The question this week comes from Michael via email. “I’m new to the club and still getting to know the players. I have one U14 player who is unhappy and doesn’t appear to be getting along with team mates and it’s starting to affect training sessions. How would you handle this situation?” Your Turn: Ask PDP Anything Do you have a coaching question that we might be able to help with? We would love to hear from you! Here’s what you can do: 1. Tweet your…
parents
How can parents and coaches help young players overcome a perfectionist mindset? Chief Content Officer at Changing the Game Project, Reed Maltbie shares a fantastic article around some of the modern challenges parents and coaches face with perfectionism on the rise in a status-driven society. Recently, Changing the Game Project received a question that we get often, so we thought it would make a great blog: “I was wondering if you could provide some advice. My son is 8 years old and plays on a…
Sideline support and direct instruction are two very different things. In this article, Founder of Working with Parents in Sport, Gordon MacLelland discusses the damage that can be caused from parents overstepping and instructing children while they play. Every weekend all over the world millions of parents, children and coaches set off for their weekly sporting ritual ‘Match Day’. Many will follow the same process each week and will never question their routine or behaviour. Many of these parents and coaches are well intentioned, trying…
The question this week comes from Sean: “Many of the parents in my team are exceptionally vocal, often coaching the players from the sideline and contradicting the ideas that I am working with in my group. Do you have any advice as to how I can deal with this?” Your Turn: Ask PDP Anything Do you have a coaching question that we might be able to help with? We would love to hear from you! Here’s what you can do: 1. Tweet your questions to us @playerdp,…
In this Masterclass Discussion, PDP Editor, Dave Wright is joined by Gordon MacLelland, the Founder of Working with Parents in Sport. Gordon and Dave dive into a discussion which includes practical advice for parents on how to support their children in sport, how clubs can better engage with parents, how to manage the car ride home and much more. Gordon has vast coaching and teaching experience and this discussion is essential viewing for coaches and clubs looking to better understand parental influence in youth sport….
In this article, Founder of Working With Parents in Sport, Gordon MacLelland shares a challenging article on the dangers of adults hijacking the youth sport experience, and how parents can ensure their children own the experience. Whose game is it anyway? In many ways a simple question to answer, but one that despite what we may say as parents and sometimes as coaches, is not always backed up by the behaviours that we display on a regular basis. In the cold light of day we…
Ase Strandbu, Kari Stefansen, Ingrid Smette, and Morten Rensio Sandvik The Big Idea “Involved parenthood” in organized youth sports is what these Norwegian researchers are attempting to better understand. Child-centered parenting they note—using the United States as an example—is still evolving since its early cultural development in the 1960s. Organized youth sport in those days was in its infancy, preceding the appearance of involved parents. On a personal note, this reviewer—who is from the U.S.—recalls his early childhood sporting days in the 1960s, and happily…
C. Ryan Dunn, Travis Dorsch, Michael Q. King, and Kevin Rothlisberger The Big Idea The estimates in the United States vary. But anywhere between 24 and 44 million children between the ages of 5 and 17 participate in organized youth sports. The measurement discrepancy is due to the wide-ranging framing of the demographics, geographies, and organizational structures. Let’s just say there is a glut of kids at play in the U.S. today, organizationally speaking. On the one hand, there is good reason for this popular…