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Responsiblesports.com – Parents and Coaches Not Always on Same Page

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Results for a survey conducted by responsiblesports.com showed that parents and coaches sometimes have different priorities about competitiveness, parent behavior, concussions, and parent involvement.

What are parents looking for in a coach?

  • 77% of parents place high importance on their child’s coach being a caring person.
  • 59% of parents place high importance on their child’s coach being skilled in that sport.

How important is the scoreboard?

  • Three of four parents say a primary reason they placed their in youth sports was fun.
  • About 36% of coaches say they have dealt with parents who had unreasonable expectations about winning.

How much emphasis should be placed on competitiveness? Responsiblesports.com gives tips that keep players, parents, and coaches from getting yellow cards.

Elementary school kids

  • 58% parents
  • 76% coaches

Middle school kids

  • 78% parents
  • 86% coaches

High school kids

  • 88% parents
  • 91% coaches

Coaches place a slightly greater emphasis on competitiveness.

How do parents behave in the stands?

  • 40% of coaches say they have experienced parents yelling negatively at other kids.
  • 44% of coaches say they have experienced parents yelling negatively at officials.
  • 55% of coaches say they have experienced parents yelling negatively at their own kids.
  • 39% of coaches say they have experienced parents yelling at them.

How do parents and youth athletes feel about concussions?

  • 82% of parents say they are concerned about the risk of concussions as a result of sports.
  • 47% of parents say concussions factored into the decision over which sport their child would play.
  • 35% of youth athletes are likely to raise a concern about concussions with their coach.
  • 12% of youth athletes are likely to raise a concern about concussions with their parents.

How involved are parents?

  • Nine of 10 parents claim to be involved by attending practices and games.
  • 46% of coaches say they experience problems with parents’ lack of involvement.

The responsiblesports.com website is sponsored by Liberty Mutual and it educates parents and coaches about key concepts for instructing young athletes. This information will help parents and coaches better manage their expectations and ensure that the athletes have a more productive learning experience.

Note: the information from the responsiblesports.com website remains relevant, but  the website is no longer active (2015).

Are Your Kids in a Responsible Sports Program?

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Are you a parent looking for a program that has the right coach for your son or daughter? Are you a parent thinking about coaching your kid’s sports team and you want to be a better coach? Are you a parent looking for tips about how to maximize your children’s sports experience?

The website responsiblesports.com was developed to provide parents and coaches with information about how kids can learn valuable life lessons from sports when they are in an environment that promotes and displays responsibility.

The website provides tips for both parents and coaches about:

  • Goal setting
  • Sports safety
  • How to talk to athletes about their performance
  • ELM (Effort, Learning, Mistakes)
  • Managing emotions
  • Honoring the game
  • Teaching kids how to work with coaches
  • The coach and parent relationship
  • The coach and athlete relationship.

The website is sponsored by Liberty Mutual and features resources such as videos, articles, and podcasts on a variety of sports related topics. In addition, parents and coaches have an opportunity to take a quiz that tests their knowledge of these essential topics.

Any parent who has children in sports programs will find information on the website that can make their children’s sports experience even more valuable.

Note: The information from responsiblesports.com remains relevant; however the website is no longer active  (2015).

American Junior Girls Have Solid Performance at U.S. Open – Boys Performance is Subpar

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The Americans had a strong contingency of junior players with 16 boys and 15 girls in the 64 draws.

Junior Girls

First-round losers for the American girls included:

  • Usue Maitane Arconada
  • Jamie Loeb
  • Raveena Kingsley
  • Johnnie Renaud
  • C. Quellet-Pizer

Ten American girls advanced.

In the round of 32, the following six players were defeated:

  • Christina Makarova
  • Claire Liu
  • Kaitlyn McCarthy
  • Brooke Austin
  • Katerina Stewart
  • Peggy Porter

Four American girls advanced.

In the round of 16 Michaela Gordon and Catherine Bellis were ousted.

Louisa Chirico lost in the quarterfinals.

Tornado Alicia Black dropped a third set tiebreaker in the finals.

Overall, the American girls won 18 matches and lost 15.

There is mixed news in these results. Eleven of the fifteen girls lost in the first two rounds. Chirico exited earlier than expected and Black had a stronger than anticipated performance.

There are a group of American junior girls who have potential to be difference makers on the WTA Tour. At the same time, there are a number of strong foreign players who are equally as talented.

Junior Boys

The performance of the American boys was subpar.

