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>View discussions about this entry País: United States
Organization: Positive Coaching Alliance
Sport - Other
Year the initative began (yyyy) - 1998
Positioning in the Mosaic of solutions
What is your signature innovation, your new idea, in one sentence? - The Triple-Impact Competitor (TIC) model of making self, teammates and the game better can transform the world of youth sports.
Describe your innovation. What makes your idea unique and different than others doing work in the field? - Youth athletes consciously and unconsciously model themselves after professional and elite athletes, who all too often are portrayed in the media as focused solely on winning and self-advancement. By effectively promoting the model of the TIC we can make it the standard for high school sports, which will carry it to higher levels as current high school athletes become college athletes and then coaches and sports parents.
Changing the mental model in athletes goes to the root of the issue while many other sports interventions are addressed at symptoms rather than root causes. The win-at-all-cost model controls athletes’ behavior often without their even knowing it. Attempts to get athletes to behave more honorably are doomed to fail if they do not address the power of mental models. Athletes want to achieve and win and they will do what they think is necessary. If the TIC model becomes the standard, they will work just as hard to become a Triple-Impact Competitor. What are the existing barriers, the biggest problem, your innovation is hoping to address/change? - The win-at-all-cost model is both omnipresent and largely invisible to athletes. This initiative will force the model to compete with the TIC. We need to make the TIC model come to life so athletes understand what it means and how to live up to it. With most athletes there is no corresponding understanding that leadership is making your teammates better, nor of the importance of competing by a code of Honoring the Game.
Delivery Model: How do you implement your innovation and apply it to the challenge/problem you are addressing? - PCA continues to offer workshops for high school athletes on becoming a Triple-Impact Competitor (see question #2 under Impact below). Well-to-do organizations & schools pay for the workshops. With the support of NikeGO and other funding entities, we have been able to offer these workshops to high schools serving low-income youth. Adding a scholarship program and awards event will dramatically increase the visibility among high school athletes in the Bay Area.
PCA’s Triple-Impact Competitor Scholarship Program will be launched in Northern California (Bay Area and Sacramento) next month. Participating high schools will nominate one male and one female junior student-athlete as their candidates. All school candidates will be honored at an awards event in September 2008 (as they begin their senior year) with 10 athletes being awarded $3,500 scholarships from Deloitte which has signed on as Presenting Sponsor. How do you plan to grow your innovation? - Once we have proved the value and impact, we intend to implement the scholarship program in each city where PCA has an office (Hawaii, Los Angeles, Chicago, New York City, Washington, D.C., and Houston) and in new cities that PCA expands into. Ultimately we see this as a nationwide program that will attract new scholarship funds AND will cause existing donors of scholarship funds to refocus their funds to recognize Triple-Impact Competitors.
As athletes see that Triple-Impact Competitors are recognized and rewarded for their contributions to their team and school, they will begin to aspire to be one. This will be accelerated as we get high schools and coaches to encourage their athletes to act as Triple-Impact Competitors. Provide one sentence describing your impact/intended impact. - Change the vision of what an outstanding athlete is from a do-anything-to-win approach to making an impact on 3 levels: self, teammates and the game.
What impact has your innovation had to date/or what is your intended impact? Exactly who are the beneficiaries? - In two years PCA has delivered 249 workshops for high school athletes on what it means to be a Triple-Impact Competitor, reaching more than 8,466 athletes directly. Demand for this workshop is growing as it meets a deeply-felt need for a program to inspire high school athletes to compete by a more noble code than is typically the case.
We also have developed a workshop for high school coaches called “Developing Triple-Impact Competitors” that we have begun to present to our high school partner organizations. The scholarship program will accelerate growth in workshop demand as it spreads. Likewise the workshops will spread awareness of the scholarship program. The ultimate beneficiaries of this initiative are current and future student athletes and, ultimately, our entire society as the Triple-Impact Competitor model spreads throughout sports and the business world through all the former athletes who ascend to leadership roles in their companies and civil society organizations.
