Sunday, June 6, 2010

Positive Coaching -- it can even save your marriage!

Research and experience show that Positive Coaching works wonders -- for both your kids and your significant other. Being an AYSO coach and practicing positive coaching is good for much more than just your soccer team :-) AYSO is one of the easiest and best places for you to learn and practice this important life skill.

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From "Master This Habit to Keep Your Relationships Healthy":

It turns out, however, that celebrating good news with each other may mean even more. Researchers who studied couples’ interactions say that the happiest pairs are those who respond positively to their partners' successes. “This was the strongest predictor of current and future relationship satisfaction,” says Shelly Gable, PhD, psychology professor at the University of California at Santa Barbara, who led the study.
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For the full article please see:
http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/sex/master-this-habit-to-keep-your-relationships-healthy-1458993/

Saturday, May 29, 2010

Joe Cannon -- Having Fun Again

A great article about Earthquakes goalie Joe Cannon appeared on the front page of the sports section of today’s (5/29/2010) San Jose Mercury News. It turns out Joe was suffering from poor performance the past few seasons because he was focused too much on trying to improve his reflexes, positioning, and the like. What made the difference for him this season was an attitude change. Joe said “I was just too much of a perfectionist. It was an eye-opening experience to realize that no mater what happens, you just have to enjoy it.” Joe is now on a roll with 4 consecutive shut outs.

This is an important lesson for all soccer players and especially coaches and parents – to get players to perform at their maximum – you have to keep the game fun!!!

AYSO and the Positive Coaching Alliance both recognize that fun is a critical element for players to give it their all and to learn the most. If the game is fun players are more willing to stretch and take risks. The more they stretch themselves, the more they are learning.

When parents and coaches take this approach to heart -- helping their players have fun while playing, they are guaranteed to see larger improvements in their players. And the parents and coaches themselves will have a lot more fun too!!!

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

If You're a Coach, Get Serious, Get Trained!!!

Coaching is rare chance to spend quality time with your kids and be a role model that your kids will remember forever. Time is precious. Our kids are precious. Seize the opportunity to become a coach and make the most of it by getting proper training!

AYSO offers the most thorough and well respected volunteer coach training program of any national youth soccer program in the US. Currently AYSO is the only national youth soccer program to get its coaching program accredited by the National Council for Accreditation of Coaching Education (NCACE). Most of the other accredited programs are all college level ones. Speaking of which, most people make sure they go to accredited colleges and universities because that accreditation shows that the college or university is actually a quality institution -- a respected authority has checked them over to verify that they actually know their stuff and deliver on it. So why settle for less when you can get the best with AYSO?

AYSO's coaching program is carefully designed to enable volunteer coaches to train their players effectively using age appropriate techniques and age appropriate objectives. AYSO's slim coaching manuals pack a lot into a very concise package. Between the manual, the in person training, the online training, and the regional, area, and national coach support staff, AYSO coaches have a wealth of resources to help them.

Additionally, AYSO's Safe Haven program is role model that is being copied by all ranges of volunteer programs that involve kids -- from sports programs to church programs -- because keeping both adult volunteers and kids safe is a top priority. Luckily an hour or two of Safe Haven training is all that it takes for coaches to be adequately educated in a practical set of operating procedures to ensure safety for all.