Of the 16 American boys entered, 10 lost their first round match:

  • Taylor Harry Fritz
  • Tommy Paul
  • Alex Rybakov
  • Francis Tiafoe
  • Reilly Olpeka
  • JC Aragone
  • Luca Corinteli
  • Jared Donaldson
  • Stefan Kozlov
  • Ernesto Escobedo

Only 6 of the 16 American boys advanced.

In the round of 32, Daniel Kerznerman and Noah Rubin were defeated. Four American boys advanced.

In the round of 16 Martin Redicki, Mackenzie MacDonald, and Cage Brymer were ousted. Only one player advanced.

Collin Altamirano was defeated in the quarterfinals.

The 16 American boys won 11 matches and lost 16. Twelve of the sixteen boys lost in the first two rounds and only one player reached the quarterfinals.

While the American boys are incredibly talented, as a group they have not fared well against their foreign competitors. The USTA Player Development program appears to be ineffective, particularly in developing world-class male players, i.e. players capable of winning Grand Slams.

 

U.S. Open 2013 – Serena Delivers Again

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There were high expectations for the American women at the 2013 U.S. Open.

  • Would Serena continue to dominate?
  • Was Venus capable of advancing in the singles bracket?
  • Would Sloane Stephens continue to make her mark on the big stage?
  • Would other up and coming players (Madison Keys, Victoria Duval, Jamie Hampton, Mallory Burdette, or Sachia Vickery) have a breakthrough tournament?

The American women had a solid start as 10 of the 19 women won first round matches. First-round losers included:

  • Grace Min
  • Mallory Burdette
  • Nicole Gibbs
  • Maria Sanchez
  • Varvara Lepchenko
  • Lauren Davis
  • Vania King
  • Madison Keys
  • Shelby Rogers

Half of the remaining women advanced to the second round (64). Second-round losers included:

  • Sachia Vickery
  • Victoria Duval
  • Venus Williams
  • Coco Vandeweghe
  • Bethanie Mattek-Sands

Five women advanced.

Jamie Hampton and Christina McHale were the only two women to lose in the third round (32).

Three women advanced.

In the round of 16 Serena Williams thumped Sloane Stephens and Daniela Hantuchova ended Alison Riske’s unexpected run.

Williams was also convincing in her quarterfinal and semifinal matches. Her only challenge came from Victoria Azarenka in the finals. Williams captured her fifth U.S. Open and 17th Grand Slam.

Combined, the American women won 22 matches and lost 18. In 2013 Williams was virtually unbeatable in the Grand Slams, but her days as the top women’s player are numbered. But there is hope for the American women. Despite losing badly to Williams, Stephens showed she is a player to be reckoned with and Riske showed potential.

The next generation of Grand Slam champions and WTA frontrunners includes a group of talented young American women. Unfortunately, it also includes a group of equally talented women from other countries who will be vying for the top spots.

 

Hope and Change – American Men Out with a Whimper at U.S. Open

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Hope and change were on the minds of the 15 American men who entered the 2013 U.S. Open. There was hope their fortunes would change and they would have a better outing than in previous Grand Slams.

Unfortunately, the American men combined to win 11 matches while losing 15. In the first round there were 8 winners. The 7 first-round losers included:

  • Brian Baker
  • Steve Johnson
  • James Blake
  • Michael Russell
  • Collin Attamirano
  • Rhyne Williams
  • Ryan Harrison.

There was hope that James Blake would end his 13 year career by playing deep into the draw. Unfortunately, he lost a five-set match in the first round. Though he was never a Grand Slam winner, he was a world class competitor and a great representative of U.S. tennis. He will be missed.

Second round (round of 64) losers included:

  • Rajeev Ram
  • Donald Young
  • Denis Kudia
  • Bradley Klahn
  • Sam Querrey

Only three men moved to the third round (round of 32).

Third round losers included Tim Smyczek, Jack Sock, and John Isner. In other words, no American men advanced to the round of 16.

For the second consecutive Grand Slam the American men went out with a whimper.

If there is to be hope for improvement in American men’s tennis, it will be necessary for change to occur in the philosophy and management of the USTA Player’s Development program.

Lola and Sir Germs-A-Lot – The Importance of Children’s Dental Care

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There is a tendency for people to overlook the health of their teeth, gums, and mouth because other conditions and diseases, such as obesity, diabetes, or heart problems, capture the headlines or seem more serious.

