One of the most overrated things about youth sports, in my mind, is that they are unique in teaching life lessons kids will need to learn to make it in this cold, cruel world. It's not that there aren't lessons that sports can help teach -- it's just that activities outside of sports, such as everyday life, provide plenty of life lessons that you can get, without the inconvenience of daily practices and a hot-tempered coach. However, one of the most underrated things about youth sports, and parenting, for that matter, is that the life lessons you as an adult think you're providing are not necessarily the ones kids absorb, affecting them well into adulthood. It might be something said once, or a subtle message offered continuously that has much more influence -- good and bad -- than the big Life Lessons you announce you're providing as a coach. But everything around us says that treating everyone with respect and not saying disrespectful things about women are not self-evident, so here we are.

Source: Forbes September 30, 2018 00:00 UTC