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Positive Coaching is not "Happy Talk" - Jim Thompson (Founder Positive Coaching Alliance)

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that I spent some time with the people from the Positive Coaching Alliance.  I can tell you now that I've agreed to become as Associate Trainer with PCA.  I'm excited about this opportunity because their philosophy coincides with mine.  PCA understands that youth sports are more than just a way to figure out which group of 10 year olds are better on a given day.  Youth sports get kids exercising; youth sports get kids working together; youth sports deliver life lessons.

The PCA training session I'll deliver is called "The Double Coach".  This refers to a coach's twin goals of winning and teaching positive life lessons.  I've written before about what I consider a coach's priorities:

1. Player development
2. Creating a learning atmosphere
3. Winning

As I said then, winning isn't bad.  When we play sports and keep score everybody knows who wins and loses by looking at the scoreboard.  But in the Double Goal coaching philosophy winning on the scoreboard is nice, but also beside the point.  Rather than concentrate on winning at all costs, a coach should move his players toward mastery of the game.

If a team wins, that's the best they can do, if they lose, it's the worst.  It's Either/Or — On/Off.  But if you coach with a mastery philosophy there is always something a kid did well and something for kids to work toward.

If a kid misses a shot, that's all he can think about.  But in order to get into position to take the shot he had to do something right.  Mastery is recognizing what went right and getting past what went wrong.  That doesn't mean forgetting about errors, it means understanding the moment an error occurs isn't the best time to correct the error — that's why we have practice…

I'm looking forward to giving these PCA training programs.  As you can see from this one example the PCA philosophy is very similar to mine.  If you've enjoyed what I've written here check out the PCA website or contact me about becoming a Certified Double Goal Coach.