Healthy teeth and gums are closely tied to our overall health in a variety of ways. Most obviously, chewing and swallowing food is necessary for us to receive proper nutrition. As well, good dental health can help self-esteem and proper speech. If teeth are not properly maintained, dental diseases or repair can be costly and time consuming.

As well the “Issue Briefs on Challenges for the 21st Century: Chronic and Disabling Conditions” reports the following:

  • Tooth decay remains the most common chronic disease among children ages 5-17 with 59% affected.
  • More than 51 million hours of school are lost each year by children due to dental related illness.
  • Just 40% of children in poor or near-poor poverty level had a preventive dental visit in the past year.

With this in mind, Inna Horvath, dentist/dental hygienist, made presentations to her daughters’ elementary school to encourage proper brushing and dental hygiene. As part of her presentation, she told a story about a little girl, named Lola, who was convinced by a group of friends that it wasn’t necessary to brush her teeth. Sir Germs-A-Lot paid Lola a visit and it wasn’t long before she developed cavities. A trip to the dentist and regular brushing solved the problem.

The kids loved the story!

Anytime Horvath visited her daughters’ campus students would come up to her and tell her that they were properly brushing their teeth. These comments prompted Horvath to put the story of Lola in writing, Lola and Sir-Germs-A-Lot.

Additional information can be found on the Amazon, Barnes and Noble or Xlibris websites.

The story of Lola and Sir Germs-a-Lot will motivate kids to brush their teeth.
The story of Lola and Sir Germs-a-Lot will motivate kids to brush their teeth.

 

Little by Little – Students from the Academy Raise Funds for Child in Hand

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In the fall of 2012 Tracy Stalls, Tayyiba Haneef-Park, and Tom Hogan gave a series of volleyball clinics in the Denver Metro area to promote the sport of volleyball, increase awareness of the damage done by the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, and to raise funds for Child in Hand (CIH) to support efforts in that country.

A volleyball player from the Academy of Charter Schools in Westminster was so inspired by the clinic that she met with Stalls and school counselor Katy Batchelder to discuss ways the students at her school could help CIH. As a result of that discussion the 7th grade student council conducted  a series of fundraisers throughout the year to raise funds and increase awareness of the damage done by the earthquake in Haiti. The events included bake sales, popcorn sales, and a car wash on the last day of school.

The bottom line – the 7th grade student council raised about $900 for CIH. There were winners on the volleyball court, at the Academy, and in Haiti!

 

Is a Division II Championship on Tap for the Campus in the Sky

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This past football season marked the 49th year that Fort Lewis College fielded a football team as a four-year college. Over that period they have won one conference championship and were victors in 32%, 152-322-3, of their games. On the field, they are the Chicago Cubs of Colorado football.

Earlier this year school leaders decided that it was time to enter the college athletics arms race by hiring former Arkansas football coach John L. Smith to head their program. Smith is reportedly being paid $67,000 a year to hunt, fish, ski, and coach football in Durango. (This is in line with FLC’s unofficial tagline, “Ski FLC and get a degree on the side”.)

This past summer Smith was interviewed for an article, “Mr. Smith Comes to Durango,” in The FLC Foundation Report – Summer 2013. In that piece Smith, outlined his three-step blueprint for bringing a Division 2 National Championship to the Campus in the Sky. The steps are:

  1. Recruit players from all of Colorado and parts of New Mexico, Utah, and Arizona. Oh, and don’t forget to include Amarillo and Dallas. He also plans to focus on Native American tribes across the country. The coach indicated that it is important to recruit from within the region, so parents can get to Durango easily to watch their kids play.
  2. Provide a stable base for players by maintaining a quality and consistent coaching staff.
  3. Refine and upgrade facilities, in particular a an artificial turf, better stadium lights, and more weight rooms. FLC’s stadium holds 3,000 people and historically has more empty seats than spectators.

Smith pointed to the importance of academics because Division II players have a smaller chance of playing professionally. In other words, the need for a degree is much greater for FLC athletes than those at Division I schools.

The article sounds like spin that has been manufactured to justify the decision to hire Smith. Hopefully it will prove to be a decision that benefits the students and the college. Go Skyhawks!

Rafa – A Guide to Mental Toughness

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The book, Rafa, written by John Carlin in 2011 takes a look at the mental toughness that has made Rafael Nadal the most dominant clay court player in the history of the sport. Specifically, it talks compares Nadal’s mindset in the finals of the 2007 and 2008 Wimbledon.

