One of my all-time favorite books is James Kerr’s great book “Legacy” about the New Zealand All Blacks and how they have set the bar as the winningest sports organization in the world.

The book outlines 15 chapters, to mirror 15 players on the pitch, and outlines many of the All Blacks core values that they developed after they were unsuccessful in their quest to win the 2007 Rugby World Cup (won by South Africa due in part to Nelson Mandela’s encouragement for the host nation to transform their country post-apartheid)

One of the quotes in the book is “Better People Make All Blacks”, when Kerr was interviewing former New Zealand All Blacks Head Coach Graham Henry among others and shared their core leadership (coaches, exec, and team leaders) identified that they would have to go thru a rebuild after they lost.

The premise behind it, they knew they would need to fill many positions that would be vacant due to players that were retiring or not having their contracts renewed and as they had set the bar as the most winningest sports organization in the world would be seeking players to fill those roles.

If the choice to fill a position came down to the players, both have similar skill sets, the player that would be offered a roster spot would be one they felt had better character, one that was selfless, a team player, willing to sacrifice everything for the team vs. another that may not buy-in to the team and organizations culture.

Fast forward to 2011 and 2015, because of the all black recruiting better people, they won back to back World Cups and are aspiring for a repeat in 2019.

Other sports organizations have, or have aspired to follow suit, as a result;

 

 

1. The Golden State Warriors:

Now in their 4^th consecutive NBA Final vs. their arch-rivals Cleveland Cavaliers, winning the first game in OT, then dominating Lebron James and the Cav’s in Game 2 where Steph Currey set a record for 9 3 Pointers, one of which was a buzzer beater from ½ court!

Anyone that talks about Steph’s journey to the NBA talks about how good a person he is, how humble he is, and how dedicated he is to his craft.

Every level that Steph was at they would say he was too small, starting in high school, then college, and even in the NBA, although he has evolved to one of the best, if not becoming the best, 3 point free throwers in the game, he was the 7^th pick in his draft year.

All the experts say that was the best 7^th overall pick EVER.

 

 

2. The Las Vegas Golden Knights

Although down 2-1 in the series now against Ovie’s Caps, Gerard Gallant refused to throw any of his players under the bus, include young Shea Theodore who made a couple of costly mistakes in game 3 that lead to goals and the win by the Caps.

Gerard continued to stand behind his players as he has all year long in their inaugural season, sharing how the room was filled with great leaders, great people, all of which had come together for a common quest, to play as a team and there is still a lot of hockey left.

Much has been written about the amazing story of the Golden Knights in their Cinderella season, but they would not be where they are today if the organization as a whole did not select players of character, all willing to buy-in to the system, be selfless and PLAY FAST per prior post.

 

3. The Vancouver Canucks

Although it took them a couple of years to admit it, thanks to the retirement of the Sedins (a year or two before I anticipated to confess, still believe they could have played at a high level) Jim Benning, Trevor Linden has owned up to the fact they are going thru a “rebuild”

The same rebuild that John Tortorella referred in his interview when he was fired by the Canucks after their worst season in many years, where he stated they needed to get younger in order to compete in the new NHL.

In a recent article I read, Jim shared that the one thing that they will be looking at this coming draft was players who demonstrated great character in addition to skills.  They planned on having lengthy interviews with potential draft candidates so they can assess the other intangibles that they would bring to the dressing room like respect, sportsmanship, grit, work ethic, hockey sense, selflessness, and leadership.

They already are seeing that transition with the breakout years they saw from Bo Horvat, then Brock Boeser, both prior first-round picks of the Canucks, and are hearing great praise of their first pick last year, Elias Peterson.

Although they would have liked to be one of the fortunate few to be top 3 in this year’s lottery, as has been the case the last two years, they will be picking later than they should, albeit not as late as it could be at 7^th.

The same scouting method used to pick Bo, Brock, Elias under Jim’s watch will be used for this years pick, they plan to choose the best player in terms of skill, but also in terms of character to fit within their new culture of excellence they are aspiring to build.

Being a long-term resident in Vancouver, BC I have followed the Canucks for many years, although they have had 3 runs to the Stanley Cup, like the Washington Capitals (1998 run), they have not seen the puck bounce their way so the players rose and drank from the toughest trophy in sport to win.

Now only if my team, the Montreal Canadiens (unlike many who jumped off their wagon, I have been a Habs fan since I came out of the womb having grown up in Montreal), would go thru the same rebuild with drafting young players in addition to the last one that is now an alternate captain, Brendan Gallagher, just as it was with the Canucks, they need to get younger, and faster to mirror other franchises (but I digress).

