The Sports Doc Chalk Talk

Parents and coaches tune in —- if you want to help kids more quickly learn and master new sports skills, “shaping” may prove to be the answer (Sport Success 360).  Shaping is a conditioning technique first introduced by B.F. Skinner that uses reinforcement to increase the frequency of a behavior. Shaping is a great technique to help kids learn the sport skills necessary to excel and reach their full athletic potential – and the good news is the technique is relatively easy to learn and use.

B.F. Skinner is the founder of operant learning, a theoretical approach to learning that relies exclusively on patterns of reinforcement. In the most basic sense, Skinner would suggest that human beings do things that give them pleasure, and avoid things that produce pain (physical or emotional). Operant learning does not take into account a person’s inner psyche, bonding patterns, neuron activity, leadership style, or anything else — instead, it is an approach to learning that is simply about patterns of reinforcement.

Shaping is a simple technique, and begins with a target behavior identified. For example, lets say you wanted to teach your child to learn the art of bunting in baseball/softball. You might identify the end goal of being squared around, feet and shoulders set, bat in place, and a good bunt placed on the pitched ball. Assuming the child has never successfully bunted before, he or she will likely struggle with the first step to bunting – getting the body turned in to a “bunting” position.  This is where your overt reinforcement can make all the difference.

When using shaping, it is important to use hearty praise and reinforcement for each successive approximation toward the end goal. Using the bunting example, you might praise the child the first time he turns his or her body in the correct direction toward the pitcher – even if he misses the bunt. Remember, you are reinforcing successive approximations and not the overall mastering the goal.After the child begins to turn his body the correct way in order to successfully bunt, make sure to not praise any efforts that get worse from this point. For example, on the second pitch if the child forgets to turn his body simply say nothing (rather than reinforce – after all, there is nothing to reinforce). On the third pitch the child might turn in the correct position again, which of course would be reinforced.

As you continue with the drill you only want to reinforce (praise) each progressively more advanced skill. If the child stagnates and only continues to move his feet, simply say nothing and carry on with the drill — you can re-introduce praise once the child completes the next skill in the goal ladder (like getting the bat into the proper position).

Shaping, in its most basic sense, is an approach to teaching that only offers reinforcement with each successive step that gets closer to the end goal. When the child fails, there is no need to criticize or punish, but simply continue with the drill and praise when each step toward the end goal is accomplished.

Below is an example of a shaping hierarchy (listed from most basic to most advanced):

1. Turn feet into bunting position as pitcher is ready to make delivery

2. Square shoulders toward the pitcher

3. Get bat into appropriate bunting position4. Execute bunt successfully

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Youth sports teams excel through great team leadership and role modeling, and that almost always starts with the coach (Sports Success 360). In best-case scenarios, good coaches create an optimal sporting environment where young athletes play safely, have fun, and develop both on the field athletically as well as off the field through character development learned through sports.

Unfortunately, coaches who blow off the significance and importance of positive coaching can negatively impact the overall sport experience for kids, often leading to a lack of fun for kids, increased likelihood for injuries, and possibly even premature quitting from sports altogether.

Since youth coaches at the little league and pop warner levels are almost always volunteers, it is important to examine if taking on the responsibility of being a coach is a good fit before signing up to lead a team. Quite a bit goes into coaching – even at the youth level – so ask yourself the following questions and see how you stack up:

1. Are you invested in coaching for the right reasons? If you are dedicated to helping kids grow and develop through sports by teaching them life skills, maintaining healthy training methods, and instructing them on how to develop athletic skills, then you are probably well on your way to becoming a good coach! If, on the other hand, your main focus is winning championships, you might want to look at other, more advanced coaching opportunities instead of youth sports.

2. Does your schedule allow for the time commitment required from coaching? Youth sports can be a time-consuming experience when you factor in meetings, practices, and games, so check your schedule ahead of time before committing to coach to make sure you can fulfill your responsibilities to the team.

3. Are you motivated to take on the challenge of being a coach? While it would be nice to simply “show up” and play, sports teams require quite a bit of effort form the coach. More specifically, coaches have to evaluate talent, inspire and motivate kids to compete, help kids deal with adversity, and of course, deal with parents.

