Why do Parents want to coach?

There is limited data on youth sports in the United States or presented by the U.S government. But from our daily experiences, one can easily say a good number of American families have their kids involved in either, soccer, dancing, volleyball, football, softball and the list goes on. The youth age group can be split between the ages of 6-12 and 13-17. The Sports & Fitness Industry Association (ASFA), “In 2008, 30.2% of youth ages 6 to 12 were active to a healthy level through sports, organized or unstructured; by 2015, that number had dropped to 26.6%, according to SFIA. Among 13- to 17-year-olds, the rate fell from 42.7% to 39.3%. ” (2015).

As the owner of sports company, with part of the business dedicated to youth sports and precisely beach volleyball, EZ SPORTS TRAVEL has an experience of having kids, youth and adults at our training camps, classes and clinics. In my experience, most parents generally want to get their kids to play a sports they are interested in. One of my parents athletes who takes beach volleyball lessons with me says, she prefers them to take the same sports so it makes it generally easier for her to bring them and don’t have to take them to different areas around town for different sports. Amanda is in the middle because all her children do play beach volleyball but also play other sports. So, as much as she enjoys bringing them to my clinics, she still has to take them to golf and chess events.

There a few instances I have had to deal with overbearing parents who practically have to tell me how to coach the kids and how to play them in games when I was a coach. As surprisingly as this is, this was when I was coach at the University of Wisconsin Stevens Point, helping with the female volleyball program.  A few times, some dad or mom would tell me to play their child, or complain about how I coach, tell me how hard I was with the athletes etc. Sometimes it is hard to balance between being strict and maintain discipline, giving everyone play time, and keeping parents in check. The last one can be the challenging one sometimes. I am sure I am not the only coach that has to deal with this.

According to Dr. Hoch, “there is a segment of parents who try to coach children during games. You’ll often see them standing near the sidelines, barking instructions across the field or gym floor. This causes a major problem for athletes, because instructions by the parent may not mirror what’s being taught in practice by the coach. As a result, there is a major conflict with respect to expectations” (Hoch 2017). In this case it is important as a coach to set oneself for success. It is good to set up a restricted area of access where they can’t be close to the kids, educate the parents on the consequences of interference during games, articulate expectations from parents early and establish boundaries, have a monitor watch parents to identify clear cases of interference and also ban the parent based on parent contract with consequences well established therein.

 

Reference:

The Aspen Institute (2015). Facts: Sports Activity and Children. Retrieved from, https://www.aspenprojectplay.org/the-facts

Hoch D(January 17, 2017). Dealing with parental inference in coaching.Retrieved from https://coachad.com/articles/dealing-with-parental-interference-in-coaching/

 

That fat check for soccer players

Hold on! You didn’t know that the famous Christiano Ronaldo of Portugal earns about $93 million and about $53 million in Salary & bonus? Well wake up right now. You think it is unreal? Nope. His running mate, Lionel Messi of Argentina makes $77 million and $51 million in that same order. Okay, catch a breather and lets talk more about this.

It is important to note that there is no cap on contract amount in professional soccer which is sanctioned by the Association of International Football Federation, known by its french acronym as FIFA. FIFA defines professionals as players who have a written contract with a club and are paid more for their footballing activity than the expenses they effectively incur. All other players are considered to be amateurs (some of them are paid for playing, some not). Most professional players are managed by agents who are accredited to the international organization. These agents manage their contracts. So how much a player earns depends on his or her agent’s ability to negotiate a contract.  Some of those who have benefited from such negotiation have been : “Samuel Eto’o earned almost 440.000 EUR-per-week at Anzhi Makhachkala in Russia. Zlatan Ibrahimovic‘s move to Paris-Saint-Germain is supposed to bring him around 280.000 EUR-per-week: more than Cristiano Ronaldo (255) and Lionel Messi (230). ”  (Fieldo 2012).

I would like to mention here that major league soccer is far from this monstrous earnings in European leagues. According to Chron, Beginning and lower-echelon players in Major League Soccer make a minimum of $35,125 a year, by far the lowest minimum salary of major professional team sports in America. As of the end of the 2013 season, 154 players made less than $50,000 a year. The average salary in the MLS, however, was $160,000, and the median salary was $100,000. About 45 percent of MLS players — that’s 249 — made over $100,000.

I would like to put a comparison to our United States highest paying sports. The Cleveland Cavaliers signed LeBron James as the highest paid NBA player and oft-compared modern day Michael Jordan, made $31 million. (Combined with his endorsements, he took home $86 million).

Soccer has a long tradition and has propel itself to the level where the fan base and association federations have invested not only time, resources but money. Most soccer games, at both club and international level have attracted millions of fans and viewers. This has enabled the organization to generate a sizable and generous avenue in gate fees, TV rights, advertising and so on.

