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Neighborhood coaches train for positivity

By Maureen Kelleher on Monday, June 29, 2009

Cutthroat competition. Mean coaches. Disrespect toward officials and opponents.

No, we’re not talking about pro football or basketball. These are some of the factors that contribute to young people’s early disappearance from organized sports. By age 13, some 70 percent of young athletes will quit playing altogether.

Representatives from more than a dozen youth sports and community-based organizations affiliated with Neighborhood Sports Chicago came together at U.S. Cellular Field on June 16 to hear a presentation from Positive Coaching Alliance, a national organization founded at Stanford University in 1998, about coaching practices that can transform this scenario into a positive environment for youth.

"Competition itself is not bad," said presenter Jeff Ryder, who is the athletic supervisor for the Huntley Park District in McHenry County. "We want to use competition the right way to train kids in life lessons."

That message resonated with the 25 agency representatives in attendance. "He's presenting where I'm at, reinforcing the idea you always want to encourage them," said Reverend Leotis Johnson of Pilgrim Baptist Church in South Chicago.

Pilgrim Baptist has been running a summer youth program for years but is now changing the focus from simply providing a safe haven to "a skill-building, athletic emphasis" by spending two weeks on each of four sports: basketball, volleyball, soccer and tennis.

During the workshop, Ryder offered a number of practical strategies coaches can use to help players improve themselves, their teammates and the game. For example, he encouraged coaches to set effort goals and link them to outcomes.

In basketball, this could mean rather than just setting a number of rebounds each player should make in a game, start with goals for a number of box-outs (getting into position for a rebound), so players can build the skills they need to achieve the outcome. Both effort and outcome goals should be rewarded, Ryder noted.

In an exercise with the group, Ryder showed the difference between filling a player's emotional "tank" and draining it. He asked for a volunteer to come forward and pretend to be a soccer midfielder who did a great job bringing the ball into scoring position, then missed an easy goal. "Give us some tank drainers," Ryder asked the group.

They did, calling out, "You're stupid! How’d you do that? Whose team are you on, anyway? How you getting home today?"

Ryder then asked for tank-fillers, and the group responded almost as quickly. "Don’t worry, we’ll get it next time. We’ve still got your back. Stay focused. Back on D [defense]."

Based on research involving classrooms and marriages, the "magic ratio" of tank-fillers to drainers that keeps relationships happy and functioning is 5:1, Ryder said. This idea became a takeaway for Mike Robinson of In the Paint Basketball.

"There's a lot out there to drain your tank," he said. Keeping this idea in mind can help coaches remember their players are whole human beings with more in their lives than just the game. "You might have a kid who's an A student who misses a layup. You yell at him, you just ruined his whole day."

"A couple of people I work with, they tend to be explosive," said Johnson of Pilgrim Baptist Church. "I want to encourage [them] to stay positive with how they address the youth."

Another popular takeaway was the idea of having players and parents step into the role of official during practice, to build respect for officials during games.

"Having the kids officiate during practice, we've kind of done it before, but we haven't been as adamant about it as we could be. Hearing it today makes me want to push it more," said Michael Torres of Beyond the Ball.

Beyond the workshop content, those present welcomed the chance to get to know each other and network informally, as well as take a national perspective on coaching and filter it through a Chicago neighborhood lens.

"Combining that theory with what's working on the West Side of Chicago was nice to hear," said Brian Bullington of America SCORES, a program working with Little Village and North Lawndale youth that combines soccer, journalism and service learning.

In turn, Huntley had a chance to see the variety of Chicago-based programs geared to help youth become better people through sports.

"You should be held up on a pedestal for devoting so much time to that,” he told the group. “Hopefully, some of these kids will grow up to be sitting in this room, running programs in their communities."