The kids or participants of youth sports are our customers. We need to give youth sports back to the kids. We need to get their input. Talk to them and do things like asking open-ended questions.

It is very important to meet the age appropriate needs of the kids. You have to identify them in order to meet them. Needs such as physical, emotional, and physiological. Even with kids the same age, you will have developmental differences mentally and physically. Due to different maturation rates, you can have one 11 year old with the developmental skills of a 14 year old, and another with the skills of an 8 year old. The challenge you face is to meet both of their needs, in spite of that 6-year gap.

As a youth program, we have to meet the needs of ALL the kids that we serve, not just the elite or better kids. Travel teams, select teams, or forcing kids to try out for teams tells the lesser skilled kids they are not good enough, causing many to drop out well before they have had a chance to develop later in life. By age 13, in many areas, up to 75% of the kids that have participated in youth sports have dropped out.

Why do kids 5 - 19 years of age play sports? Many of those reasons are listed below, ranked in order of importance to the kids…

1 - Have fun / play time

2 - Get Better

3 - Exercise

4 - Friends - Make, keep friends

12 - WINNING. Kids aged 5-19 rank winning only as #12.

For kids ages 12-19, winning was ranked 8

For kids ages 14-19, winning was ranked anywhere from 1 to 10

For adults, winning was ranked higher than 8. The word "Competitive" used in conjunction with youth sports really means "the parents are more involved than the children."

90% of kids studied said they would rather play on a losing team than be on a winning team, but not play. Winning is not as important to the kids as it is to the parents.

There are a number of beliefs he refereed to as "sacred cows" relating to youth sports…

1. Children 12 and under cannot be expected to understand and execute roles requiring serial mechanics. The example he used was his attempt to teach youth basketball players the "Pick and Roll." The kids he was working with were just too young to understand and execute all the skills required to effectively perform the task he was asking.

The more you yell, the less kids listen. If a coach is forced to yell a lot, then they are failing to get across their point and need to change tactics, or they are teaching something the kids just won’t get.

Adults yelling from the sidelines amount to "pointless rant." Comments usually come too late. By the time the comments are communicated and processed by the kid, if even heard, those comments are usually too late to apply.

2. The ability of a pre-pubescent child is no indication of post-pubescent ability.

Studies have proven that predicting the athletic ability of two kids is impossible. Examples were given of Michael Jordan and Bill Russell, who were both less than star athletes while sophomores in high school.

How can a kid’s ability be predicted at 10 years of age? The vast majority of great athletes were late bloomers. Select / Competitive teams who only keep the best players involved and lose the late bloomers are doing a disservice by judging kids on present ability.

Predicting athletic success is impossible for youth participants. There are too many variables. The three factors that were most prevalent in successful athletes were...

1. They enjoyed playing

2. They felt less pressure to perform

3. They usually played more than one sport

Many youth sports with travel teams, select teams, or competitive teams play more games than upper levels such as high school and colleges. Many sports have become year-round events. Burnout is a problem. Kids participate too often, much too soon. Early bloomers lose interest as others catch up, and the selective nature of these teams weeds out kids that are late bloomers.

Many educators and sports specialists have come to the conclusion that benching and cutting kids because they are not good enough, before the age of 14, is counter productive. Most feel there is no reason anyone before the age of 14 should be cut.

3. Adult ego (Right Arm and Left Arm)

The gap between what adults expect from youth sports, compared to what the kids want from youth sports is often times very wide. The analogy was the gap you can make using your outstretched arms, with adults on the right and kids on the left. The goal should be to narrow, and eliminate that gap.

Parents need act as guests at their kid’s events. You (parents) are NOT competing through them. Let kids play their own games.

How to improve? Coaches are most important. How do you choose them?

1. Do they have patience? Type A coaches are usually not good for youth.

2. Do they like kids?

3. Do they understand the age group of the kids they are coaching? 8 year olds are coached differently than 12 year olds.

4. Beware of the "vein poppers." Yelling is not productive motivation. At youth sports, screamers are usually trying to teach stuff the kids can't get.

KISS - Keep it short, stupid! Kids attention spans are short.

Beware of the 3 L's - Laps / Lines / Lectures. The 3 L’s kill enthusiasm of the kids.

The best Youth coaches ask questions of the kids. They do not dictate to them. They don't constantly tell them what to do. They let them solve the problems. Active education. Let them buy in to the teaching by making them a part of it.

Most youth sport practices are held on school nights. Coaches must realize kids may not be able to learn as well, having already been up X amount of hours. Kids may be too tired, and the attention span not necessarily what you wish it could be.

Coaches should give kids a break during practice and just supervise with no intervention, to let them play.

Coaches should always be smiling. Smile 90% of the time. This is child development, and if you can't smile while you are doing it you aren't having fun, and the kids aren't having fun. It should be fun for the coaches too.

Michael Jordan is quoted as saying ... "Play Early - Learn Late" Youth kids need to develop a love for the game first, by letting them play.

For youth sports, our mission is to create better kids, not better athletes. A youth organization should be judged by how well it treats it's least talented players, not showcasing it’s better talented ones.

Below are a couple of good links about Bob and his book.