Q’s & A’s with Jim Thompson
A League of Fans Special Feature
Q’s & A’s with Leading Sports Reformers: Jim Thompson
Jim Thompson is founder and chief executive officer of Positive Coaching Alliance (PCA), a non-profit formed at Stanford University with the mission to create a movement to transform the culture of youth sports so that all youth athletes have a positive, character-building experience.
Thompson was named one of the Top 100 Sports Educators in the U.S. by the Institute for International Sport (IIS) in October 2007. Dan Doyle, executive director of IIS, described PCA as “the finest organization of its kind in the United States.”
Since its founding in 1998, Positive Coaching Alliance has developed a network of more than 130 trainers across the U.S., who have delivered 10,000-plus workshops for youth sports leaders, coaches, parents and athletes.
Thompson is the author of numerous books on youth sports, including Positive Coaching: Building Character and Self-Esteem Through Sports and his most recent book, Elevating Your Game: Becoming a Triple Impact Competitor.
Ken Reed, League of Fans’ sports policy director, recently interviewed Thompson.
Ken Reed: What was the trigger that made you decide you wanted to dedicate your career to the calling of reforming youth sports?
Jim Thompson: It was a gradual thing. I was an enthusiastic, but ultimately mediocre athlete. I played basketball for a year in college but got hurt and that was the end of my career. I had kind of lost interest in sports until my son got involved. I went to his games and saw a lot of behavior from well-meaning parents and coaches that was the opposite of what would get the best out of the kids.
After watching my son’s experience for a while, I decided I wanted to try and implement some ideas I had developed through the years. I began coaching my son’s basketball and baseball teams. That led to my first book, Positive Coaching, and it’s progressed from there.
Reed: Let’s get right into it. What is the biggest problem with youth sports today?
Thompson: The win-at-all-cost mentality. It colors everything.
Youth sport seems simple but it’s very complicated. Part of that revolves around how parents see youth sports. We all want to feel important, like our time on earth is meaningful. For parents, part of that meaning comes from their kids. They are concerned about how successful their kids are in life. But research shows that there’s no correlation between success on the little league field and success in life.
In addition, a lot of parents have a belief that says, “How well my kid does on the field reflects on me as a parent.” One of my mentors, John Gardner, once said, “The toughest thing kids have to face is the unfulfilled lives of their parents.” I think there’s a lot of truth in that.
Reed: Haven’t we always had problems with overzealous win-at-all-cost parents in youth sports?
Thompson: There’s always been a win-at-all-cost element in youth sports but it hasn’t been as prevalent, or normalized, or prioritized as it is today.
There are several factors involved. Specialization in one sport is happening earlier these days.
We have people making a living from youth sports. There are basketball and soccer trainers who will benefit financially if you go to their camps, training sessions, and play on their spring and fall teams.
Jay Coakley [a leading sports sociologist] believes youth sport is child labor revisited. You have entrepreneurs making money in youth sports and the staff, in a sense, is made up of young kids. That’s a problem.
Another factor is the popularity of professional sports today. Pro sports leagues, franchises, and the media, like ESPN, are really good at marketing messages to adults and kids.
Reed: How do we change a win-at-all-cost youth sports culture?
Thompson: We have parents with unfulfilled dreams second-guessing the coaches and coaches who’ve come up through the existing sports system and who are in a fish bowl.
It’s a cultural challenge. That’s why we spend a lot of time with the leaders of youth sports organizations, helping them change their culture. Culture is “the way we do things around here.” We assist these leaders in developing organizational culture signals that help coaches and parents behave themselves. Ideally, it gets to the point throughout the organization where violations of the positive sports culture are handled informally by the coaches’ and parents’ peers.
Reed: What’s your long-term goal for the Positive Coaching Alliance?
Thompson: The end-game, the ultimate goal, is to make our model for youth sports the norm, the community standard across the country. We want to get to the point where any coach who isn’t a double-goal coach (a coach who strives to win, but more importantly, strives to develop positive character traits, teach life lessons, and promote sportsmanship) stands out like a sore thumb.
Reed: What accomplishment are you most proud of with the Positive Coaching Alliance?
