The Gold Medal Mindset: Process vs. Results

The parent education piece is important because it can influence the third pillar: the players. 

“If that kid isn’t getting good feedback from mom and dad, but they’re getting good feedback from coach, then you have some of that disconnect,” Doungchak said. 

Kids should be upset after a loss, but not because they were benched in the third period of a 2-1 game. The decisions we make for our players should be based on development, not results.

“If people step back for a minute as adults, whether it’s parents or coaches, it’s really easy to manipulate an outcome. We pick what teams we play, we pick what tournaments we go to, we pick what teams we play on. It’s a way to manipulate immediate outcomes,” Doungchak said. “We do it all the time, ‘Oh, I don’t want to play that team because we’ll beat them or get beat by them.’ 

“But those decisions should be made for development. The kids don’t care. If the team loses, later that day the kid who’s upset after a loss will be eating ice cream and forget about it.”