Outside The Lines

What Are Your Youth Sports Superstitions?

Superstition and rituals are often as important to athletes (at any level of competition) as having the right gear. Little good luck charms and pre-game activities that are part of your youth athlete’s sports ritual can have a huge impact on their mental state and attitude during a game. Even though that particular pair of socks might not have an actual effect on how many hits they get in one game, they truly believe that without those socks they don’t stand a chance. Just about every sports team, player and coach has their own set of superstitions.

Sports Volunteer Organization and Scheduling Tips

Volunteers are the life blood of most youth sports organizations. They are going to be your coaches, officials and fans, your players’ chauffeurs and cooks; they’ll help run tournaments, organize team parties and much more. Finding enough volunteers to keep your sports organization afloat is only half the battle. Once your volunteer roster is full, it’s up to you as the league administrator to make sure they all are being effectively utilized!

Teaching Coaches to Handle Unruly Sports Parents

As a youth sports administrator, you are responsible for a lot of things—streamlining the registration process, running volunteer and coach background checks, creating team rosters for every age division, scheduling tournaments and much, much more. But as a youth sports administrator your responsibilities extend beyond the league offices and take you out onto the field. It’s also your job to teach your coaches and volunteers how to behave on the field and how to manage unruly sports parents.

Keep Warm During Winter Sports with Three Layers

Dressing appropriately for winter sports is trickier than you might think. Simply piling shirt over shirt isn’t necessarily the best way to stay warm and dry while on the field. The fabric your clothes are made of actually play a huge factor in keeping your warm and comfortable. With the right clothing choices, winter athletes like snowboarders, skiers and even winter runners should really only need three layers to stay warm no matter how long they are outside.

5 Benefits of Individual Sports

Oftentimes, when sports parents, coaches and league administrators talk about “youth sports” they are referring to team sports like baseball, football, soccer, basketball, lacrosse and so forth. Obviously one of the biggest benefits of being involved in a team sport is that a youth athlete learns how to be part of a team. They learn when to lead and when to follow, how to work well with others and function as a group. Some sports parents and coaches might argue that those benefits are lost if a child gets involved in individual sports (karate, tennis, golf, swimming, etc). But if your child is more interested in an individual sport than a team sport, don’t despair!