 

Reference:

Forbes (2017). The World’s highest paid soccer players in 2016. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/pictures/mlh45fekl/2-lionel-messi-barcelo/#1537eb69419f

Fieldo (2012). Contract: Football Player – Club. Retrieved from, http://blog.fieldoo.com/2012/08/contracts-in-professional-football-player-club/

Settimi C (May 26, 2017).The World’s Highest-Paid Soccer Players 2017: Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi Lead The List Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/christinasettimi/2017/05/26/the-worlds-highest-paid-soccer-players-2017-cristiano-ronaldo-lionel-messi-lead-the-list/#2db9ee6f210e

Gaps or Pitfalls in Client Relationship Management Initiatives (CRM)

I find this very informative and thought to share

Marketing Aplenty

We must be aware that there are some potential gaps and pitfalls in social client relationship management (CRM), both personally and professionally. To better understand how to avoid these, let’s take a look at what CRM is first. CRM is defined as “the processes and supporting technologies used to target, acquire, retain, understand, and collaborate with customers” (Band, 2013). Technology has allowed companies to interact differently with their current and potential customers, so much so that an obsession with understanding, delighting, connecting with, and serving customers has been the only source of competitive differentiation (Band, 2013). This only means that better CRM management is important for an organization.

A survey was done by Forrester Research of 133 organizations about the future of CRM. The results concluded that “the risk of a spectacular failure was still high. These companies reposted more than 200 problems, comprised of 27 risk areas…

View original post 145 more words

Amateur Beach Volleyball in the U.S.A

This is a very interesting topic given it is not a mainstream sports in the United States sanctioned by a National League like basketball or football. However, I would share my thoughts of this sports with my audience. Beach volleyball is a team sport played by two teams of two players on a sand court divided by a net. It has been an Olympic discipline since the 1996 Games. Yeah! just two players on a team and you heard that right, they have to cover a lot of court.

Origin

Sand volleyball was apparently born in 1915 on Waikiki Beach in Hawaii, at the Outrigger Canoe Club. According to a 1978 interview of an Outrigger Canoe Club member, George David “Dad” Center put a net up there, and the first recorded game of beach volleyball took place. In 1920, there was a drastic change as the jetties in Santa Monica, CA, created a larger sand area for public enjoyment and this planted the seed for beach volleyball development. The first permanent nets began to appear, and people soon began playing recreational games on public parts of the beach and in private beach clubs. Eleven such beach clubs appeared in the Santa Monica area, beginning in late 1922. The first inter-club competitions were staged in 1924.

Evolution

Recently, an outstanding performance from the United States duo Misty May and Kerri Walsh brought the dynamics of the sports to a greater level. This duo dominated the sports for a long time, thus enlightening most Americans who might not have taken interest in the sports. While on a trip to China, former president George W. Bush had to stop by to say hello and encourage the duo during the Beijing 2008 Olympics games which the won.

The game has continued to grow in popularity in the United States with steady increase in player numbers,  be it at the “Pro” level or at the recreational level. As much as USA Volleyball continues to manage and handle the U.S. national teams, there is a steady underground growth and practice of the sport. Most parks and recreation department in many cities have built a beach volleyball park for their communities to practice , play and enjoy.

(Recreational Beach Volleyball at Tatum Park – Miami Beach)

Today

There are so many National, regional and local tours in the United States including, EZ Sports Tour, Dig The Beach, East End Volleyball, SandBox, SSOV, FBVT and the list goes on and on. These amateur tours of different magnitude in terms of quality of players and event management, do set a pace and give most amateur players the opportunity to enjoy the sports that is dominated by Phil Dalhausser and Nick Lucena. Very increasingly, there are pop up beach volleyball academies and coaching here and there. This for sure portrays a drastic increase in the love for the sports.

This write up is that start of many more that will be coming your way in this sports and mostly for amateurs. Your opinion will help me improve the writings.

Is Travel Volunteering a show off?

It goes without say that volunteering is one massive industry these days given it has become customary for people with the capabilities to afford travel, to want to do so by going to an underprivileged community around the world and lend a “helping hand”.

“Volunteering is described as an unpaid activity where someone gives their time to help a not-for-profit organisation or an individual who they are not related to“, according to Volunteer Action, Rotherham. (2017). The big question in my opinion is why do people decide to travel and volunteer? Is it the need to genuinely sacrifice time and uplift a community, is it just to adventure and see the world and not feel guilty about it, or better still, is it so we can post pictures on social media and tell our friends we have goodness in our hearts?

I am sure we know a have a friend who has dared and travel to Africa, South America or Asia to do some volunteer work and the feedback is always almost generally the same. “It is a life changing experience”. Then we feel the guilt of not trying to reach out and help people in communities we consider underdeveloped or poor.  The majority of people that travel abroad to volunteer genuinely want to make a difference. “So often in life, it can be hard to feel like we are making any real impact. Doing a good deed is always nice, returning a lost phone to a stranger, buying a homeless person a cup of coffee, helping an elderly person up a steep flight of steps, these acts all help somebody and make you feel good”. ( Crouch 2015). So does traveling miles to volunteer you time without pay.

