Whether you have heard of him or not, one of the most influential and inspirational black men in this country is none other than Pastor T.D. Jakes.
His motivational and enlightening lectures are reflected in his new book titled, Reposition Yourself, which encourages readers to live their lives without limits.
I recently attended one of Jakes' seminars and walked away with a powerful message and inspirational thoughts pertaining to life, and in my case, youth sports.
What, you might ask, does repositioning yourself have to do with youth sports?
Plenty.
In some respects around the nation, youth sports, leagues, directors and parents have become stagnated and not looking toward the future.
Obesity is on the rise among our kids and participation is falling off.
We tend to do the same things like schedule the same boring clinics that coaches don't want to attend and have the same fundraisers that parents don't want to contribute to with directors who don't want to facilitate.
Now its time to reposition our thinking and restructure for the future.
If we don't, we're going to dig a bigger rut than the one we're already in.
New faces and new people need to enter the picture.
Little League figured out that kids were hurting their arms at an alarming rate.
They repositioned their thinking and instituted a pitch count.
They took action though it didn't sit well with every league and coach, but it was in the best interest and health of the kids.
Professional hockey was losing its appeal and fan base, along with national media exposure.
Television revenue was declining and the major networks wouldn't televise games.
Something had to be done.
Hence, the rules were changed a bit to allow more scoring and a shootout was added to eliminate ties, since the fans were tired of watching a struggle that ended up even.
Baseball added a Designated Hitter in the American League and profressional football added an overtime period.
All of these revisions were made because astute minds were looking toward the future and repositioning themselves for success.
It's time for youth leagues, and youth sports in general to do the same.
It's time to stop complaining about what you can't do and start to finding what you can accomplish by repositioning yourself.
Find a way to integrate new systems into your program that will streamline how you do things.
If premier and travel teams are cutting into your profit by way of players leaving for greener pastures, then find a inventive way to keep them in the fold.
Repositioning yourself means not making excuses and finding ways to eliminate the problem.
In some ways, parents in youth sports have accepted mediocrity.
They complain about the problems but sit back and do nothing.
If they would reposition their thinking and speak their thoughts, we could add some buoyancy to our stagnating and sinking ships.
There are many intelligent and intellectual individuals out there in our own backyard.
If we're thinking about repositioning ourselves to take youth sports into the next generation we have to use these resources and seek out support.
It's time to restructure how all-stars are selected, how drafts are conducted, how teams are selected and how players are coached.
If we nonchalantly continue with what we've been doing in the past the future looks mighty dim.
We're accepting how things have always been done.
As Jakes claims, life is constantly changing and we must respond to events, people and opportunities.
Youth sports must do the same.
We need to seize every method to reposition our kids for the future and it starts with every youth organization.
If every parent, board member, instructor, coach, league director or national organization president kept this in mind, we'd make significant progress in taking things to a higher level.
Rich Taylor Rich Taylor is the owner, head instructor and CEO of California Pitching Academy. He is a former pitching coach at Pepperdine University and Chicago White Sox scout. He founded the West Coast Baseball School. He has more than 20 years of youth coaching experience and wrote the book “Molding the Young Pitcher.” His regular column appears twice a month. Send him an email.
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