Tina Syer (@tinasyer4) is the former President at Positive Coaching Alliance. Syer played Division I field hockey at Stanford University, where she graduated with honors and was named an Academic All-America. Her coaching experience includes seasons at the high school, college and Olympic Development levels.

In this video, Tina emphasizes the importance of sports parents talking to their children about why they have signed up for a given sports season. That includes conversation about the goals they both have for that season. Too often, parents just sign their kids up and send them out to play and compete without setting any context for goals, whether those be performance-related, or in areas of social development, or just to have fun. Tina also encourages parents to reinforce those goals with consistent behavior from the stands or sidelines. If your goal is for your child to exhibit sportsmanship, cheer and praise when you see sportsmanship, just as you would when child scores or performs some other worthy athletic feat.