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Q & A with Jim Thompson

Jim Thompson is the founder and Executive Director of Positive Coaching Alliance, a not-for-profit organization established in 1998 at Stanford University in the USA. Positive Coaching Alliance is a movement which was created to attempt to transform the culture of youth sports so that all youth athletes have a positive, character-building experience.

In a short interview with Positive Coaching Scotland, Jim revealed his reasons for establishing Positive Coaching Alliance, his current experiences of the programme and what he believes Scotland can gain from Positive Coaching Scotland as a nation..

What inspired you to create Positive Coaching Alliance?

Years ago I worked with emotionally disturbed, behaviour-problem children. I was trained in behaviour modification and Rudolf Dreikurs' logical and natural consequences and the like.  The biggest insight I got was how important it was to be positive while we were establishing limits on kids' behaviour.  We saw great changes happen in kids who were disturbed and, in some cases, who had been abused.  A relentlessly positive approach worked wonders with them.

When I started going to my son's youth sports games, I was amazed and sometimes appalled at the behaviour I saw from parents and coaches.  I figured they were well meaning but in many cases they were doing exactly the wrong thing to get the best from youth athletes.  And too often the athletes were having a miserable time because of it.

I started adapting some of the techniques I had learned to the playing field.  They worked as well there as they had in the classroom.  Players advanced rapidly and parents wanted their kids on my team.  I got hooked on coaching--there really is little in life as satisfying as helping youth improve and grow as people, and sports is the very best place to do that.  And the fact that these frameworks and tools help develop great athletes and teams is a bonus

What was your main aim at the start of the programme?

Initially, my goal was simply to stop adults from doing bad things that would drive kids out of sports.  While there are some people who just shouldn't be working with kids, most coaches and parents want to do the right thing.  They simply don't know how to help kids achieve their potential.

What are you aiming for today?

PCA has transformed from trying to keep bad things from happening to recognizing that the playing field is by far the best place to teach life lessons and build positive character traits in youth. The fact that kids love sports and want to play makes it a much richer virtual classroom for character education than the academic classroom.Someone once described sports as life with the volume turned up.  Sports is intense and in-your-face and it requires quick decision-making.  At the same time, it isn't life or death.  You can make a mistake on the field without anyone getting killed or losing their life savings.  And, if you have a coach who is a character educator, it can be filled with incredible teachable moments, positive and negative moments within sport which young athletes can learn from

So our aim has grown to wanting to transform the entire culture of youth sports so it realises its potential to develop great people as well as great athletes.  A big key to this is our mental models: The Double-Goal Coach who prepares his team to win while using sports to teach life lessons. The Second-Goal Parent who lets the players and coaches focus on the first goal of winning while they concentrate on helping their children take away the right lessons from sports.

What constitutes good sportsmanship in a young sportsperson for you?

We coined the phrase the ROOTS of Honouring the Game to redefine sportsmanship in a more robust way. 

ROOTS stands for

Respect for the Rules - you don't bend them even when you can get away with it

Opponents - you see them as a gift that will push you to be the best you can be

Officials - you show respect for them even when you disagree with their decision

Teammates - you never do anything on or off the field that will bring dishonour on them

Self - you develop your own standards of behaviour and adhere to them, no matter what your opponent does.

Youth coaches should be modelling and teaching ROOTS as an integral part of their coaching.  Because the larger sports culture routinely violates the ROOTS of Honouring the Game, it is crucial that youth coaches make this a cornerstone of their coaching. Coaches should be positive role models as young athletes watch their coach and copy them whether the actions are positive or not.

How important a role do you believe sport plays in teaching young people life lessons?

If we were to design an ideal character-education program, we would need--facilities for the program to operate in--adult volunteers to work with youth--parents willing to make sacrifices to get their children to the program--and ideally, it would be a program that children would be eager to take part in. We already have all this infrastructure in place--it's called youth sports! The crucial piece missing is adults who see themselves as character educators and training to give them the frameworks and tools to be successful at it.  That's what Positive Coaching Alliance is all about

How do you see Scotland being influenced by Positive Coaching Scotland?

I am very excited about the great start Positive Coaching Scotland has gotten off to.  I had the great good fortune to be in Scotland for the launch last October and it was a high point of my life.  There is so much excitement and commitment from the grassroots level to the leadership of the Scottish Football Association.  I foresee Scottish youth having a wonderful experience with sports.  Some of those athletes are going to have the ability to excel on the world stage, but the biggest benefit to Scottish society will be the many kids who become happy, successful contributing citizens, partly because of the life lessons they learn through sports.

Why is it important for Scotland as a nation to embrace Positive Coaching? 

No country that wants to succeed in the globalizing world can afford to waste the potential of any of its young people.  This is even more crucial for a smaller country like Scotland.  Scotland has history of contributions to the world way beyond what its size would indicate. If Positive Coaching becomes the norm in Scotland, which I believe it can, then it will contribute to that tradition continuing.

As you can likely tell, I am a big admirer of the country and the people of Scotland, and I am honoured that such a wonderful country would embrace Positive Coaching.  I'm looking for big things to happen!

For more information on Positive Coaching Alliance, visit www.positivecoach.org/

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