ARTICLE:

By David Jacobson
Positive Coaching Alliance

Responsible Sports entails Responsible Coaches and Responsible Sport Parents working together to develop the youth they serve – not just as athletes, but as whole people. Cultivating the life lessons and values that are available and uniquely teachable through youth sports – teamwork, compassion, persistence; just to name a few – helps players improve as people, which ultimately benefits their communities.

As a Responsible Coach, at the very least, you help produce better young citizens, who likely will continue to grow into better adult citizens. But you also have the chance to start ripple effects, such as:

• Players setting on and off-field examples that their peers emulate
  
  
• You, your players and their parents inspiring others in the community -- whether in schools, service organizations or just individuals -- to follow your example
  
  
• Attracting more Responsible Coaches and Responsible Sport Parents into your program, thus strengthening the culture, letting it feed off itself and creating not a “vicious cycle” but a “victorious cycle.”

Let’s take a closer look at these ripple effects and how to catalyze and capitalize on them. At the simplest level, Responsible Coaches can get their players to set great on-field examples through body language. What is more infectious than a youngster’s smile?

Other players, parents, coaches and fans will lighten when they see those smiles and leave the field feeling better and more ready to contribute to the greater good. One of my favorite co-coaches in our local youth baseball league makes this happen by occasionally joking to players, “Remember, whatever you do out there, don’t smile!”

Other on-field acts that Responsible Coaches encourage include helping players up after they’ve fallen, making sure to applaud players as they recover from in-game injuries, and pitching in to set up the fields or carry equipment. Coaches can cultivate and reinforce those behaviors through awards for sportsmanship, such as a game ball to the player who sets the best example.

Some coaches even inspire their players to create off-field volunteer programs. For example, a youth soccer player was doing his Eagle Scout project on organizing a soccer clinic for special needs kids during Youth Soccer Month to introduce them to soccer and explained that his coach’s actions inspired him to create this program to help others.

Opponents who see these Responsible Sports acts from you and your players may want to emulate them. Coaches and players who face “classy” opponents often strive to step up their own efforts. That’s when the first ripples start to spread.

Your players’ smiles, hustle and sportsmanship also can inspire similar behavior among players’ parents and other fans. One immediate effect will be a change in how – and what – they cheer. For example, you can expect to hear more supportive, encouraging comments toward players, less complaining about officials and even cheering for opponents. Responsible Coaches talk explicitly about these ideals in pre-season parent meetings, and the messages really hit home and affect the behavior of parents when parents see how coaches have ingrained those values in players.

With a little time and publicity around your Responsible Coaching -- publicity as simple as the word-of-mouth that typically spreads among neighbors -- other teams and leagues will follow suit, expanding your ripple effect. When leaders of schools and service organizations get wind of this trend in your community, they may take steps in the same direction.

By this time, your community has many energized organizations and individuals. Some of their energy will return to you. That’s when your “victorious cycle” starts.

Within a community where Responsible Sports has taken hold, parents seeking a great youth sports experience for their children won’t have to look far. Just as teams with a reputation for talent tend to attract more talent, your team will attract parents and players of character.

And, as your Responsible Coaching reputation continues to ripple, powered by a victorious cycle, you’ll attract people who just want to contribute to the community. They may not be coaches or parents or even interested in sports, but they want to be on your side anyway, because your organization is less about getting the “W” and more about Responsible Sports for the betterment of our youth and local communities.

In an effort to benefit millions of youth athletes, parents and coaches, this article is among a series created exclusively for partners in the Liberty Mutual Responsible Sports ^TMprogram (ResponsibleSports.com) powered by Positive Coaching Alliance (http://www.positivecoach.org/).