The mission of the Changing the Game Project is to ensure that we return youth sports to our children, and put the ‘play’ back in ‘play ball.’  We want to provide the most influential adults in our children’s lives – their parents and coaches – with the information and resources they need to make sports a healthy, positive, and rewarding experience for their children, and their whole family.  Parenting and coaching young athletes is an art, not a science, and the information you find here can help you navigate the maze of youth sports, and put a smile on your young athlete’s face, whether he or she is 6 or 16 years old.

From the Changing the Game Blog:

How Adults Take the Joy out of Sports

Here are 6 ways adults take the enjoyment out of sports:

1. Parents coaching from the sideline
2. Yelling instructions while the ball is rolling
3. Disrespecting officials
4. Parents questioning the coach
5. Commenting on Their Teammates’ Plan
6. Making the ride home/post game talk a “teachable moment

If parents and coaches took a moment to ask their athletes “what could we do more of so you would want to play more,” and then we implemented some of their suggestions, great things would happen.

• Kids would take ownership of the experience.
• Parents would let their kids go, and show respect to their kids, the coaches, and the officials.
• And coaches would have teams full of more self-motivated, hardworking, and fearless players.
• We would return more joy to sports, and that sounds pretty good to me.