AFM RSS Feed Follow Us on Twitter       
AMERICAN FOOTBALL MONTHLY THE #1 RESOURCE FOR FOOTBALL COACHES
ABOUT |  CONTACT |  ADVERTISE |  HELP  



   User Name    Password 
      Password Help





Article Categories


AFM Magazine

AFM Magazine


More Than A Game-A Vehicle for Child Development

by: Jim Brown
© More from this issue

Click for Printer Friendly Version          

  Jim Brown has coached youth sports for over 40 years. Working with over 1,000 players during that time, Coach Brown has won more than 75 per cent of his 400 games, relying solely on positive reinforcement to achieve his dramatic results. On the field, in the locker room, and away from the athletic facilities, Coach Brown created a learning environment in which football was a vehicle for the total development of his athletes. The stories included in his book clearly demonstrate how a tight focus on the personal development of each athlete can deliver victories both on and off the field.

   The following two excerpts include references to the characteristics of a high-performing team and the concept of Emotional Intelligence. The excerpts are included with the permission of Coach Brown and the Legacy Book Company, a division of the Greenleaf Book Group, LLC. To obtain a copy of More Than A Game go to www.more-than-a-game.com.

  The Ten Characteristics of a High-Performing Team:

1-Develop goals, objectives and a plan to achieve them.

2-Pay the price required to execute the plan.

3-Put team goals ahead of individual goals.

4-Be accountable of your own responsibilities and commitments.

5-Be complete with one another—open and honest.

6-Listen generously and empathetically.

7-Be proactive when dealing with adversity.

8-Fulfill your commitments at all costs—never, ever, give up.

9-Be for one another—support and invest in one another’s growth and success.

10-Celebrate team and personal success—celebration of today’s success fuels future success.

 

Emotional Intelligence-

  A primary reason for this team’s success was its emotional success. According to Daniel Goleman, emotional intelligence is defined as a combination of intellect, values, and getting along with others. If you can improve any aspect of this formula, you become more emotionally intelligent. This is the power of emotional intelligence. Reaching high levels of EI is possible because improvement of any aspect of it is totally within a person’s control. That’s why improvement is likely. As they grow their EI, team members can easily contribute to one another’s growth.

  When teammates help each other improve, they feel good and personally improve their EI by teaching and improving relationships. Internalization occurs and the cycle continues. That is why emotional intelligence is so important to team performance. EI can be taught to children without their understanding of the concept. Our Redwing team’s emotional intelligence was out of sight by the end of the season.

 

Author: Jim Brown

 

Jim Brown has been a volunteer coach of the St. Raphael Varsity football team for 40 years in Naperville, Illinois and has also been president of the St. Raphael Football Program for 30 years. For the past five years, the organization has achieved a 90% positive approval rating from its 2800 participants.

The program recently won the 2008 Honoring the Gameaward from the Positive Coaching Alliance. This is a national award that has been given to an exceptional youth sports program each year for the past eight years. The Positive Coaching Alliance has conducted over 6000 live sessions nationwide to over 300,000 coaches and parents to promote positive coaching environments.

Coach Brown graduated from Northwestern with an engineering degree and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Business. He worked for Lucent Technologies for 34 years and is retired.  At Lucent, he started up their domestic and international marketing organizations. His last assignment was to change the culture and operational approach within the 135,000 employee firm. This included a change to high performing teams and a coaching style of leadership.  Over the past 15 years, he combined his industrial and youth sports experience to write More Than a Game  which delivers valuable messages to youth, parents and organizational leaders.

 

 

 






NEW BOOK!

AFM Videos Streaming Memberships Now Available Digital Download - 304 Pages of Football Forms for the Winning Coach



















HOME
MAGAZINE
SUBSCRIBE ONLINE COLUMNISTS COACHING VIDEOS


Copyright 2024, AmericanFootballMonthly.com
All Rights Reserved