The 78th Precinct Youth Council is a non-profit
organization dedicated to providing the opportunity for children to play
sports in a safe and nurturing environment. We believe that winning is not
a function of the score in one game or the record in one season, but rather
the summation of the sports experience provided to a player. In the final
analysis, in any game, one team is going to have more points, or more runs
than the other team; so the record cannot be the only measure of success.
The concepts of teamwork, dedication, and personal
responsibility encompass values that go far beyond the playing fields, and
can provide youth with a foundation that lasts a lifetime.
Sadly, studies show that over 75% of young players stop
playing organized sports by the time they reach 14 years of age. The
primary reason given by the players is that too much emphasis is placed on
winning, and that they are no longer simply having fun.
Additionally, research shows that coaches are the primary
facilitators of how players view their sports experience. Coaches who build
on players strengths and positively motivate them to accomplish their goals
are far more likely to have players return to the sport, irrespective of the
season’s outcome.
In order to better prepare our coaches to successfully
navigate the path between the desire to win individual games and the need to
ensure that the overall sports experience is a positive one for all players,
the 78th Precinct Youth Council, in 2008, entered into a
partnership with the Positive Coaching Alliance. This Stanford University
based organization was founded to provide training and tools that help
coaches and parents understand the long-term goals of the youth sports
experience, and to incorporate those goals in their games, their practices,
and their conversations.
At this point, over 100 of our coaches have been certified in
Positive Coaching by attending a live PCA workshop, or having taken the
online version of the Double Goal coach course. It is our intention to have
all our coaches certified by 2010
For more about the Positive Coaching Alliance,
click here.
To go to the
Positive Coaching
Alliance website, click on this link:
http://positivecoach.org/
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