Thompson: I’ll take credit for creating a vision of an organization and a movement that gets people excited. People that work here make less money working for PCA than they would elsewhere. They believe in the mission. My biggest satisfaction is I’ve started something that’s excited people and is helping to transform youth sports.
Reed: What gives you the most hope that we can transform the youth sports culture to the point where the first thing the vast majority of adults who are involved in youth sports ask is, “What’s best for the kids?”
Thompson: The hope I have comes from seeing so many people implement our tools and have success with them. There are so many people that now believe, with all their heart, that the best way to win is to be positive and build kids up.
Reed: What one thing would you ask folks to do who are interested in youth sports reform and are willing to get involved?
Thompson: Our focal point of change is at the leadership level of youth sports organizations, whether it’s the local soccer club or Little League. We want to help them achieve excellence through culture change. I’d encourage people to get involved in their local youth sports organization at the leadership level. We can help you make a difference.
In many ways, there’s no more important issue than changing the youth sports culture. Transforming youth sports can positively impact our country in many ways. How youth sports are conducted infiltrates our collective mindset. You can definitely see visible results in several areas from developing a positive coaching structure.
Sports Forum Podcast
Episode #30 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: The State of College Athletics with Dr. David Ridpath: Problems and Potential Solutions – Ridpath is a sports administration professor at Ohio University and a long-time member of The Drake Group, a college sports reform think tank.
Listen on Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Anchor and others.
Follow on Facebook: @SportsForumPodcast
More Episodes on Apple Podcasts; Spotify; Google Podcasts; PocketCasts; & Anchor
Episode #29 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: The Honorable Tom McMillen Visits League of Fans’ Sports Forum – McMillen is a former All-American basketball player, Olympian, Rhodes Scholar and U.S. Congressman. We discuss the state of college athletics today.
Episode #28 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: A Chat With Mano Watsa, a Leading Basketball and Life Educator – Watsa is President of PGC Basketball, the largest education basketball camp in the world. We discuss problems in youth sports today.
Episode #27 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: Kids’ Sports: How We Can Take Back the Game and Restore Quality Family Time In the Process – Linda Flanagan is author of “Take Back the Game: How Money and Mania Are Ruining Kids’ Sports and Why It Matters.” We discuss how commercialized and professionalized youth sports are hurting kids and their families.
Episode #26 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: How Can We Fix Youth Sports? – John O’Sullivan is Founder and CEO of Changing the Game Project and author of “Changing the Game: The Parents Guide to Raising Happy, High Performing Athletes and Giving Youth Sports Back to Our Kids.”
Episode #25 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: Physical Education Should Be a Critical Component of K-12 School Design – Michael Horn is co-founder of the Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation.
Media
"How We Can Save Sports" author Ken Reed appears on Fox & Friends to explain how there's "too much adult in youth sports."
Ken Reed appears on Mornings with Gail from KFKA Radio in Colorado to discuss bad parenting in youth athletics.
“Should College Athletes Be Paid?” Ken Reed on The Morning Show from Wisconsin Public Radio
Ken Reed appears on KGNU Community Radio in Colorado (at 02:30) to discuss equality in sports and Title IX.
Ken Reed appears on the Ralph Nader Radio Hour (at 38:35) to discuss his book The Sports Reformers: Working to Make the World of Sports a Better Place, and to talk about some current sports issues.
- Reed Appears on Ralph Nader Radio Hour League of Fans’ sports policy director, Ken Reed, Ralph Nader and the New York Times’ Tyler Kepner discussed a variety of sports issues on Nader’s radio show as well as Reed’s updated book, How We Can Save Sports: A Game Plan. Reed's book was released in paperback in February, and has a new introduction and several updated sections.
League of Fans is a sports reform project founded by Ralph Nader to fight for the higher principles of justice, fair play, equal opportunity and civil rights in sports; and to encourage safety and civic responsibility in sports industry and culture.
Vanderbilt Sport & Society - On The Ball with Andrew Maraniss with guest Ken Reed, Sports Policy Director for League of Fans and author of How We Can Save Sports: A Game Plan
Sports & Torts – Ken Reed, Sports Policy Director, League of Fans – at the American Museum of Tort Law
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