In all the years that I have coached teams, I have done the same, I have drafted players (as well as their parents) based on their character traits and then developed their skills of the game vs. drafting the top skills players who more often than not were selfish, disrespectful, argumentative and at times lazy as they thought they did not have to work as hard as their teammates.  More often than not, they would play for the name on the back of their jersey than the front of the jersey as all the players do for the all of the organizations I referred to above.

Although I referenced professional organizations, the same philosophy of looking for players who have great character, buy-in to team culture holds true for youth sports.  Sometimes you are handed a team as a result of balancing, other times when coaching competitive teams you choose the players, but either way, the sooner that you develop the core values you aspire for as a coach with your players, the sooner you develop your own culture of excellence.

If you are not doing so already, when will you ensure that you develop your players into great people?

Let’s all work together to the bring the game back to the kids … where it belongs.

 

 

There are so many things I could write about this week.

The sad tragedy that took place just over a week ago where 16 members of the Humbolt Bronco’s Junior Team lost their lives in the tragic bus accident including the teams coaches, announcer, trainer and 12 of the players with the remaining 17 survivors with the emotional as well as physical scars to deal with.

The tragedy is something I can relate to all too well, when I was 8 years old I will never forget when my Dad’s best friends came to our door and shared the news that he passed away as a result of a tragic accident and how my Mother, my greatest fan, screamed at the top of her lungs NO!

No parent should ever have to bury their child, and for Humbolt, Saskatchewan, Canada and the world, this tragedy will impact all those involved not just in the hockey community, but in sports. One of the positives that has come out of the tragedy is how the world has shared their support for those impacted, the story that struck me most was kids in Uganda wearing sweaters in thanks to the Junior Teams charity donations and support in this CBC article

 

I could write about the Sedins, whose illustrious careers as the two best players to cycle the puck EVER in the game has come to an end and I suspect will be first ballots for the NHL HOF as well as # 22 / #33 jerseys hung in the stages of Rogers Arena sooner than later.

I could even tie in how the Sedins themselves were multi-sport athletes to promote the benefits of multi-sport participation for further insight on the article Fear, greed, broken dreams: Why Early Sport Specialization is Eroding Youth Sports that I contributed to literally went viral and was shared across Canada, US, parts of Europe and Australia.

There are several other subjects I could cover, but I thought this week I would share insight that I will be adding yet another sport to my coaching resume, my son and several of his friends have signed up for ball hockey, Just as he has with all of his other sports he said to me earlier this week “Dad, J’s Dad is really struggling with the team, I have had several players come to me and ask “will your dad coach”?  Ironically, as he has played so many sports and has done some coaching, I suspect he could do so.

Translation – Dad, would you help coach my team?

He is now 19 years old, finished his first year of university, and although he has had his fair share of coaches that thought nothing of depriving him and many of his teammates the opportunity to contribute to games, screamed at the top of their lungs when they made mistakes in games and practices, even threw sticks or other items in frustration, he still has the aspiration to try different sports and be active.

My youth sports coaching journey has literally come full circle. 17 years ago I stepped up to coach my daughter in softball, a couple of years later my son in hockey and as it was the first few years for both of them before they entered the competitive streams, he now is playing for the same reasons when he started, to have fun, play with his friends, and just get exercise.

I told him that I will reach out to his coach and ask him if he would like help, and when I did so he was really appreciative I had did so. He further confessed he really did not know much about coaching, but put up his hand because no one else did as he did not want the kids not to be able to play. This is the same selfless reason many coaches step up and every time I interact with volunteer coaches I share my sincere appreciation for them doing so.

His Dad, who is the head coach of the team, said to me the following when we talked;

1. I just want the boys to have fun
2. I just want them to be active
3. I am not worried about wins or losses and
4. It is their team, I am just there so they can PLAY

It was like I was listening to myself in the mirror as they are all the same primary reasons for me but sadly in this day and age where the focus of youth sports has evolved to a winning at all costs environment, parents hoping for a return on investment aspiring for their kids to play collegiately or professionally, it was refreshing to hear there are others that have the same philosophy as I.

He further shared that there are parents and coaches that think their kids are playing for the Stanley Cup, when we both agreed that ball hockey is literally Pond Hockey on concrete as we play on the rinks when the ice is melted.  Thanks to ball hockey evolving as an organized sport, I am starting to see more and more kids play street hockey again without adults, refs, forming their own teams, enforcing their own rules, improvising nets with stones, cones, sticks, gloves or what have you.

He then stated I only needed to do two things to be able to help out;

1. I had to have Respect in Sport and
2. I had to get a Criminal Record (Police) Check done

To which I said, no problem I completed RIS for Hockey and no issues with the CRC.

I then reached out to the Risk Manager for Ball Hockey to get the letter I would need to provide for the police check and although I had taken the RIS course that was grandfathered as a one-time certification, he recommended I complete the new version as it was being updated regularly and new coaches had to renew every 5 years.

