Kids in Sports | Character Building | JBM Thinks

Being a softball mom is a tough job. My daughter played for 15 years–through middle school, high school and college. Has softball invaded your life too?  I truly hope if you are just beginning your softball journey, or are well into it, that you will experience as much joy from seeing your daughter play as I [...]

Last week I wrote a post about some unique ideas for cool souvenirs that your young sports enthusiast could collect. But when it comes down to momentos about your sports heroes and teams, sometimes you just have to hang it up. On the wall that is. What sports-loving kid, teenager or adult doesn’t enjoy a [...]

A couple of weeks ago, I went to a minor-league hockey game. Probably my second game ever.  I don’t know a whole bunch about the sport, so I have to be honest and say I wasn’t enthralled. My son, however, is a huge St. Louis Blues fan and he convinced me a few days later [...]

  Having two competitors in the family facing off on opposite sides of the field or court can be rather difficult on youth sports parents.   Just ask Jack and Jackie Harbaugh, parents of Jim and John, who compete this Sunday for a world championship in the Super Bowl, a.k.a. “Harbowl”. It’s been big news, [...]

Today, we celebrate the life of Martin Luther King Jr,  a man who believed that people should accept each other’s differences. Even though we’ve made progress down that road of acceptance, there are still times when we struggle with people who are different from us. You may even see the struggle in youth sports when [...]

A major component of youth sports is communication. Between coaches,kids, parents, volunteers, sponsors. Without good communication, problems arise. How would you like to have the ability to keep everyone engaged with your team? How would you like to be able to simply turn on your smart phone or ipad or computer and instantly access your [...]

Teach your children the fun and safe way to have a sports rivalry Youth sports and rivalries go hand-in-hand. The contests and the histories between teams can  unite communities and inspire athletes to do their best. But sometimes fans lose perspective and that’s when youth sports rivalries can go bad. They become marred by vandalism, [...]

At last…a resource for Sports Parents–other than a book or a blog–packed with tips, tools, and suggestions you can immediately use! I am so pumped about this blog post because I am going to tell you about an exciting new tool for sports parents! A couple of months ago, I met Jeremy Boone, author of [...]

What does it take to make a strong team? Any coach can pull 5 or 9 or 11 players together and execute an offense and a defense. And they will be a team. But will they be a strong team? Last weekend as I was watching The Avengers, I was reminded that pulling 5 people–or [...]

Should coaches get involved in sports team drama? A youth sports parent asks: Can I call coach to discuss her method of handling girl drama? I think she actually adds to it. I think it should be left off the court, but she stops practice to discuss relationships at least once per week! Same group [...]