inthedougout

Praise relentlessly. Yesterday, I had one of my greatest breakthroughs as a coach of youth sports.  For all I know, we lost the game.  I have no clue how well my son did yesterday.  I was so focused on one particular challenge. We had a kid yesterday that showed up kind of apathetic.  He showed up with no energy.  He played half the game with his hands in his pockets.  He let the ball hit him and didn't move his arms to embrace the ball. My normal approach was failing.  My initial reaction was to give the kid directives: "do this, do that."  I kept trying.  After a while, I began to think "I am literally telling this kid what to do, how to do it, and when to do it... so, why isn't he doing it?"  I was also not content just merely turning my focus to the other kids.  It's the easy  thing to do, and often the most practical  thing to do, but it felt like giving up a little. After a tremendous amount of trial and effort, I finally landed on someth

Every day, a team wins  and a team losses . Every day, someone is lost from this earth and on to the next spiritual landing spot. I am so sorry for your loss . And yet, no one apologizes when your favorite team loses their game. Those two events are, in fact, tremendously different.  But if sports has taught me anything -- and I mean, anything -- it is that life moves on.  Even after a toss loss, there's another game to be played.  Did you have a bad game?  You have to dust yourself off and get ready for the next one.  There is very little time to sit and mope.  Better yet, it's a matter of finding the right time and place to do that; after all, it's only healthy to do so.  But we must also prepare ourselves to get ready for the next game and the next practice.  We must take active  steps as a response to losses and negative events. We recently lost a loved one and I'm not here to say sports somehow resolved the sadness and grief.  It didn't.  But following