Please list any other measures reflective of the impact of your innovation? - This field has not been completed
What are the main barriers to creating or achieving your impact? - a) Adequate funding to allow us to do workshops for organizations serving low-income youth and to create Triple-Impact Competitor Scholarship Programs nationwide.
b) We need to learn from our experiences in the pilot scholarship program in Northern California and use the lessons learned to structure even more successful Triple-Impact Scholarship programs in other parts of the U.S. How is your initiative financed (or how do you expect your initiative will be financed)? - Funding will come from individuals, foundations and corporations that believe in the initiative and see the positive impact on our society if/when the Triple-Impact Competitor becomes the norm, and who want to be associated with making this program a reality.
If known, provide information on your finances and organization. - Please list: Annual budget, annual revenue generated, size of part-time, full-time and volunteer staff. FY 2007 (September 2006 – August 2007) = $4.1 million
FY 2008 (Projected): $5.3 million • Annual revenue generated: In FY 2007 we had a balanced budget with about 35% coming from “earned income” of workshop revenue and the remainder from contributed income. We have had balanced budgets for all 9 years of PCA’s existence. • Number of staff Full-time: 33 What is the potential demand for your innovation? - There is a hunger for a model of sports that ennobles rather than degrades. The Triple-Impact Competitor model resonates with many people’s deepest dreams about what sports might accomplish in the lives of youth. The Triple-Impact Competitor speaks to this hunger AND to success on the scoreboard. TICs contribute more to scoreboard success than win-at-all-cost athletes because they make their teammates better as well as improve themselves.
What are the main barriers to financial sustainability? - Getting consistent funding to be able to be able to continue working with organizations serving low-income youth.
What is the origin of this innovation? Tell us your story. - For the first 7 years of PCA’s existence, we saw our work as providing tools and insights to the adults who work with youth athletes. For example, we pioneered a model of coaching called the Double-Goal Coach® who prepares his team to win (goal #1) while using sports to teach life lessons. This model is catching on rapidly across the U.S. as we are working with more than 1,000 youth sports organizations.
We also encourage sports parents to be Second-Goal Parents who let athletes and coaches worry about the first goal (winning) and focus their attention on helping their children take away from sports the right life lessons. Our high school partners asked us repeatedly if we could work directly with their athletes. After initially resisting, we began to see that there was a huge opportunity to provide a similarly powerful model for athletes to aspire to. Over the last three years we have developed and refined the Triple-Impact Competitor model to the point where it is ready for prime time. Our staff and contract trainers (more than 120 nationwide) who have competed and coached at very high levels all wish we had had the benefit of a model like the Triple-Impact Competitor when we were competing. We are highly enthusiastic about the impact of this model on youth sports and beyond. Please provide a personal bio. Note this may be used in Changemakers marketing material. - I was an enthusiastic but mediocre athlete as a youth. I played college basketball before an injury ended my playing days. Twenty-five years ago I began to coach my son’s teams and immediately realized the power of sports to be a life-changer if coaches could begin to see themselves as character educators. I coached, started a youth basketball league, served on a national task force on building character through sports, wrote books on coaching, and ultimately started PCA.
Contact Information:
Jim Thompson
Founder and Executive Director Positive Coaching Alliance (NGO) Discussions about this entry
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How Triple-Impact Competitors Can Transform the Lives of Youth Athletes (and the Entire World of Sports)
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Kevin Carroll
Changemakers Featured Commentator
Sport for a Better World Competition
The impact of the "ME-1st" athlete on HS athletes and their perception of what being an "athlete" is all about has unfortunately been twisted. This new generation of "ME-1st" athletes has helped create a warped, skewed, and misguided group of followers in the junior ranks of sports.
The Triple-Impact Competitor program is a great example of how the lessons from sports can still be delivered in a fresh, contemporary manner where the young, 21st century, aspiring HS athlete can gain valuable insights that he/she can relate to.
