Non-competitive youth soccer leads to more physical activity by kids
Research shows a  high level of enjoyment in either type

A study presented today at the annual meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine in Indianapolis has shown that the structuring of children’s games has a significant effect on energy expenditure.  A research team led by Karla Bruggeman and David Dzewaltowski, Ph.D., measured activity during both elimination- and non-elimination games, using accelerometers, in 29 children in grades four through six. Both normal weight and overweight children participated in the study, but were not separated for analysis.

In non-elimination games, kids accrued more overall physical activity due to not having to spend time on the sidelines as a result of elimination. They also accumulated significantly more moderate and vigorous physical activity than elimination games. Both sets of games were adopted from a children’s program devised by a nonprofit group that uses various pieces of equipment to facilitate non-competitive play; elimination games were modified from non-competitive versions.

Children were surveyed for self-efficacy, enjoyment, and peer victimization following both types of games. Results showed that enjoyment was somewhat higher following elimination games, although enjoyment scores were high in non-elimination games as well. There were no reports of peer victimization in either set of games, but were significant increases in self-efficacy after both sets.

“The games in this study were part of fun and enjoyable day camp,” Bruggeman said. “It is likely that a well organized and positive game experience increases a kid’s confidence regardless of elimination or non-elimination game conditions.”  However, Bruggeman did record less total physical activity in girls compared to boys, findings that align with other studies showing girls tend to be less active than boys. She says physical education teachers and other recreational instructors should carefully plan activities to ensure kids are getting an adequate amount of physical activity.

“This study highlights the importance of quality over quantity in a physical activity session for children,” Bruggeman said. “It is important to promote non-elimination games to increase physical activity participation, but also important to monitor levels of enjoyment to foster a healthy, fun environment in youth.” The American College of Sports Medicine has long been an advocate of children getting adequate amounts of physical activity, and has reported that higher physical activity levels may lead to higher academic achievement. The group is the largest sports medicine and exercise science organization in the world.

More than 20,000 international, national, and regional members are dedicated to advancing and integrating scientific research to provide educational and practical applications of exercise science and sports medicine.

Check back next week for another great Article from Koach Karl…

Integrating Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation

We see that both intrinsic and extrinsic motivators are critical to wellbeing and successful maturation. Awareness of external influences is important to fitting into society. Awareness of what motivates us internally helps us to choose the activity or path where we are more likely to succeed. This integration of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation is the challenge of parenting and living.

So what are parents to do when they want their children to make changes? How can we help them integrate the two types of motivation?

•Remember that it’s a balance of what we see as the goal and finding the path the fits the child.
•Listen, listen, listen. What are they telling you about what motivates them by their excitement? What de-motivates them by their lack of enthusiasm?
•Observe, observe, observe. What does your child enjoy? What are their strengths?
•Help your child to notice these for herself.
•Encourage experimentation and learning from mistakes by viewing the missteps as information, rather than judging them.
Parents are the most influential adults in our children’s lives. We teach them as we are just living our lives—balancing our own social obligations and internal motivators. Make space for your passions and your children will learn to do the same.

From the author: This is a year for change. I believe that changing the world starts with intentional, informed and positive parenting. And I believe that all parents need support to do the hardest job in the world. After all, all we have to do is follow the advice of the immortal Yogi Berra: “When you see a fork in the road, take it.”

Check back next week for another great article….

What’s So Great About Intrinsic Motivation?

Self-motivation researchers Ryan and Deci say that intrinsic motivation is the internal driver for the deepest type of learning, curiosity, and exploration. It is our natural drive to be happy, interested and fulfilled and is therefore linked with a number of positive outcomes in children—including creativity, better task performance, and higher psychological well-being.

Think about this for ourselves. Don’t we do better when the task at hand is intrinsically motivating to us? My friend dislikes math, but when he wants to find money in the family budget for a fun family vacation, he dives right into running those numbers with gusto.

In the case of our daughter, we thought we knew what was best for her. And we did. There’s nothing wrong with wanting all the benefits of a team sport for your child. We just took the wrong route. As extrinsic motivators we were right about the goals and wrong about how to get there. In the end, noticing her interest in archery accomplished all that we had wanted soccer to accomplish. What’s more, she enjoyed it and needed less prodding to practice.

So intrinsic motivation is important to self-motivation, but too much of it makes us self-indulgent and not able to fit into society. That’s where extrinsic motivation comes into the picture.

What’s So Bad About Extrinsic Motivation?

