand what everyone is feeling and experiencing you can legitimately share those findings and begin to suggest changes that directly address their concerns. Or you may find that the majority is perfectly happy and would not welcome change.
- Play games within games. If you find that others are not open to change and you still believe change is necessary, develop mini-games within the structured environment of your league that engage everyone on the team. For example, if winning a game has over-shadowed all other accomplishments, develop inner games within traditional games that provide everyone the opportunity to score points. In soccer, record both individual and team points for successful execution of fundamentals. For example, give a point for every successful pass or throw–in, two points for every successful tackle that takes a ball away from the offense, or corner kick that results in a direct kick on goal, and three points for a successful give and go pass, successful one v. one battle with the ball, or a successful direct kick on goal. The points may vary, it’s for you and the team to decide, and can be applied to any sport. The purpose here is to provide a barometer for success beyond the final score, rewarding all accomplishments on the field of play while adding excitement to every game. No longer will a 1-0 or 0-0 game seem unsatisfying.
- Make every practice fun and competitive. Many kids complain about going to practice and how bored they are at practice. In order to keep everyone’s attention, reinforce the fundamentals being taught, keep practice at a lively and fast pace, and sprinkle individual and group competitions throughout your practices. This allows every athlete to self-measure their progress rather than never knowing how well they are developing their skills.
- Start your own league. If you find that you have enough interest from other parents in changing things yet you are still running into political resistance within the administration of your current league, look into starting your own alternative league. Though it's a large task, it does allow you to provide alternative ways to teach, learn, and play a sport.
If you need additional suggestions, please email me at scott@youthevsports.com and provide us with specific details of what your issues and obstacles are, and we’ll get back to you.