By Jack Smith
This has everything to do with mental
health and nothing to do with mental health. Publishing here because several
folks asked me to.
I posted this on
Facebook last night
after an experience with little league baseball.
Sports are a lot like life. The battles we
learn to fight there may help us when we face far more imposing opponents, like
disappointment, loss or mental illness.
We can all use good coaches to help us
through the hard times.
Couple observations about youth sports and coaches.
1. Encouragement works. Yelling does not. (Watch
elite coaches who've won National Championships up close and personal and
you'll learn this lesson).
2. Children have good memories. So don't tell them
one thing before the game and another after a loss. That's called hypocrisy.
Kids may not know how to spell it but they know how to smell it. From left
field.
3. Respect must be earned. Not demanded.
4. Kids don't care how much you know until they know
how much you care. About them. Not the game you are trying to win to prop up
your own ego.
5. It's not possible to be objective about your own
children. So guard against that blind spot. Everyone else sees it from 10 miles
away.