Bitten Cookie What is extrinsic motivation? As children grow and develop, they become more aware of their place in larger contexts—first family, then school, community, and workplace. Gradually, their actions become increasingly influenced by other people and their environment. Our children find themselves responding more and more to external triggers—rewards, deadlines, threats, directives and social pressures. Extrinsic motivators start with the offer of a cookie and go on to the threat of being downsized.
Also as we mature, our behavior is influenced first by intrinsic motivation, then extrinsic motivation. If we are motivated only by pleasing others, chasing money, or other external rewards, we are guided primarily by extrinsic factors. We are in danger of losing a sense of identity. What inspires us? What do we value? What’s our own path to success?
Dollar Signs

So we need extrinsic motivation to survive in the larger world and to temper our more self-centered excesses. But too much is not good for our health.

Check back next week for the final chapter of this interesting article…

Smart Safety Moves
Each year more than 3.5 million children under age 15 seek medical treatment for sports-related injuries, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. To help keep your child safe, experts recommend following these guidelines:
See your pediatrician first. Before your child begins a sport, make an appointment to have his fitness level evaluated and discuss any previous injuries he's had.

Brush up on protective gear. Kids need more than snazzy sneakers. Ask the coach about helmets, eye protection, mouth guards, wrist, knee and elbow pads, and any other equipment young players may need.

Encourage proper warm-up. Skipping stretching increases your child's risk of injury. The team should warm up for 15 to 30 minutes before playing.

Be sure the rules of the game are enforced. Kids who disregard the rules can easily injure themselves and those around them. Watch a few practices and games to make sure that the coach disciplines kids who act up or are too aggressive on the field.

Emphasize alertness. Many kids are so busy watching the ball that they forget to be aware of the other players. Remind your child to look around at all times to avoid potentially harmful collisions.

Head off dehydration. Be sure your child drinks plenty of water before, during, and after practices and games, especially in hot weather. Kids weighing under 90 pounds should drink five ounces of water every 20 minutes to replenish fluids lost through sweat.

De-accessorize. Remove your child's jewelry and watch before play. They may injure her or other players during close contact.

Prepare for emergencies. Ensure that the coach is trained in first aid and CPR; it's also smart for him to have a cell phone to quickly call for help if needed. — Jessica Brown

Check back next week for a new article about Youth Soccer Coaching.

The theme of change is in the air. The country needs so much change—our financial markets need an overhaul, our relationships around the world need some care and fence-mending, health care and education are still in need of serious revamping, and on and on. On the family level, parents of teenagers are thinking, “Mr. Obama, you have two pre-adolescent daughters. If you can tackle all these problems, can you change our teenagers? Can you get her to keep her room clean or him do his homework without so much prodding?”

Human beings change. Young human beings need our support as they change. How can parents and other adults help children to grow and change in healthy directions?

Injecting Motivation: Does it Work?
It’s an age-old question about change that can rule the lives of parents as much as any national problem: if behavior is driven by motivation, how can we motivate our children to do what we know is best for them? Part of the answer is “We can’t.” Why, because human motivation is driven partly by internal (intrinsic) and partly by external (extrinsic) factors. Parents are an extrinsic factor.

Here’s a small example to illuminate the difference between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. When our daughter was 6, we signed her up for soccer. It seemed to be a good way to develop physical and mental agility as well as to make friends in the neighborhood. Somewhere between the ages of 6 and 12, soccer took on new meaning for us, her parents. We thought: if she continues with it, and gets better at it, it will give her a sense of fun and accomplishment–not to mention, a team sport that she can play in high school. We invested time and effort into making it fun. We didn’t want to notice that she didn’t seem to relish soccer practice.

Then one day we drove by an indoor archery range and I watched as her head and body spun around like the girl in The Exorcist to read every word on the sign. “Are you interested in archery?” I said tentatively. “Oh yes!” she said without hesitation. The rest of the story is that she took up archery, competed at a national level, and continues to shoot archery in college, nine years later. Needless to say, she quit soccer immediately after taking up archery. She was playing soccer because we wanted her to. She shoots archery because she wants to.

Check back next week for the continuation of this article….

Smart Safety Moves
Each year more than 3.5 million children under age 15 seek medical treatment for sports-related injuries, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. To help keep your child safe, experts recommend following these guidelines:
See your pediatrician first. Before your child begins a sport, make an appointment to have his fitness level evaluated and discuss any previous injuries he's had.

Brush up on protective gear. Kids need more than snazzy sneakers. Ask the coach about helmets, eye protection, mouth guards, wrist, knee and elbow pads, and any other equipment young players may need.

Encourage proper warm-up. Skipping stretching increases your child's risk of injury. The team should warm up for 15 to 30 minutes before playing.