The following quotes from the book provide a sampling of Nadal’s mental state on the court.

  • Because what I battle hardest to do in a tennis match is to quiet the voices in my head, to shut everything out of my mind but the contest itself and concentrate every atom of my being on the point I am playing. If I made a mistake on a previous point, forget it; should’ve thought of victory suggest itself, crush it. 
  • I always dreamt of playing here at Wimbledon. My uncle Toni, who has been my coach all of my life, had drummed into me from an early age that this was the biggest tournament of them all. By the time I was 14, I was sharing with my friends the fantasy that I would play here one day and win. 
  • But my defeat in 2007 (in the Wimbledon finals), which went to five sets, left me utterly destroyed. I knew I could have done better, that it was not my ability or the quality of my game that had failed me, but my head. And I wept after that loss, I cried incessantly for half an hour in the dressing room.
  • Losing always hurts, but it hurts much more when you had your chance and threw it away. I have beaten myself as much as Federer had beaten me; I had let myself down and hated that. I had flagged mentally. I had allowed myself to get distracted; I had veered from my game plan. So stupid, so unnecessary. 
  • Tennis against a rival with whom you are evenly matched, or whom you have a chance of beating, this all about raising your game when it’s needed. A champion plays at his best not in the opening rounds of the tournament but in the semi-finals and the finals against the best opponents; the greatest champion plays at his best in a Grand Slam final.  
  • I also know that, most probably, the balance of poorly chosen or poorly struck shots would stand at close to fifty-fifty between us by the time it was all over. That is in the nature of tennis, especially with two players so familiar with each other’s game as Federer and I are. You might think that after the millions and millions of balls I’ve hit, I’d have the basic shots of tennis sown up, that reliability hitting a true, smooth, clean shot every time would be a piece of cake. But it isn’t. Not just because every day you wake up feeling differently, but because every shot is different; every single one. From the moment the ball is in motion, it comes at you at an infinitesimal number of angles and speeds; with more topspin, or backspin, or flatter, or higher. 
  • The differences might be minute, microscopic, but so are the variations your body makes – shoulders, elbow, wrists, hips, ankles, knees – in every shot. And there are so many other factors-the weather, the surface, the rival. No ball arrives the same way as another; no shot is identical. So every time you line up to hit a shot, you have to make a split-second judgment as to the trajectory and speed of the ball and then make a split second decision as to how, how hard, and where you must try and hit the shot back. And you have to do that over and over, often 50 times and a game, fifteen times in twenty seconds, in continual bursts more than two, three, four hours and all the time you’re running hard and your nerves are taut; it’s when your coordination is right and the tempo is smooth that the good sensations come, that you were better able to manage the biological and mental feat of striking the ball clearly in the middle of the racquet and aiming it true, at speed and under immense mental pressure, time after time. And one thing I have no doubt; the more you train, the better you’re feeling. Tennis is, more than most sports, a sport of the mind; it is the player who has those good sensations on the most days, who manages to isolate himself best from his fears and from the ups and downs in morale a match inevitably brings, who ends up being world number one.

The book has much more and is a must read for any athlete wanting to improve his or her mental toughness.

The Colorado Paradox – The State High in Fitness and Drug Use

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In March, 2013 Gallup pollsters released research showing that Colorado has the nation’s lowest obesity rate; 18.7% of adults are obese. This percentage on the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index was the only state to register below 20%. The second place state, Massachusetts, was almost 22%.

But the good news ends there.

The 2012 Statistical Abstract (table 204) reports that Colorado is also one of the most highly ranked states for use of select drugs (A ranking of 1 is worst and 51 is best – Washington, D.C. included) :

  • 25th cigarette smoking – 1,007,000 people, or 25.1% of the Colorado population, ages 12+.
  • 9th for binge drinking – 1,072,000 people, or 26.7% of the Colorado population, ages 12+.
  • 5th for any illicit drug use – 470,000 people, or 11.7% of the Colorado population, ages 12+.
  • 4th for marijuana use – 370,000 people, or 9.2% of the Colorado population, ages 12+.
  • 4th for any illicit drug use, other than marijuana – 183,000 people, or 4.6% of the Colorado population, ages 12+.

In each of these five categories, the percentage of Coloradans partaking in these vices is greater than the U.S. percentage.  Colorado’s Rocky Mountain high is truly a unique paradox.

This data is for the period 2007 to 2008, i.e. it is prior to the passage of Amendment 64.