4. Can you make the experience fun for kids? Above and beyond all else, the number one reason why kids play sports is to have fun! As a coach, it is your responsibility to ensure the sport environment you create for the kids you coach is a fun and exciting place, and that you work hard to ensure that your team environment isn’t too “business-like.”

5. Do you communicate well, and can you handle criticism? When coaching kids you will soon learn that they don’t always communicate the same way as adults, making it difficult sometimes to truly know what’s bothering them. Good coaches find ways to develop unique relationships with their kids, which allows for trusting, meaningful conversations to take place. Coaches should also be prepared for parents who “Monday morning quarterback” and second guess the coaches decisions in games. If you have a short-fuse and are not willing to take criticism, coaching might not be the best place for you to spend your time.

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If you are a parent with children involved in youth sports it is important that you stay proactive in the experience if you hope for your child to get the most out of sports (Sport Success 360).  Unfortunately, in cases where kids have less than positive outcomes in youth sports, it is often due to the disconnect and lack of positive role modeling between parent and coach.  For example, if a parent expects that all kids on the team will play equally, but the coach has a philosophy that only the best kids will play, it’s likely the parent will feel discriminated against when seeing other kids get more playing time than their child.

As a parent, there are many things you can do to help minimize the chances of your child having a bad experience in sports, including increasing your efforts to better understand the coach and his/her philosophy toward coaching.  The following 5 questions are designed to help you in this pursuit, and can minimize some of the ambiguities that often exist between coach and parent:

1. Ask the coach about the competitive nature of the team/league. Before signing your child up for a team, be sure you fully understand whether it is an “elite” team/premier league, or recreational.  This may sound like common sense, but even today we still have many parents who assume all youth sports leagues are the same — they are clearly not!

2. Ask the coach about how playing time is determined. In elite and competitive leagues playing time is almost always dependent on talent, whereas in recreational leagues it is more common to see the “everyone plays equally” model in effect.

3. Ask the coach about any related time/money costs that might not be immediately known during sign-ups. For example, if your child will travel for competition, ask the coach what type of costs are typically involved?  In recreational leagues traveling costs may not apply, but there may be time obligations to consider — like the annual cleanup the field day.

4. Ask the coach about the consequences of time conflicts and potential missed games/practices. Of course, while the goal is to responsibly attend all practices and games, there are often times where parents get stuck at work, or face a conflict between their kids and their schedules.  It is for these reasons that you talk to the coach early and see what is expected from you when these things occur.

5.  Ask the coach if he/she needs help. Being a volunteer coach can be an unbelievable task, and most coaches as a result are pretty open-minded when others offer to help in some small way.  Perhaps you can help by keeping the books, compiling statistics, or assisting with fund raisers —  or maybe you have a technical background and can offer to create a team webpage or blog.  There are many different and important ways parents can help coaches, so be sure to see if your child’s coach could use a hand.

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It’s hard to believe it’s been 10 years since I spoke to Liz Cho at ABC World News about The Parents Playbook, as well as the contemporary issues and trends commonly experienced in youth sports.  Ironically, other than the fact that I use to have hair, many of the same issues I talked about during this interview pertaining to sports transitions, youth sport burnout, role modeling, boys and girls sports are still around today.

You can pick up your digital download of The Parents Playbook here!

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If you are a parent with several kids involved in youth sports, then you already know how challenging it can be when it comes to positive role modeling and equally dividing your attention amongst the various games that your kids play (The Parents Playbook).  For kids, much of their sport adherence, growth, and development comes as a direct result of your active participation and encouragement, making it very important that you dedicate as much time as you can to attending your child’s games.  Obviously with multiple kids involved in girls and boys sports, this can be very challenging to do.

When kids see their parents in the stands or on the sidelines, they often beam with pride, often prompting them to try even harder to please you.  As a result, it behooves parents to make it a priority to attend as many games as possible, even when it’s not always the most convenient thing to do.  Remember, kids are quickly shaped by the efforts put forth by their parents — therefore, if you want your child to dedicate him- or herself to sports, then it is important that you develop skills that allow you to maxmize your attendance at as many of your kids games as possible.For a more complete overview on how to balance various kids athletic schedules, as well specific tips you can use to help, please check out this article I previously wrote for Columbus Parent magazine. www.drstankovich.com