Youth-Athlete's Sport Blog

A 2008 high school graduate and his high school baseball coach set up a charitable foundation (Courage for Life) to provide life encouraging sporting experiences for high school athletes.  Why?  This is the story of John Challis.  More...

On Saturday April 26, 2008 in the Div 2 Great Northwest Athletic Conference softball finals between Western Oregon and Central Washington, Mallory Holtman and Liz Wallace demonstrate an incredible act of sportsmanship after Sara Tucholsky hit a home run and is injured rounding first base.  What did Mallory and Liz do?  They carried the opponents outfielder around the bases, making sure Sara touched them all, for what eventually turned out to be the winning run.  Although Central Washington lost the game 4-2, Mallory and Liz act of kindness demonstrated sportsmanship that will be used as an example by parents and coaches for years to come.  More...

It is much easier to build you athlete's confidence when they are performing well, but unfortunately it is not easy to obtain successful results in sports.  As the coach, it is unrealistic for your players to expect you to be positive 7/24/365.  There are going to be times when you need to correct them after they make a mistake or are upset with them because of a lack of effort.  Many athletes admit that their coaches need to be hard on them at times to get their attention, which raises the question: How do you correct your athletes without them getting down on themselves?  This is the real trick of coaching - knowing how to preserve your athletes' confidence when you need to correct them.  More...

This story about golf balls in a jar highlights the fact that there are very few life priorities, but a lot of activities that can distract you from those things that are important things. More...

I recently posted the details about hitting fundamentals (stance, loading, bat speed generation, swing, follow through) and the feedback was pretty consistent.  "Great description, but where are the drills to perfect the swing!"   Truth be told, the dills we do can be found all over the web.  The secret sauce is not in some special new drill, but in organizing the hitting practice to maximize the fundamentally correct swings to develop proper muscle memory. More...

For the past two weeks the NCAA men's and women's basketball teams have been competing in their conference playoffs.  If you love basketball like I do then you have probably watched a few games.  This season seems to have a lot of parity between the top ranked teams in the conferences and many games are being decided by a couple points.  With so many close games, I am finding myself talking to my kids and players about the importance of each possession and how a misplay in an early quarter is just as devastating as one in the fourth quarter.  I keep bringing up a poem written by Jeff Smith while he was a Coach at Dayton that highlights the value of each possession.  More...

Player confidence at all levels of play, from youth recreational to the professional athlete, is fragile.  Handle with care!  The challenge with building confidence is that it is such a fragile construct.  An athlete might be confident one minute and then a play or two later have their confidence shattered.  It is not uncommon for an athlete's confidence to fluctuate throughout the course of a season.  Every player goes through a slump and needs to rebuild their self belief.

Competitive sports is more about failure than success.  On average, soccer and hockey players miss 90% of their shot attempts.  Baseball and softball's best hitters are out 65 to 70% of the time.  Basketball player miss half of their shot attempts.  Quarterbacks do not complete 40% of their pass attempts.  All of this natural failure tends to erode an athlete's confidence.   How a player deals with the built-in failure of the game eventually determines how successful they will be.

The key is not eliminating all doubts and fear, but having the player muster up enough confidence to perform despite the doubts and distractions.  More...

I have recently been re-reading a book on the Seven Secrets of Successfully Coaching by Jeff Janssen and Greg Dale. Jeff and Greg interviewed successful coaches and their players at the professional and collegiate level that lead to seven key tenants to building a long lasting organization that can compete in the top ranks year after year with different players.

It All Starts at the Top

"The purpose of this book is to provide you with the answers to intriguing and important leadership questions. ... the core of what successful coaching is all about - getting athletes and teams to consistently perform to their full potential. ... Your leadership is the key component in deciding whether your team will perform to its potential or fall short. ... Yet without your ability to attract, motivate, develop, discipline, produce, and keep good athletes, your team had little chance of being successful."  More...

As a youth tournament team coach, I get exposed to many one line pearls of wisdom and short articles.  The article below titled "Hold the Rope" I believe articulates a good perspective of team work.   Which player(s) on your team would be asked to hold the rope? More...

Last week, I have watched three close high school basketball games in the local area and in each one free throws determined the outcome.  When it comes to the end of game, free throw shots, more often than not, determine the final outcome.  But, shooting foul shots at the end of the game are different than shooting free throws in practice for two reasons: 1) the players are fatigued, and 2) they shoot them in pressure situations.  More...