Honoring the Game by valuing self, teammates and your community is what playing sport should be all about. Great concept!
Thank you for your reply for my last question. The team had a few more. We are wondering what is uniquely innovative about what this program is accomplishing? There are many organizations that emphasize that winning isn't everything, how do you make this message actually resonate? What’s your ‘leveraging point’ that makes the messages more than messages and into lifestyles?
We would love to hear more about what takes place in the workshops; what they entail, the methodology.
We also thought that it would be interesting and more "user generated" if the athlete leaders could recuit other students that don't play sports, get them involved in sports and lead them into community activism too. This makes the program less "lesson" oriented and has the athletes also teach others, which is usually a great learning tool too.
Thank you for your response!!!
Tyler Ahn
Changemakers Team
Dana:
Thank you for your interest in the TIC program. Our workshops include many tools that athletes can use to make themselves into Triple-Impact Competitors. Just a few of these are
--Developing a "teachable spirit" where you have a sponge-like determination to learn and improve, even if criticisms from your coach or others are not delivered in the way you would like to hear them.
--Using "transformational self-talk" to get through tough times
--Filling the "Emotional Tanks" of teammates
--Developing individual and team Honoring-the-Game routines such as shaking hands with the officials before a game and seeking them out to thank them after a game no matter what
We have good confidence that it is having an impact both from anecdotal evidence from participating athletes, coaches, administrators and parents. We also see that the demand for our TIC workshops for athletes is growing. We are currently in conversations with a local school district to conduct an impact analysis of the workshops we have been doing for their athletes and coaches. We also are considering other ways to evaluate the impact of our program.
Dana:
Thank you for your interest in the TIC program. Our workshops include many tools that athletes can use to make themselves into Triple-Impact Competitors. Just a few of these are
--Developing a "teachable spirit" where you have a sponge-like determination to learn and improve, even if criticisms from your coach or others are not delivered in the way you would like to hear them.
--Using "transformational self-talk" to get through tough times
--Filling the "Emotional Tanks" of teammates
--Developing individual and team Honoring-the-Game routines such as shaking hands with the officials before a game and seeking them out to thank them after a game no matter what
We have good confidence that it is having an impact both from anecdotal evidence from participating athletes, coaches, administrators and parents. We also see that the demand for our TIC workshops for athletes is growing. We are currently in conversations with a local school district to conduct an impact analysis of the workshops we have been doing for their athletes and coaches. We also are considering other ways to evaluate the impact of our program.
Jim-Let me start by saying I think this is a wonderful program and thank you for your entry into the competition. I was curious if you could elaborate on the educational goals and benefits of the program? As I am sure you will agree, sports can be a powerful tool when advocating education especially within the demographic you hope to reach. In your proposal you also mention the impact of the professional athlete on youth within the projected outreach population. In my dealings with similar populations I have found that children deriving from a low SES often see sports as a way out of their current situation as opposed to education. Is there any way that your program can address this misconception and be geared more toward the utilization of sports to obtain an education? Again, I applaud your efforts and look forward to learning more about you program.
Dorian Burton
Center for the Study of Sport in Society
Northeastern University
Hi Jim,
I love PCA as well and attended a training a while back through US Lax. I have a question about whether you see the PCA model as compatible to or fundamentally at odds with professional sports or elite competition in its current form, i.e. is this a model more for sports at the amateur and recreational level or do you see it having a place in competitive sports at the highest levels where the stakes, for winning scholarships, attaining pay bonuses or professional opportunities are very high? and what would need to change for your model to be relevant in that context? I hope my questions isn't completely irrelevant - it may be beyond the scope of the project you submitted, but I would love to know your thoughts on this!
Thanks
Ziba
This sounds like a good project. The concept of teaching young athletes that winning at all cost is not best way to succeed in sports and in life is great. In light of the numerous HGH and steroids allegations and confessions in sports these days it is vital to educate younger generations about sportsmanship and playing the game with honor and class.