Be sure the rules of the game are enforced. Kids who disregard the rules can easily injure themselves and those around them. Watch a few practices and games to make sure that the coach disciplines kids who act up or are too aggressive on the field.

Emphasize alertness. Many kids are so busy watching the ball that they forget to be aware of the other players. Remind your child to look around at all times to avoid potentially harmful collisions.

Head off dehydration. Be sure your child drinks plenty of water before, during, and after practices and games, especially in hot weather. Kids weighing under 90 pounds should drink five ounces of water every 20 minutes to replenish fluids lost through sweat.

De-accessorize. Remove your child's jewelry and watch before play. They may injure her or other players during close contact.

Prepare for emergencies. Ensure that the coach is trained in first aid and CPR; it's also smart for him to have a cell phone to quickly call for help if needed. — Jessica Brown

Check back next week for a new article about Youth Soccer Coaching.

Address Problems
If you're having doubts about your child's coach, speak up. Don't assume things will get better on their own. Whether the problem is that your child always bats ninth or the coach loses his temper during games, give it as much thought as you would a conflict with your child's teacher, suggests Ripken. At the proper time, and not in front of other parents, approach the coach and mention that you'd like to discuss a few issues. "But pick your battles. If you nitpick and complain every day, you're not going to have a happy relationship," says Ripken, who now has a children's baseball league named after him. In the league, which includes nearly 700,000 kids, he's planning to establish rules against parents speaking up or using intimidation during games. His overall goal: to bring the spirit of fun back to the game so that kids enjoy it rather than feel it's being forced upon them.

Dr. Seefeldt recommends asking the coach about his expectations for the children. Ask what skills the kids should possess and at what level they should be able to perform; the answers allow you to judge whether the coach knows the sport. Also, have a discussion about the coach's code of conduct for his players. Open with, "If discipline seems called for, how do you address the children?"

You may very well find that the coach is just as eager to work out these issues as you are. After all, you're on the same team.

The Pros Weigh In
"It's essential that parents conduct research and make sure that their child is in a good and healthy sports program. The best way to do that? Ask parents for feedback and spend time watching how coaches react to the other children — what you observe can set the tone for the entire experience." — Robin Wagner, Glen Cove, NY-based coach of 2002 Olympic figure skating gold medalist Sarah Hughes

"My wife and I made a real point of not encouraging our son to play football at all, even though I'd had a successful career as a player myself. Instead, we were very interested in having him try all kinds of other activities — including soccer, baseball, and basketball — until he found the one sport he truly enjoyed." — Calvin Hill, former All-Pro NFL running back and father of NBA star Grant Hill

"Regard your child's sports participation as you would her participation in a school play. Sit down, keep quiet, and try to absorb the scene as a whole. Polite respect and encouragement are what's called for here. If you're not having any fun watching your child play sports, neither, probably, is your child." — Ken Holtzman, youth sports supervisor in St. Louis and former All-Star Major League pitcher.

Check  back next week for the continuation of this great article…..

Spotting a Quality Coach

Who are the people running children's sports teams? The answer is often as simple as looking in the mirror: You are. Of the 2.5 million adult volunteers involved in kids' leagues, more than half have kids playing in the same league.

In some ways, that's reassuring news. "Parents mean well. They want their children to have a positive experience, and the overwhelming majority really are trying to do the right things," says Dr. Burton. Unfortunately, coaches often take the job with a less-than-perfect résumé. In fact, few have even been exposed to formal coach training, though programs of this type have been gaining popularity.Other coaches aren't equipped to teach the fundamentals of the game. And a minority of them may run their teams with the old Vince Lombardi bromide "Winning isn't everything; it's the only thing" ringing in their ears.

Coaches
But there are exceptions. Vern Seefeldt, Ph.D., Michigan State University professor emeritus and founder and former director of the College of Education's Institute for the Study of Youth Sports, praises those coaches who direct equal attention to the less gifted players. These leaders understand that their job is to build confidence and self-esteem in all players, not just the stars, says Dr. Seefeldt: "Coaches have a tremendous responsibility to improve the skills of the least talented individuals. The better players generally take care of themselves in terms of skill development, but they, too, need guidance in social and moral development."

Practices are an especially good indicator of a coach's ability to relate to young athletes. The sessions should be set up so that players are constantly engaged, stopping only for drink breaks and to marvel at how much fun they're having. In a well-run practice, an hour flies by before kids realize they've improved a move or shot.