I started EZ SPORTS TRAVEL earlier this year, then asked some friend to come with me to Africa and volunteer. Some were excited to jump on board, others were busy and had conflict of schedules. At the end we pulled it and I had a group which I led to Africa in June 2017.  Pictured below is Kim Amerell who without a heart beat accepted to go to Africa with me. We started a Go Fund Me, raise about $2,000, bought our flights and the group of 4 troopers were off to Cameroon. We spent 2 days at the Grace Tait Orphanage, supplied them with food, kitchen utensils, clothes and school needs. Then we went to Belo village where we worked together with the Makah Foundation

(Kim Amerell of Tampa, Fl poses with kids at the Grace Tait Orphanage in Bali, Cameroon)

With the many questions I asked earlier, I came to realized that it is truly a life changing experience even for me that was born to an average nurse in Cameroon, growing up with little. After we realized our projects, I felt very fulfilled and satisfied. Most important;y it was all a team of troopers that sacrificed out of pocket to get to Africa and do the work.

Now I understand why, I would so easily get on social media to post and show off what I had accomplished and be proud of that success. And now, I have decided to do this twice a year going forward and adopted the Grace Tait Orphanage to try and see the progress of the kids annually. If you are looking for a Travel Volunteer opportunity where you get on the ground and do the work, then EZ SPORTS TRAVEL is your go to reference. The additional perk is you get to socially explore the country abroad.

Reference:

Crouch M. (5th March, 2015). 5 Inspiring Reasons to Volunteer Abroad. Retrieved from https://www.goabroad.com/articles/volunteer-abroad/5-inspiring-reasons-to-volunteer-abroad

Volunteer Action , Rotherham (2017). What is Volunteering?. Retrieved from http://www.varotherham.org.uk/what-is-volunteering/

EZ SPORTS TRAVEL

Given that we are a sports organization that wants to have participants at our events that are very competitive, we set the platform to have high level athletes compete at our events. We also combine this with participants that like to play at a recreational level but enjoy the benefit of travel while doing it. This combination sets us apart from traditional sports events companies.

More so, we realized that most people love to put in time to accomplish their heart driven goals of helping others. As such we set the foundation for them to travel to developing countries and achieve this goal while playing sports which they do enjoy doing.

EZ SPORTS TRAVEL

Beach Volleyball Volunteer Travel

Today an increasing  and a fast pace growing industry is sports travel. Just like the name sounds, this basically involves traveling to play sports.  Most people now do organized travel for youths, adults, colleges etc, to play sports in different regions, states and countries. In an article published by Sean Gregory in Time Magazine, the kids sports industry has evolved to become a $15 Billion industry.

The spike is very evident in youth sports which draws a lot of inspiration from adults and pro sports. It is not uncommon to see scenarios where, kids are actually amazed to get autographs from their favorite player. This inspires and gives most youths the edge to try the sports further. The consequence, parents have to pay the price. A price worth it given, the parents are providing the kids with the opportunity to explore a sports  they like. As such, there has to be travel, within the state, out of state and sometimes even international.

Beach volleyball is one of the sports where such an evolution has taken drastic growth with such great admiration from young girls especially. Adults as also very involved in it as well. There is a spike in both adults and kids that travel to play such sports.  In the United, Tours like AVP (Association of Volleyball Professionals), NVL (National Volleyball League), EVP (Extreme Volleyball Professionals) and EEVB(East End Volleyball) have had lots of people travel to play.

A new trend is emerging which is including a volunteer aspect to the experience. EZ Sports Travel, can be credited for this unique niche, where athletes travel to developing countries, build infrastructure as volunteers, help coach and run clinics for locals as well as run a volleyball tournament in which they can play in.

“I’ve always wanted to give back and participate in a humanitarian project helping people who really need it. Thank you Easy Liese and EZ Sports for making that desire a reality with the June 2017 trip to Cameroon. This trip has forever changed my life for the better and I will cherish the memories for the rest of my life”

(Family Picture from the Cameroon Volleyball Challenge June 2017)

Tammy Swenarski had this to say, She travel in June 2017 with the group to take part in beach volleyball path-finding mission to Cameroon in Africa which the group, built courts, ran clinics and tournament. The organization also extends the travel experience beyond volleyball courts including philanthropic gestures as it has partnered with the Grace Tait Oprhanage and the Andek Salvation Clinic to provide food and medication to the children and patients respectively.

Given the sacrifice that players who double as volunteers have to make financially, the puzzle is how would this trend blossom given it is not a money generating trend.