What benefits have you seen from the program thus far? How do you think the participants in this project have been affected by the program?
Charles Rush
Center for the Study of Sport in Society
Northeastern University
Charles:
Thank you for your comments. The impact of the program thus far is anecdotal and indicated by increasing demand for the program by high schools. High school kids are "cool" and don't go out of their way to say, "Wow, that was great and it really changed me." One mom said her son told her that "It was okay." She said that was high praise from him because his most common reaction to things is "That sucked." We also have a lot of girls saying that they already buy into the TIC model but that the boys really need to get with the program. The evaluation forms from each workshop indicate that we are getting through to people.
Thank you for sharing your program. Might you be able to provide more information about the TIC ? How does a TIC reinforce and/or transform norms and values embedded in American culture? Thank you again, and I will look forward to your reply. Kindest regards, Eli
Eli A. Wolff
Manager, Research & Advocacy
Center for the Study of Sport in Society
Northeastern University
e.wolff@neu.edu
Eli:
Thank you for your question. I hope the TIC model will reinforce noble goals and values implicit in sports while opposing the degraded values that have emerged. An individual athlete can carry him or herself in a TIC-like manner regardless of what other people do. But the power of this model will emerge when it becomes the norm and behavior inconsistent with the TIC model will be shunned regardless of how talented and successful the athlete is on the scoreboard. High school leaders have the power to create a culture of Triple-Impact Competitors regardless of what professional athletes may do on television.
I second Eli's thanks in providing this information about your program. In line with Eli's comment, I'd like to know what your program does to support the athletes' "Triple Impact." Beyond providing them with a framework for TIC athletes, do you involve them in community service projects? Create positions for them as leaders in their schools? I would certainly like to get a better picture of what the trainings and their follow up look like.
Hello Jim,
Thank you for your entry. I am assuming that the triple impacts of your mental model are the improvements in 1.self 2. teammates 3. the game. Can you describe the criteria for becoming a TIC athlete? What are some of the lessons taught in your workshops? How do you assess the effectiveness of your TIC model and its impacts on self, teammates and the game?
Thank you for your response. I look forward to hearing from you.
Dana Frasz
Changemakers
Under the section "define your innovation", you describe the issues but do not outline what it is about your program that will tackle them in a new way. Could you focus your response a bit more on what aspects of your program or workshops that help to address the issue of there is more to sports than just winning. This is an old adage that has repeated over the ages, how is your message working in a more impactful way that they are actually heard and practiced?
Thank you in advance for your input!
Tyler Ahn
Changemakers
Tyler:
Thank you for your question. Positive Coaching Alliance believes in a "systems approach" to changing the mental model of youth athletes from a win-at-all-cost one to the Triple-Impact Competitor. We work with high school leaders, coaches, parents and the athletes themselves, so that the idea is communicated and reinforced from several different directions.
This initiative is just getting going but among the ways that we will inspire and shape high school athletes' sense of what they want to become are:
--Leadership workshops for high school leaders on how to create a culture of Triple-Impact competition (culture = "the way we do things here")
--Workshops for Parents on how to support their children as Triple-Impact Competitors
--Workshops for coaches on how to develop athletes as TICs
--Workshops for the athletes themselves. We have done quite a few workshops already and we know that kids respond to this idea.
--Books on this subject for coaches and athletes
--The TIC Scholarship Program that we are launching right now in the Bay Area and Sacramento, CA, and intend to make a national program in years to come
--Development of "Athletic Leadership Councils" in high schools that get athletes directly involved in culture creation at their school
--Summer Leadership Conference to which high schools will nominate and send representatives where they can mix and interact with fellow TICs from schools around the US
--On-line space for high school athletes to interact around issues they have with their coaches, parents, and their team
If athletes understand the TIC model, are encouraged by their coaches (for whom they often will do anything) and their parents to become a TIC, recognized by their schools for displaying the characteristics of a TIC, and finally, come to believe that it is a better way to enjoy and excel in their sport, they will embrace it.