The youth sports world is in shambles.

The goal of youth sports is to create a love for the game and instill the following:

1) effort over everything

2) mindset is a key to performance

3) failure is a needed component to life

This is it. There is no debate and no other purpose. The sports psychologists, the book “Play Big” and every successful professional athlete will tell you this.

The problem is we have failed athletes and people who might have succeed, but not to their potential because they were taught winning over everything and rules are meant to be broken. We see it every day and see the culture of sports being infiltrated by people who don’t understand.

The behavior at sporting events, both professional and youth is abysmal. People drinking at youth events, people throwing beer at people at pro games, people making fun of people’s disabilities to try an hurt another human? These are all acts of cowardice and of people who don’t understand leadership, grace, competition and life. Effort is coached at this level. Practice prepares you for the game and the game is when muscle memory and preparation come into play. The only thing you should be reviewing is little mental tips to help your body remember your preparation and the about giving 100% to every second of that game. You fall back to the level of preparation in a game and if you play loose and focused you will perform better.

Harvard business review had an article this week that showed optimistic people did 30-50% better financially than their counterparts who thought negatively. This can be applied to sports and life in general- if you think you are going to do it, you will.

The good news is that we can help people get through this struggle and not give up. Our posts, brand items and blogs will help keep people engaged on their purpose and see that focusing on positivity and positive energy will succeed in the long term.

The teams who are winning 9U baseball will not be the long-term success stories if they are being coached, taught and trained the wrong ways. The long-term success will be based on mentally tough people who are focusing on getting 1% better ever day and focused on the controllables of effort and “mindset over hindsight.” Failure is part of the process and should be celebrated more than winning. Think about your life and did you learn more when you won or when you failed?