Throughout 2020, PCA and our partners did exactly what PCA has always coached others to do— create the most positive environment possible for youth, coaches and parents.
Achieving this ‘better’ is clearly PCA’s north star. Yet, how we get there is built upon four core concepts that include the Elm Tree Of Mastery, Filling Emotional Tanks, Honoring The Game and providing a Development Zone®. While each is insightful and transformative in their own right, it is only by putting them into practice that the hard work gets done and results are achieved.
We thought we would share some of 2020’s accomplishments and what is possible when PCA as an organization is able to practice what we teach.
This concept is about the success that comes when one focuses on only those things that can be controlled. The letters E, L & M respectively represent ‘Effort’, ‘Learning and ability to persist through Mistakes’ and ‘Adversity’.
This approach was the catalyst that led to us looking to within and reimagining and reinventing our in person workshops as vibrant and successful virtual Zoom sessions. To date we have taught more than 700 of these workshops and continue to evolve this offering.
Each person has an “Emotional Tank” that works like the gas tank of a car. When the tank is empty, we go nowhere. When the tank is full, we can go nearly anywhere.
As a result of the pandemic millions of youth found themselves confined to their homes, cut off from sports and the comradery of their teammates. In response to this, PCA launched the “Life Is A Team Sport” program targeting and equipping parents with the tools to create a positive environment at home through our emails, FB Live and social content.
Sports provide a framework for cultivating ethical behavior. Winning and losing gracefully are hallmarks of people equipped to live in and lead a civil society.
In response to the George Floyd incident and a national call for an end to racism, PCA used this framework to launch the Sports Can Battle Racism (SCBR) initiative—a focused effort to go beyond condemnation and develop solutions that work to battle racism within the environment of sports.
Youth sports can provide a "Development Zone®" environment for developing Better Athletes, Better People, but only if coaches, parents, administrators and student-athletes intentionally make it so.
In an effort to provide coaches and organizations with the ability to create true Development Zones, PCA this year has partnered with Susan Crown Exchange to launch the ‘Million Coaches Challenge’ which endeavors to provide emotional and social learning skills to a million coaches via grants and the appropriate training by PCA.