“We must either find a way or make one.”
Hannibal

What's Ahead
Parents:
 Winning Teams Have More Fun and Other Myths
Coaches:
What About Coaches
Players:
Preparation Provides Courage

Maine Youth Sports
www.maineyouthsports.com
P.O. Box 442
Cumberland, ME 04021
inquiry@maineyouthsports.com
(207) 415-6321

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Enjoying Exercise

Children can become better players with exercise away from sports. Jogging, push-ups and sit-ups will improve performance at games. However, exercise for kids is no more enjoyable than for adults. Thus if parents want their child to exercise more, they need to find ways to make it fun until kids can appreciate the value of exercise for themselves. Some suggestions include:

• Parent Participation - Having someone to exercise with is better than exercising alone.
• Games and Competitions - Playing a family game of soccer in the backyard or park can be more fun than jogging and can still accomplish the same result.
• Performance Charting - Keep track of the time or repetitions to give kids a sense of accomplishment.

Exercise benefits come only with time and exercise efforts are always easier to start than to continue. If parents can’t stay with it, it is unlikely that kids will either. Setting up a regular schedule that is enjoyed by everyone is the only way that exercise can have a positive impact on kids.

Winning at All Costs

Coaches of recreational, select and travel teams can all be statistically certain of one thing - they are not coaching any future professional players. With that possibility out of the way, coaches can then ask, “Will the lessons I teach make sense when my players go on to be lawyers, bankers, accountants, police officers and other people who make up my community?” Coaches should try to determine the impact of their lessons on the adult professions that kids are more likely to have. For example:

Youth games are not adult competitions and the goals are quite different. Each time coaches fail to ensure that competitions are played fairly with larger goals than winning at stake, they teach lessons that can have unintended consequences in their players’ adult lives. If coaches want to live in a great community in the future, they will lay the groundwork with every young person they influence today.

What time is it? Now!

Going for a win is the focus of most games. Yet, in one of the more confusing aspects of sports, the more players think about winning the more likely they are to lose. For players to be successful, they have to stay focused on the immediate situation. Any thoughts of how something may affect a win are thoughts that are not available for making a play.

Games test players’ ability to stay in the present. A bad call, a quick score or an increasing gap in scoring all provide things to think about that have nothing to do with making the next play. The more players think about the past or the future, the less time they have to think about the present.

A quick way for players to stay focused is to remember that the current time in any game is always “now”. Whether a team is ahead, behind or tied, players should play smart and with intensity. When players start thinking about anything outside the “now”, they open themselves up to mistakes. Good things and bad things happen in every game. However, until the game is over, time spent celebrating, grieving or complaining is just time that would be better spent thinking about “now”.

Treating Knee Pain

Knee pain can result from being overweight, overuse, poor posture during physical activity, not warming up or cooling down, or inadequate stretching. Many causes of knee pain, especially those related to overuse or physical activity, respond well to self-care, according to The National Institutes of Health.

• Rest and avoid activities that aggravate the pain, especially weight-bearing activities.
• Apply ice. First, apply it every hour for up to 15 minutes. After the first day, apply it at least four times per day.
• Keep your knee elevated as much as possible to ease swelling.
• Gently compress the knee by wearing an ace bandage or elastic sleeve. Either can be purchased at most pharmacies. This may reduce swelling and provide support.
• Take acetaminophen for pain alone, or ibuprofen for pain and swelling.
• Sleep with a pillow underneath or between your knees.

You should call your doctor if you cannot bear weight on your knee; you have severe pain, even when not bearing weight; your knee buckles, clicks or locks; your knee is deformed or misshapen; you have a fever, redness or warmth around the knee, or significant swelling; you have pain, swelling, numbness, tingling or bluish discoloration in the calf below the sore knee; or you still have pain after three days of home treatment.

Healthday News, Feb. 9, 2005

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