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9 Keys for Success when Coaching Your Child’s Team

When you register your child to play hockey, you always run the risk of being asked to coach. In the younger ages, most of the coaches are parents. Some times you have a choice — coach or your child doesn’t get to play.

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13 Tips for Parents Considering Coaching

Gail Gross, a Houston radio talk-show host who has worked as an educator and is an authority on child development, says the best thing she ever did as coach of her daughter’s basketball team was to walk away when asked. “I was the worst coach who ever lived,” Dr. Gross says cheerfully. “I’m right-side dominant and have poor vision. I dreaded every game because I was such a failure.”

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How to Increase Practice Time by 10%

Here’s a tip for coaches that will help improve practice time by at least 10%! At the beginning of the season, name each of your practice drills. The first time your team does the drill, do a demonstration of it. Every practice time after, just simply call out the name of the drill and spend your extra time coaching and working on skill development.

Do You Criticize the Performance or the Player?

Coaches are an important influence in a kid’s life. Their words always carry more significance to the child hearing them than they do to the coach who is saying them. As such, it is easy for coaches to phrase things in ways that are heard as much harsher than was intended. When helping kids develop new skills or when dealing with team selections, coaches should be careful to focus player discussions on tangible behaviors and away from things that have broader personal or family meaning. For example:

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What is the Difference Between Sports and Energy Drinks?

Sports drinks and energy drinks, is there really a difference? You bet there is, and it’s time athletes distinguish between the two. Below is a special article by Dave Ellis about the role sports and energy drinks are playing in today’s youth.

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Discover 7 Ways to Help Build Confidence in Your Child

Early on, children learn how sports-oriented the culture is around them. As the headlines frequently tell us, some parents, and even star professional athletes, seem never to have learned the fundamentals of good sportsmanship.

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Do You Know Why Kids Quit Youth Sports?

Too Many Kids Quit Sports – According to a Michigan State University study, over 70% of kids quit sports by age 13. For professional sports, that is the equivalent of losing one potential Michael Jordan or Mike Modano a week. In addition, there is no way of knowing the impact on the talent pool of business leaders and other professions where continued sports participation helps develop critical life skills.

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How Can Parents Make Youth Sports More Positive?

Sports can be a fun and engaging way for children and youth to learn some important lessons about life. Studies suggest that participation in sports can be very beneficial, fostering responsible social behaviors, greater academic success, and an appreciation of personal health and fitness. Participating on a team also can give children or youth an important sense of belonging.

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Do You Make These Mistakes During The Ride Home?

The youngsters are a captive audience in the back seat on the way home, but they deserve to ride in peace without being unwilling victims of their parents’ “station wagon syndrome.”

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4 Ways to Empower Your Hockey Player

When it comes to sports, we as parents can fall into the trap of thinking that it is our job to talk and our children’s job to listen. We need to remember it is also our job to listen and to create space for our children to talk. Here are some suggestions for talking sports with your kids.

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