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About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 6, 2008)
Page 12 - Special Edition • Morrow County Fair and Rodeo • Heppner Gazette-Times, Wednesday, August 6, 2008 44 Conceiving a new view of youth activities 11 77»$ article was written by Brian Meehan o f The Or egonian. As we approach fair time let s all try to keep m prospective what we are trying to accomplish with the 4-H program and proj ects. “Winning ” should not be the goal. Doing the very best we can shouId be the goal. If 4-H mem bers have worked hard on their projects all year, doing well in their classes will come. Have a great fair and n « t« # * n / x l n « a « m - • * good luck to all! What is the most daunting challenge in sports? Coaching an NBA team in this age of enormous con tracts and bigger egos might get a few' votes. Chasing Lance Armstrong through the Alps certainly is intimi dating. But my ballot goes to the challenge taken on by Jim Thompson, founder and executive director of the Positive Coaching Alliance at Stanford University. The fall calendar is almost: full... call today for your appointment! Thompson has con ceived a mountain of a task; He wants to change the cul ture of youth sports. Perhaps when he finishes he will turn to solving the federal budget deficit or teaching Shaquille O'Neal to convert free throws. “Youth sports is really about teaching life lessons, but too often adults behave like they would at professional events,” Thompson said. “It’s this win-at-all-costs mentality E.O .M .S. Eastern Oregon Mobile Slaughter CUSTOM PROCESSING 567-2011 J b S W H t rio is fo n Ave»u»e H o rn is te n G .ity M .illP tt Teci H o rn A TcresA h c n (541) 5G7-2011 il j a if V that is the enemy.” Thompson was a middling athlete growing up in North Dakota. His love of sports re-emerged when he began coaching his son, Gabriel, 20 years ago in Northern California. He read books on coaching but couldn’t find one that broke down the intangible aspects, such as motivation. So he began work on what would become his first book, “Posi tive Coaching.” “There were too many parents and coaches overly focused on winning,” he said. “They had good intentions but were doing exactly the wrong thing.” Thompson thinks coaches who motivate by fear stifle their players' per formance, chase away kids and lose opportunities to use sports as a teaching tool. “How do you teach char acter in a classroom?” said Thompson, 56, who once taught leadership seminars at the Stanford Graduate PORT OF MORROW The Port of Morrow - Good For Business Clean water, economical power, easy transportation, advanced communications, modern docks and lots of room to grow - the Port of Morrow offers all the benefits of large metro centers without the challenges industry can face in bigger areas. Located on the Columbia River near Boardman, Oregon, the Port of Morrow has all the industrial infrastructure needed to grow your business. The Port of Morrow encompasses more than 12,000 acres of land that is ideal for a variety of industries. #2 Marine Dr. • P.O.Box 200 • Boardman, OR 97818 • (541)481-7678 • www.portofmorrow.com School of Business. “It be comes too abstract. But youth sports is a totally underutilized classroom for teaching kids about life.” Thompson devel oped a new coaching mod el. He calls it the "double goal coach,” a mentor who wants to win but is more focused on developing char acter in kids. “What is the best thing a coach can?” Thompson asks. “A coach can make it OK for a kid to make a mistake.” In 1998, Thom p son sounded the alliance at Stanford and began giving seminars to high schools and youth sports groups. The alliance now has more than 400 partnerships nation wide and presents work shops to coaches, athletes and parents. Nike thinks enough of the alliance to provide $240,000 in grants so Thompson can take his message to urban neighbor hoods in Ix>s Angeles, New York and Chicago. The nonprofit alli ance has drawn support from coaches such as Phil Jack- son, the alliance’s national spokesman; Dean Smith, the former North Carolina men’s basketball coach; and Herman Edwards, coach of the New York Jets. De troit Pistons coach Larry Brown also is on the advi sory board. Thompson said Brown offered to help after his young son had a bad experience with a baseball coach. A key to Thomp son's double-goal coaching model is positive reinforce ment. Thompson encour ages coaches to follow the “magic formula.” which is five positive comments for every negative one. “John Robinson, the former USC (football) coach, once said something that stuck with me,” Thomp- continued on page 14
