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Sunday, January 29, 2006
Copyright © 2006 Republican-American
WATERBURY
Is the world ready for the Positive Coaching Alliance?
The headlines mount with increasing regularity as parents
attack coaches, coaches attack officials, and athletes
brawl on the field. Why has violence and mayhem become
prevalent on our playing fields?
The state's two most successful basketball programs,
the University of Connecticut men and women, have coaches
who, at times, exhibit abominable behavior on the court,
and yet are among the most admired people in the state.
They win, they are celebrated, and legions of high school
and youth coaches mimic their antics.
Whatever happened to our games being fun? Must sport
take place in a win-at-all-cost environment?
Go to a high school basketball game this week and watch
coaches rant and rave, scream at officials and scream
at kids. Ever watch a high school football practice?
Kids are cussed at and intimidated physically and emotionally.
Screaming and cussing and bullying is the only way,
we think, to motivate our children to play their best.
Can we reverse this absurd trend?
The Positive Coaching Alliance, designed by Californian
Jim Thompson in 1998, may be one
way. The first practical application of the PCA ideal
in a Connecticut high school is about to happen in Waterbury,
at Chase Collegiate School. It seems like an odd first
place since the last place where sports behavior is
an issue is at Chase.
"Admittedly, we have had a minimal number of parents
who have gone beyond the boundary of good behavior,"
said athletic director Ray Behr.
But PCA isn't just about controlling parents, or for
that matter coaches. It is an overall philosophy designed
to enrich the athletic experience, which means athletes
have more fun, perform better, learn more, and maybe
win more.
"It is called double-goal coaching," said
Sandy Larkin, the boys lacrosse coach at Chase who is
instrumental in bringing the idea forward. "The
first goal is to win. Everyone wants to win. But the
second goal is about life lessons."
It's about making sports fun again, because when the
game is fun, you try harder, perform better, and stay
in sports longer. And that third component, staying
in sports longer, is the key.
PCA promotional materials say that 70 percent of all
athletes stop playing sports by age 13. Maybe that number
is true, maybe it isn't. But we do know that kids quit
games. Some suffer from burnout, but most athletes are
lost when they cross over from cookies-and-milk youth
leagues to a higher level of competition. The kids who
play for fun begin to fall away and those hell-bent
on championships and scholarships take over.
And notice the age offered by PCA, 13. That is the
start of the high school years. The days when everyone
gets a turn, when everyone plays two innings, when everyone
gets in for at least one quarter, are over. High school
is a place where coaches lose their jobs if they fail
to win. That added level of pressure on the coaching
side cannot be overlooked. It is also the time when
parents go cuckoo. Check that, when they go more cuckoo.
So what does PCA propose to do about all this madness?
Here is what is happening at Chase. In early December
a training workshop was held for those coaches and administrators
deemed program leaders. On Feb. 28 there will be a coaches
training workshop, and by the fall there will be workshops
for athletes and workshops for parents.
In its most basic form PCA preaches this: You get more
out of your athletes, your sons and daughters, if you
treat them with respect and motivate them with positive
behavior, and you get far less out of them if you denigrate
and humiliate them during a game or practice.
Let's get even more basic here: Hey coach, stop being
a jerk.
Art Hamm, a soccer, basketball, baseball and softball
official in Connecticut, is currently being trained
to lead PCA workshops. Hamm won two state basketball
titles as a coach at Terryville High School and he admits
he could have benefited from some of these methods in
his coaching days.
"We are here to teach kids right from wrong,"
said Hamm. "Sports should be a little part of life
and a little part of education. It is a learning experience
that you want to carry over into life.
"I see an awful big need for help out there,"
Hamm adds. "Everybody is out to win, but it is
how you win. We see it all the time on TV, coaches acting
crazy and violence in the games, and it carries down.
Kids see this."
Behr underwent an epiphany at the one PCA workshop
he attended and he has made fundamental changes to his
coaching style. He has stopped screaming. He is more
positive. On the sideline he keeps his mouth shut. When
a player makes a mistake, Behr and the team raise their
arms and pull down on a figurative handle as though
they have just "flushed" away the mistake.
The team smiles more, plays better, and seems happier.
"One game we go in at halftime and normally I
would be ripping into them," said Behr. "But
now I just say let's get back to page one. We know what
we need to do."
Instead of turning away and tuning him out, the girls
make eye contact and listen. It is amazing how someone
will listen if they aren't being berated.
"I have never had so much fun coaching,"
Behr said, "and so far we're 10-1. I work just
as hard, I have the same level of expectations, and
there is still the same level of discipline.
"Of course, my parents ask me, 'Don't you care
anymore?'"
Fans and parents equate screaming with passion. "If
I don't scream, they don't listen." Ever hear a
coach say that? Hey coach, maybe it's because you don't
say anything worth hearing.
Larkin sees PCA as an important tool in youth sports
environments. It has already been adopted by Pomperaug
Lacrosse and other Southbury youth sports organizations
as an outgrowth of the Chase Collegiate initiative.
"The need is critical in youth sports, because
very often you have people volunteering and the only
coaching model they have is what they see on TV,"
notes Larkin.
Will the Positive Coaching Alliance work?
At Chase, a school of verdant pastures and student-athletes
who are truly students first, PCA will have significant
impact. But in towns where high schools are sports factories,
where student-athletes see graduation as an annoying
speed bump on the road to a Division I scholarship,
it is going to be a tough sell.
Imagine the shock if a kid takes off his or her game
face and plays with a smile instead. I don't know if
the sports world is ready for that yet. Let's take a
quick poll here: How many of you have seen a coach holler
at a kid because he or she dared to laugh or smile after
a defeat? Admit it, you all have. That coach needs a
little behavior modification, don't you think?
Hamm adds this footnote: "I wasn't proud of the
way I acted when I coached. I wish I had a second chance."
OK coach, and mom and dad too, here is a second chance
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