Shutterfly enhances its lineup of free, customizable Share websites with the addition of new Youth Sports features. Simultaneously, the Company announces a partnership with Positive Coaching Alliance (PCA) to deliver resources for parents and coaches to enhance the youth sports experience for themselves and their children.
“As a company, we are focused on celebrating life’s joy: moments large and small,” said Peter Elarde, chief marketing officer at Shutterfly. “That not only includes the wins, but also the unexpected moments that occur between plays and on the sidelines. Too often parents miss those moments because as team volunteers they are tasked with everything from snack planning to making transportation arrangements. In partnership with PCA, we’re reminding parents to put the fun back in youth sports while helping ease the logistical burden through our new Share sites.”
The key features for the new Sports Share sites include:
- Command Central for Roster, Calendar & More: Shutterfly Youth Sports Share sites are designed to be command central for your child’s team, housing roster and contact information, game day updates and even tracking snack duty. With the new youth sports setup wizard, the site creator -“ usually the team parent or a coach -“ receives a series of short prompts to input the key information about the season needed to get the site up and running. An improved calendar feature not only sends reminder notifications for practices and games, but also sends automatic email updates on who’s bringing snacks and player availability on game days – parents are the recipients of all site communications.
- Free Photo and Video Sharing: Every Youth Sports Share site comes with a page for uploading an unlimited number of images and up to 10 short videos for free. After each game, a new folder is automatically created for site members to upload their team photos, complete with detailed instructions. Photos are posted in their original size, and are available for download for free or can be purchased as prints directly from the site. Photos from the site can also be easily made into coach’s gifts like photo books and posters. Site members can also play back videos and share out photos and videos to social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and Blogger for one-stop posting.
- Pre-set Sport-Friendly Applications: Youth Sports Share sites automatically feature sections for team updates/journals, a map feature to track game and practice locations, bookmarks, files, a weather widget, and can be password protected for viewing only by site members.
“Share sites not only foster community among players, parents and coaches, but they encourage communication, which is a first step toward more positive behavior,” said Jim Thompson, Founder and Executive Director of Positive Coaching Alliance and author of Positive Sports Parenting and The High School Sports Parent. “If parents, coaches and volunteers interact with one another solely on game days, then there is more pressure on everyone’s shoulders. Communicating more often off the field -“ especially in a context where you share positive memories and are reminded of the sheer joy of youth sports -“ can make a difference all season long.”
Shutterfly and PCA have partnered to provide tips and reminders for making the most of the sports season. At http://www.shutterfly.com/youth-sports/team-parents-coaches.jsp, parents and coaches can learn how to incorporate PCA’s three major principles into their youth sporting lives, as well as photography tips to make the most of memories. Positive Coaching Alliance’s three major principles include:
- Redefining “Winner,” by focusing less on the scoreboard and more on the bigger picture of a child’s efforts and learning life lessons (I have never been much of an athlete but this concept seems disingenuous to me)
- Filling Emotional Tanks, using the Magic Ratio of five specific, truthful praises to each specific, constructive criticism (What if you don’t have 5 truthful praises?)
- Honoring the Game, respecting Rules, Opponents, Officials, Teammates and Self (ROOTS)
According to PCA’s Thompson, “Shutterfly Share Sites provide a great way to enact Positive Coaching and Positive Sports Parenting principles. You can post photos of those teachable moments when children learn life lessons, or photos of players helping out teammates or opponents, and you can post and distribute reminders of how to fill emotional tanks leading up to game days.”
Shutterfly’s complete line of Youth Sports solutions can be found at http://www.shutterfly.com/youth-sports.
While I agree with spirit on what the PCA says, I think that they are removing some of the beneficial lessons that come with team sports by trying to un-emphasize competition. Let us here at ToT know what you think.
