PCA’s mission is to make high school and youth sports a Development Zone™ to develop Better Athletes, Better People. Parents have an especially important role to play as a Second-Goal Parent® who helps their child become a Triple-Impact Competitor® who makes self, teammates and the game better.
The Big Picture in Youth Sports
A Second-Goal Parent recognizes that there is a Little Picture and a Big Picture in youth sports. The Little Picture concerns things like whether the child is playing the right position, the team is winning, etc. The Big Picture, which often gets drowned out by the Little Pictures, is about what the child is learning from youth sports.
There are two broad goals in youth sports: striving to win and building character so kids develop into successful, contributing members of society. As important as winning may seem, Second-Goal Parents let coaches and athletes worry about the first goal of scoreboard results. Second-Goal Parents have a much more important role to play: ensuring their children take away from sports lessons that will help them be successful in life. That is the Big Picture.
Keeping your focus on the Big Picture is much more vital than being an extraneous back-seat coach. The lifelong impact you can have – that no one else can in quite the way you can – is with the life lessons your child takes away from their sports experience. No one can be there for your child in this way better than you. No one.
Endless Procession of Teachable Moments
If you embrace your role as a Second-Goal Parent, it will transform the way you see youth sports. It will help you seize the endless procession of teachable moments that will come your way again and again when you are looking for them.
What might have seemed like a disappointing loss or a failure by your child becomes an opportunity to reinforce resiliency. A tough competition in forbiddingly hot, cold, or nasty weather can prompt a conversation with your child about learning to enjoy challenges. Whether your child succeeds or fails on the playing field, you will be able to use the experiences to reinforce the kind of person you want him or her to be.
A Second-Goal Parent focuses relentlessly on the Big Picture – helping their child take away the lessons that will help them be successful, contributing members of society. And, in the process a Second-Goal Parent is able to better enjoy their child’s youth sports experience, which will end all too quickly.