Unfortunately, there are a misguided few. David Norris, who lives in northeastern Pennsylvania, was taken aback when the coach of his 12-year-old son's "very competitive" soccer team had a meltdown after the team lost a game. On the sidelines, players were reaching for a post-game snack when the frustrated coach aggressively slapped at their hands. In the tangle of limbs, one child was thrown to the ground. The coach later offered what seemed a "lame and insincere" apology to the parents: "I broke my number-one rule. I lost my temper." But Norris said nothing to the coach because his son begged him not to. "He told me, 'If you bring this up, I'll get less playing time,'" explains Norris, whose name has been changed.

A coach who openly flouts the rules can be just as offensive. "If a league has a rule requiring players to rotate through various positions, but some children keep playing the same position over and over, that tells me the coach is more interested in winning than in helping kids," says Dr. Burton. "This kind of behavior can dramatically reduce the self-esteem of those athletes who get shortchanged."

In rare but unfortunate situations, things can spiral out of control between parents and coaches. Last September, a Middletown, NJ, man struck a coach in the middle of a youth soccer tournament. The fight had begun when a player was injured and the opposing coach yelled for him to be dragged off the field. Just as an official was penalizing the coach for the insensitive remarks, a parent of a player on the other team approached the coach and hit him in the face.

Check back next week for the continuation of this great article……

The Ins and Outs of Kid Leagues
When former Baltimore Orioles star Cal Ripken Jr. was searching for a baseball league for his then 7-year-old son, Ryan, a few years ago, he could have easily brought his major-league know-how to the search. But Ripken admits he really wasn't as analytical as he might have been. Eventually he and his wife, Kelly, enrolled Ryan in a league that (a) was nearby and (b) had a longstanding connection to their family, because Kelly's dad had been one of its founders.

Though it's worked well for Ryan, Ripken doesn't suggest following his lead. Before you enroll your child, he recommends studying a league as you would a school. Go to a few games. Speak with parents of players. Peruse practice and game schedules, noting how many nights per week your child is being asked to commit. Among the questions he suggests posing to league officials: Is there a strong emphasis on winning? How much importance is placed on teaching and having fun? "It's easy to get carried away with practices three nights a week and a game on night four," says Ripken. "Before long, you're looking at a schedule that matches the pros'."

Chris Downs, president of Baltimore's Roland Park Baseball League for players ages 6 to 13, says one of the best questions a parent can ask is one he seldom hears: Does your league have a mission statement? "That's the first thing I'd want to know," says Downs, a middle school teacher and father of two girls who play in his league. Be wary of statements containing phrases like "highly competitive" and "total commitment" — most experts agree that a child's first sports experience should be relaxed.

The highly competitive non-travel leagues are easy to spot. Usually, the more rules a league imposes on kids, the more serious it is. Warning signals include coaches with policies about missed practices (two and you're off the team, for example), registration forms that advise against family vacations during the season, and admonitions from league officials not to join extracurricular activities. Before enrolling your child in such a league, especially if she's under 12, parents should ask themselves, "Does my child truly want this, or am I pushing my own desires for competition onto her?" Some kids thrive on more serious games, of course. But forcing reluctant children into such high-pressure situations can turn them off to sports for years — or forever.

Travel Teams
Eventually, some parents have to decide whether to sign their kids up for travel teams, where the seasons generally become longer and the uniforms spiffier. The stakes are higher too — some travel teams expect players to hone their skills year round. And though these leagues have been in existence only since the 1970s, they're now available in most communities. Many cater to children 12 and over, but as travel leagues gain acceptance, the age of entry has sunk to 7 or 8.

Marty and Richard Justice, who live in a suburb of Houston, expect to spend at least a few upcoming weekends on the road. Their daughters, Katy, 15, and Lizzie, 11, are swimmers for a community club that has made its mark in the Southwest. But staying with the program requires dedication: Katy spends as many as 18 hours in the pool each week. And it's not cheap. Marty estimates that between team fees and travel bills, her family will rack up charges of $5,000 to $7,000 this year.

Unfortunately, some parents expect payback for this kind of investment. "I've seen a mother berate her child because she didn't get a time the mother was hoping for," says Marty. "We've told our girls, 'When you're tired and don't feel like doing it anymore, you quit. This is for you, not for us.'" Betty Symington, mother of Arthur, 11, a soccer player, agrees — she doesn't even consider travel teams. "At this age, it's too intense and too competitive," says Symington, of Upperco, MD. "And it takes away from family time on weekends."

Looking for a guiding principle? Just as every child is different, no two leagues are alike. Do the research. Above all, keep your child's life in balance. Take her to the movies once a month. Encourage her to volunteer at a soup kitchen. And make sure schoolwork always comes first.

Check  back next week for the continuation of this great article….