We live in a time where helicopter parents have been overtaken by snow plow parents. Helicopter Parents jump in to solve a situation for their kids without letting them figure it out or advocate for themselves. Snow Plow Parents (or Lawn Mower or Bulldozer Parents) want to create a clear path for their children’s success in anything they endeavor. The idea is their youngsters should never have to encounter and overcome any obstacles in their lives.  I'm relatively sure that Helicopters and Snow Plows never see themselves as being those types of parents, so this might be a good time for se ..read more

You may have heard things like this before: Some kids playing organized sports today are in danger of over training, getting injured and burning out. Plus, 70% of all kids playing organized sports drop out by the time they’re 13.  But this time, those points are from a new report from the American Association of Pediatrics (AAP). When my kids were little we trusted our pediatrician. I’m sure you do too. Your pediatrician may not have been a part of the creation of this report. But someone else’s trusted pediatrician was. I'm paying attention to it and I hope you do, too. None of ..read more

Athletes of every stripe can get caught up in results. After all, the entire point of competition is the result. Of course, in youth sports, winning and losing should be kept in perspective, but I’m not one of those who doesn’t believe in keeping score. There is a reason that every game we play -- whether it’s on a field of play, on a computer or on a game board -- ends when someone wins (yeah, I know some sports allow for ties; don’t get me started…).  But when a player becomes too focused on results, they get themselves into trouble. Consider the Big League hitter who goes 0 for 30 ..read more

I know that the holidays are over and you've probably given your child a huge amount of gifts. But I want you to think hard about giving him or her one more gift -- a very special gift. Today -- right now -- give your boy or girl the very best teaching tool in the world. Give him or her permission to fail. It's become increasingly popular of the past 20 years or so for parents to be vigilant and try to protect kids, not just from true danger, but from any type of adversity, frustration or disappointment. There are actually names for that type of parenting. In the early 1990s experts coined the ..read more

The business world is full of books, articles and how-to's on developing leadership skills. Clearly, good leaders are in demand by organizations around the world. Of course, it's more than just a business need. Our police and firefighters need strong leaders. Our cities, states and our nation need strong leaders. Then, why aren't we spending more time developing leadership skills in our kids? One of the great incubators of leadership has always been sports. For many, the lessons of hard work, overcoming challenges and learning to mesh as a team were learned on the field of play. Those are grea ..read more

I did not write this article. But our website has limitations so it shows me as having written this. I'm reprinting a USA Today article with some do-not-miss advice from Tom House. I'll let the reporter, Stephen Borelli gives you the details. — Jim Price REPRINTED FROM USA TODAY, by STEPHEN BORELLI   Brace yourself. Tom House is not a traditional thinker. He looks at failure as a positive, even embraces it. He trusts process over results. In fact, at the younger levels of sports, he thinks the outcome of games is irrelevant. If you are a parent, you might not like what he says about ..read more

I'm a fan of a man named John Sullivan, an author and podcaster who runs an organization called the Changing the Game Project. Not long ago I read a piece he wrote about FOMO ruining kids sports. He started his thoughts by admitting something very difficult for any parent, let alone one who has coached soccer at every level including professionally: when his kids were involved in sports, he often felt FOMO -- the fear of missing out. "I saw other kids their age who were better players, and wondered “what have I failed to do?” I still see other kids who play only one sport, improving quicker t ..read more

I’ve been to several MLB ballgames this season. On the field, the players compete, bringing all of their skills to play for and support one another. In other words, the team and winning as a team are all that matters. In the stands, it can be much different. I sat behind people in two of the games who were much more interested in themselves than in watching the ballgame. In both cases, I watched as those people shot selfie after selfie, then posted those pictures for their legions of social media admirers to see and comment on (yes, I was looking over their shoulders to see what they were doin ..read more

I'm sure by now you've heard about the youth baseball organization in New Jersey that came up with an idea for parents who give umpires a hard time. If not, you can read more about by clicking here. In short, the league has created a policy that any parent ejected from a game by the umpire will then have to umpire a couple of games himself (male pronoun on purpose). Whether you or I think this is a good or bad idea, the point is that the league felt they had a problem to solve, a problem that was getting worse. They had to stop parents from berating teenage umpires. Two weeks before that story ..read more

While I feel like every kid who comes to Bash is one of "my kids", biologically, I only have two kids of my own. Without a clue how this has happened, they are now 35 and 32 years old. It has been years since I was involved as a dad with youth sports. But I remember much of it like it was yesterday. I started coaching when my son began youth baseball at Welles Park, at 7 years old. For the first couple of years, I got swept up in the thinking many young coaches get swept up in. I wondered how other parents would feel about the way I coached their kids and my philosophies on coaching baseball i ..read more