He provided me the coupon code to waive the fee and I then sat down in front of my computer to take the online course and was amazed at how much had been added to it, in addition to talking about various forms of harassment, it has modules on LTAD, Physical Literacy, medical,  Physical Wellness, Psychological Wellness, Mental Health.

I was so happy to see that much of what I have been “preaching” in clinics, workshops, breakouts and keynote presentations was being offered in the RIS module.  It also had been changed from RIS for coaches, to RIS for activity leaders to cover all those that are involved in physical activity leadership like camps, schools, coaching.

Kudo’s to Sheldon Kennedy and all those that the Respect Group for continuing to create the awareness of all the various issues that impacted youth sports so that the volunteer coaches would be better prepared.

I then did some digging on our associations website and came across the Canadian Ball Hockey Association Coaches Manual, a 70-page document that covers philosophy, characteristics, duties, Legal Liability and then IT’S ALL ABOUT THE KIDS

In that section, they cover the reasons why kids play, what parents expect of coaches and then the following section is

FAIR PLAY

It covers the principals of fair play, playing time, discipline, coaches and parent connecting, and contracts for coaches, parents, officials

Many of which I have come across in more depth for hockey, but I must confess I was impressed that Ball Hockey has gone to the extent they have to provide volunteer coaches, many of which with NO experience, the tools so they could do so.

What I was particularly impressed with, as they put in their manual the term that I have been saying to everyone that I interact with regardless if speaking at a conference, running workshops or clinics, interacting with board members, executive members, parents or the players themselves.

IT’S ALL ABOUT THE KIDS.

This is truly what it is all about, but sadly we have a lot of work to do so that the adults stop competing with other adults thru their kids and we bring the game (yes the game) back to the kid’s where it belongs.

This afternoon I will be on the bench with the boys and other coaches in the very same rink that I coached Ice Hockey for years, this time I will be doing so with more insight thanks to the all the research, interaction, travel, speaking, mentoring and so forth I had.

The motivation for me doing so has not changed, I will be doing so to make a difference by developing youth into adults.  Some of the players, like my son, are now adults.

But when I shared with him that I had been asked to help, mentor the head coach he started laughing.  When I told him that I had coached for so many years now I had to renew my Respect in Sport he laughed even harder.

It was when I shared with him, “It’s all about the kids” and he said to me, DAD, I sent you the schedule on Google Calendar for the First 4 games, tomorrow, Sunday, Tues and Wed. and then I get on a plane to speak at a conference Thur-Sunday.

Hang on a sec?  I thought you said would only be one game per week?

I said to myself, Relax, “It’s all about the kids”

He then shared the best two words any parent can hear as he did so with a HUGE Smile on his face (sadly his smile went away for many years when sports became way too serious)

“THANKS DAD” and then he ran off to reach out to all his buds that I was going to help coach with a smile on his face as he did so.

That’s why I coach, like many other volunteer coaches, the Dad who stepped up to do so was very appreciative of getting help, I coach for my son and all the rest of his buds to just PLAY.  To help them love a sport more at the end of a season than the start, to encourage them to be active for life.

This will be a swan song of sorts though, it will be the last time that I will coach “the boys”, all of which have developed into great young men, and when the season ends in just 2 months and we all walk out of the dressing room after the last game will be a sad day for me just as it is for every parent to watch their kids leave the dressing room for the last time.  Just as I had about 5 years back when I walked off the field with my daughter to the car after her last softball season.

Until that day happens, I will do what I love most, make a difference by developing the boys into adults, mentor the coach, engage the parents and be appreciative that this group of boys are not ones that quit all sports before high school.

Most importantly, that each time they come to the rink, they go out there, have fun, and see what happens.

Let’s all work together to bring the game back to the kids … where it belongs.

 

 

 

 

 

BONUS – Download a Free Copy of this Blog in PDF Format HERE

This has been a crazy week, on Saturday March 30^th, the article that I contributed to along with my good friends John O’Sullivan – CEO and Founder – Changing the Game Project, Matt Young – CEO – Personal Sport Record and Producer of Why The Cost of Winning as well as the pioneer for Physical Literacy, Dr. Dean Krielliers among others was released in the Digital Edition of the Vancouver Sun; Fear, greed, broken dreams: How early sport specialization is eroding youth sports brilliantly researched and written by JJ Adams.

The following day, on Easter Sunday, it was the Front Page Lead Story in The Province pictured below under a different title starting with “The End of Fun: Kids Sports is turning off kids”.

 

 

I subsequently shared the digital edition and picture above on our social media platforms, as did the other contributors and it has gone viral across Canada, US, Europe, Australia, New Zealand already so it truly is a subject matter that resonates with many parents and coaches in the youth sports sector.

