THE STAR IS INSIDE
BUILDING A BETTER FUTURE THROUGH YOUTH SPORTS
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INTRODUCTION Do you believe that values such as respect, honesty, discipline or others can be cultivated by practicing sports? Do you believe that life skills such as initiative, teamwork, decision making, flexibility and problem solving can be developed from an early age? Without a doubt, sports can contribute strongly to the formation of these values and to the construction of these capabilities. Parents and coaches of young players must take care of their growth as human beings, beyond their sports skills. Focus on values and competencies, in sport, beyond the technical and physical skills is a huge opportunity and sometimes his opportunity is wasted. Sometimes we put too much pressure on the players, contributing to their frustration, causing them to receive conflicting messages from the coach or from parents. Many kids leave sport at a very early ages because they are not having fun. They are not enjoying. THE BROKEN TRIANGLE Imagine a triangle with interjoined vertices to the other two vertices through a segment (the side of the triangle). We can represent this triangle as the relationship that is between the coach, the player, and the parents (here we include mother and father as the same vertex). Each member of the triangle is related to the other two; Coach with parents and player, Parents with coach and player, and also the player who relates to parents and coach. These relationships must be guided by the same criteria that we will later call “shared values.” In addition to this, each of them must work to improve specific necessary competencies that are vital for their role in this relationship triangle. The Broken Triangle COMPENENTS OF THE MODEL The objective of the Competency Model is to have a framework that allows us to measure and maximize the performance, in this case, of kids practicing a youth sport. In this context, many components affect the performance of an athlete, what I define the AVC (Abilities; Values; Competencies) components, among which we find: Abilities related to the sport: Technical Physical Mental Values (beliefs) Competencies (behavior) In the youth sports competency model that we will focus on in this book, we will remove from the analysis the abilities directly related to the sport, that is, the technical, physical, and mental skills of the player. Can we assume that two kids with similar sports abilities can have different results and obtain various performances in different ways? Absolutely.
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About the Book
Many kids leave sports at an early age because of the deprivation of joy by parents and coaches. It is time to ask ourselves, are our kids enjoying team sports? Are they developing the behavior that will allow them to thrive in their adult life? Is the practice of sports collaborating in the construction of these life skills?
The youth sport competency model describes how values (beliefs) and competencies (behaviors) influence youth athlete’s performance, beyond their technical, physical, and mental abilities. Youth sport organizations have a tremendous opportunity to implement a competency-based training program to help young athletes develop values and life skills they will use in their adult life.
We can achieve outstanding results if we can change the experience of young players playing sports. We can create more awareness and bring higher consciousness to children’s sport. We can do it for the good of our children and future generation of great players and athletes.
About the Author
Tomás Echeverría was attracted to sports since he was a small kid, and tennis became his passion at the age of fifteen. Through The Star Is Inside, Tomás transfers his more than twenty-five years of corporate experience into the field of youth sports, applying the concept of competencies used to evaluate job performance into youth athletes to ensure their state of continuous joy. Tomás combines the learning and knowledge of his experience as a corporate executive, as a tennis coach, and as a father of three boys who play sports.
Tomás earned an undergraduate degree in computer science and a master’s degree in business administration. Originally, from Argentina, he moved to United States in 2010, becoming a US citizen in 2017. He holds an executive leadership education program from Berkeley University, California.
Tomás’s personal mission statement in six-words is “Grow through developing others with integrity.” He holds a professional tennis coach certificate: tennis being a sport he loves.
Tomás plays USTA leagues since 2015, being the team captain and achieving with his team the Florida Championship in two opportunities, allowing them to go to play in the nationals. He is also a certified sports psychology coach.