Kids in Sports | Character Building | JBM Thinks

If your child has played for a team that suffered through youth sports coaching drama, then you know just how frustrating it can be. Any of these sound familiar? The coaches don’t get along with each other The head coach fires assistants who know more about the sport than he does The coaches have no [...]

There’s much discussion among the youth sports pundits about whether travel ball is good for young athletes. But from what I can tell, it’s not going away any time soon. If your child is entrenched in the world of travel sports, then your weekends are not your own and there is a very good chance [...]

Good parenting is really a journey of letting go of our kids, one step, one day, one year at a time. It’s very hard to do. I’m still struggling and my kids are 19,22, and 25. I think I may die struggling with this. Although this video is rather simplistic in its approach of releasing [...]

Last month, I talked about  the parenting  skills it takes to discern why your child may be bossy.   Hopefully, you’ve been able to spend some time thinking about it and maybe putting your finger on a reason. Now, the question is, what parenting skills can you use to help your child stop being so [...]

Kids who play youth sports spend hours and hours practicing and playing the game.  If you step back and look at life as a whole, do you see sports for kids as a waste of time? One old guy who came into my husband’s work place does. His comment to my husband in one of [...]

Have you heard about the move to do away with scoreboards in youth sports? Richard Way, the project lead for Long-Term Athlete Development (LTAD) with Canadian Sport for Life, says competitive sports do nothing to build self-esteem and positive sportsmanship. He feels that if we remove the focus on winning, players will stay engaged longer. Read [...]

Today is Earth Day and a good time to remember that we can look for ways to go green in youth sports. Cut down on water bottle waste by buying a sturdy,  stainless steel reusable water bottle and refilling it. Fill up a Gatorade cooler with water and let the kids fill their bottles. If you [...]

    What do you say to a 10-year-old in youth sports if that 10-year-old is you? The makers of this video challenged people to write a letter to their 10-year-old self. Their remarks enforce the fact that hindsight is very 20/20.   If you had to write a letter to your 10-year-old self, the [...]

Parenting your young athlete through his youth sports experience should not be done randomly.  Start now to help your child set goals. What those goals are depends solely on your child, on his desires, on his dreams, and on his skills. Combine his desires with a dose of parental realism–deeming what goals are worthy and [...]

Hang around any spring youth sports event and you will hear and see parents who are making April fools of themselves. You know what I’m talking about. You’ve seen it. You may have even contributed to it. Parents yelling negative comments to players and coaches. Parents being way too hard on their kids. Parents obsessing [...]