I just completed an interview w/ the Associated Press (AP) for an editor by the name of Beth Harpaz. She writes a column on pre-teens and was curious what my feelings were about why they drop out of Little League and how sad that was.
Anyone want to guess what I told her? I will pause now……….OK, you got me. Positivity!!!! That is how you keep them around. You provide a positive environment where successes are applauded and failures treated as learning experiences that bring you one step closer to a success! But everyone who reads this already knew that is what I would say didn’t you?
Why do you think pre-teens quit Little League? I would love to hear.
I don’t work with little leagues, I work with fraternity men and professionals — the exact same theory holds true — being positive (and nice in general) keeps people interested and involved.
It depends on your definition of “celebrating”. If celebrating means everyone is going to get ice cream because we got 2 hits, that’s not good. But praising and publicly acknowledging accomplishment is mandatory in my book. Praise is the best producer of success.
This is interesting, because I don’t give out a “game ball” every game. In fact, I go entire seasons w/o giving one out. It takes something super special to get me to solo out a kid. All celebrations should be about team victories and team accomplishments while recognizing the personal sacrifices that contributed to the success.
That is my 2 cents. Do you think all wins should be celebrated or should victories be part of the overall goal?
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=d5077b46-6dd9-46fa-a65a-fc77de3d84ef)
I don’t work with little leagues, I work with fraternity men and professionals — the exact same theory holds true — being positive (and nice in general) keeps people interested and involved.
How do you feel about celebrating small wins?
It depends on your definition of “celebrating”. If celebrating means everyone is going to get ice cream because we got 2 hits, that’s not good. But praising and publicly acknowledging accomplishment is mandatory in my book. Praise is the best producer of success.
This is interesting, because I don’t give out a “game ball” every game. In fact, I go entire seasons w/o giving one out. It takes something super special to get me to solo out a kid. All celebrations should be about team victories and team accomplishments while recognizing the personal sacrifices that contributed to the success.
That is my 2 cents. Do you think all wins should be celebrated or should victories be part of the overall goal?