In each of the presentations that I do on early sports specialization, I summarize with a slide called;

Do you know?

• Do you know what you want to do in life?

 

• Do you know what your true calling/purpose is?

 

• Most of us don’t figure it out until our 20/30/40/50’s IF we ever do.

 

• How can we be the adult to tell/recommend to a 7 year old kid they need to specialize and work (vs. play) a sport more than 9 months a year from that day going forward?

 

• By doing so, we not only deprive kids of having a normal childhood as the prior generation did where we PLAYED sports, both organized and also unstructured free play and myriad of other activities.

 

• We also are pushing them down the path that all the science and data shows is the wrong path to go due to burnout, overuse injuries and not developing fundamental movement skills if played multiple sports and unstructured physical activities.

Please don’t be that adult to recommend a single sport pathway, rather the one that all the science shows is the right pathway sampling, diversification and then kids can choose to pursue the sport they LOVE in their latter teens.

Running – biking – swimming – pickup games of football, rugby, basketball, soccer, street/pond/outdoor hockey –playgrounds – tag – hide and seek – capture the flag – snowball fights – sandlot baseball – tennis – hiking – hopscotch – dance and the list goes on and on.

 ““We’re not only depriving them of an opportunity to play other sports and activities but what about things like band, art, drama, music, computer science, reading — all of that stuff that should help them become well-rounded people? If they specialize, they don’t have the time for any of it. We’re making them little robots, really early, and it’s no wonder they burn out really fast.”

Glen Mulcahy

I honestly never thought when I was providing the data, studies and other resources for the article that it would have exploded as it has with numerous people sharing, tweeting, retweeting, commenting on nor as quickly as it has.  I also must confess, when I found it was on the front page of one of BC’s provincial Newspapers it was very surreal, as well as reach out already from other news agencies, universities for follow-up interviews.

I do know from all the talks I have done for many years that it still is one of the top issues we face in youth sports and unless we do something about it, it will continue to grow and hurt our kids due to burnout, overuse, and lack of development of all core fundamental skills.

It is also going to continue to hurt families due to the costs of specializing, travel ball, equipment, many are hiring private trainers to work with their kids so they can get to the finish line faster than others.

The sad truth is, it is a race to nowhere, less than 3% of kids that play youth sports will play collegiately, and less than 1% will play professionally.

This is totally disproportionate to parent expectations, however, as the studies show that over 50% of parents are aspiring for their kids to reach these levels and realize a return on investment for the costs associated with youth sports today.

As academy club programs continue to grow it also is creating a serious challenge for the more cost-effective community and high school programs where they are losing players to.

Many thanks to all of you that reached out with texts, comments and even emails that read the article thanking me for bring this to the masses as many have been struggling with the challenges of keeping up with the jones for the private programs, not to mention those that already are having challenges paying the bills and can’t support their kids to play organized sports.

One of which I have received permission to share from the mother of a son who used to LOVE baseball:

“Hi there,

I just wanted to shoot an email and let you know that your article “Eroding Youth Sports” hit the nail right on the head. I am a parent of a 15-year-old son who has played competitive Baseball all of his life. He has played other sports as well and has always excelled at any sport he does. 

Baseball was his life with many MVP awards and played 12 months out of the year fall ball, winter ball, spring ball and summer ball. Then this year he made the decision to take a year off and play house so, he could play basketball too and his reason is that it becomes too stressful as you pretty much have no life and he needed a break.

One of the short videos from Get More From Sport

 

As he told us this my heart sunk into my chest .. I felt ill…he couldn’t be serious but, he was. Baseball had become our life too we had made friends we liked the weekend getaways, the travel. We loved it because he loved it. Then it hit me that I had become “That Parent” if I was feeling that way inside, who was it really about. Is it about what I wanted or him?

Still feeling that house ball is not the place for him and he may not like it as it is so different from what he is used too. I need to let it go and allow him to figure out what he needs he might not like it. He may love it! This is where I feel your article is speaking the truth and I think we don’t talk about the damage that can happen to a child.

I have seen it all in my years as a parent of a competitive ball player. I have seen parents swear at their kids, bully their kids etc. I have seen kids look terrified if they feel they are not performing to their parent’s standards and I would say about 50% of the kids do not want to be there but, its the parent’s dream and the kids are fearful. There are also, a lot of kids that want to be there and it is fun for them.

I think we all want our kids to succeed and at a competitive level you do play to win unfortunately …it’s not for everyone and parents need to listen to their kids and stop putting their own ego first.

Like my son said to me the other night with tears in his eyes while I questioned his decision ..

”It’s only a game Mom”

Your article couldn’t have come at a better time!”

Let’s all work together to bring the game back to the kids … where it belongs.