KENNY HODGART

The typical calling card of those who insist on change is "We've never had it so bad," but the Scottish Institute of Sport Foundation (SISF) makes a persuasive case.

The obesity epidemic, fewer volunteers, falling participation in sport due in part to a win-at-all-costs mindset: it's a depressing picture. Scottish youth sport is in a state of inertia, they claim, its potential as a cornerstone of the education system lost somewhere in the mud.

Fortunately, this road has been travelled and workable solutions unearthed in other lands. On the face of it, educational models in America and Scotland differ greatly, yet both countries have youth sport drop-out rates of around 70%, and have, according to the foundation, both been guilty of instilling the same scoreboard culture at youth level.

It was when he was living in San Francisco for three years as a partner in Deloitte that Graham Watson, now executive director of the foundation, came across a new approach being tried in America, delivered under the banner of the Positive Coaching Alliance, which had been developed at Stanford University.

Watson, who was formerly managing director of the Carnegie Sports International Group, explains: "In California I encountered positive coaching first-hand through my own daughters' involvement in sport they're both now international golfers and I wanted to know more about it. It seemed to be trying to get away from the negative touchline culture and much more about rewarding effort and encouraging youngsters to try to be their own personal best."

The approach was pioneered by Professor Jim Thompson, a coaching and leadership expert at Stanford Business School, Watson says. "He identified the need for some way of linking parents, teachers and coaches so that they are creating positive messages that kids are more likely to respond to."

Instead of focusing only on results, the Stanford model emphasises the role of sport in personal development, reconnecting with the idea that it can teach wider life lessons.

Children of all abilities are encouraged to stick at sport rather than be disheartened by failure, to focus on improving their skills and to discover that progress and, ultimately, winning, takes effort. Healthy competition and risk-taking in a safe environment will always appeal to educators, but positive coaching goes further in using sport as an environment in which to instil values of respect and compassion as well as how to deal with pressure and criticism.

With financial backing from thousands of individuals, foundations and corporations in the US, Positive Coaching has now reached more than three million youth and high school athletes.

Watson says: "As a parent coming from a Scottish background and knowing some of the negative sports culture here with parents on touchlines losing the rag and kids being scared of failure, I really changed my thinking from living and working out there and when I got back to Scotland I wanted to do something about it."

Along with Sir Bill Gammell, a director of the government-funded Scottish Institute of Sport as well as an industrialist and former Scottish rugby internationalist, Watson set up the SISF, as an entirely independent body, in 2005. With backing from wealthy individuals, blue chip companies and the then Scottish Executive, they carried out a feasibility study into whether, and how, Positive Coaching could be implemented in Scotland.

Now, having paid a licence to access American materials and recruited veteran world-class athletics coach Tommy Boyle, whose protégés have included Tom McKean, Yvonne Murray and Susan Scott, the foundation has just launched a pilot scheme in East Renfrewshire. Positive Coaching Scotland will be rolled out across a further four local authority areas - Stirling, Clackmannanshire, Fife and Glasgow - over the next two years, with a total target reach of 75,000 children and adults.

Nine sports - athletics, basketball, football, golf, hockey, netball, rugby, swimming and tennis - are involved, and PCS will deliver live educational workshops, supported by multi-media materials and an interactive training website.

"It is fundamental that we work in partnership with local authorities and sports governing bodies," says Watson. "It is effectively an overlay onto existing teacher training and coaching programmes so that we are joining the dots between the supply chain of schools and sports clubs in a systematic way. We are only at the pilot stage but local authorities communicate with each other and sports communicate with each other and we'll hopefully see the other 27 local authorities scrambling to get on board."

A key attraction for education authorities is the way Positive Coaching aligns itself with the aims of A Curriculum for Excellence, the blueprint for Scottish education, an advantage recognised by East Renfrewshire Council's education convenor Alan Lafferty. He said: "We want to develop young people into successful learners, confident individuals, responsible citizens and effective contributors. A project likes this links these things together as well as ensuring we have a healthier and more active population. Sport can help to develop the potential of all our young people, both inside and outside of school. It's not just about winning but about competing against yourself, stretching yourself to realise your potential, and the best way of doing that is through positive reinforcement."

TOMMY Boyle, who is fiercely passionate about sport's potential as a force for good in society, agrees. "Children want sport to be fun, they want to compete," he says. "Unfortunately adults take this to mean winning at all costs."

He questions the motivation of some pushy parents. "In today's society we have a large number of parents who are living their lives through their children and it's the biggest mistake they can make. The one thing that sport can do for any child is keep them off the street and keep them fit and healthy. If we as a nation want to increase participation, then we need to make sport fun again."

David McLeish is a sports coach who works with both schools and local sports clubs in East Renfrewshire and has already started using some of the Positive Coaching toolkit in his job. It made him aware of some of the mistakes that coaches make, he says.

"I recognised a lot of the negatives which have been identified as damaging to participation levels, particularly in football," he adds. "What is coming through is a shift back to enjoyment. PCS has put forward a variety of tools, for example setting effort goals as a way of getting youngsters to try harder through targets, and stretch goals, which look at motivation on an individual level.

"Something called the Double Goal coaching method looks at principles such as honouring the game, redefining what it means to win, and fuelling the emotional desire to take part. A lot of that comes from the way we talk to athletes and instil in them a respect for officials, opponents and themselves."

As Boyle acknowledges, a dearth of parents willing to volunteer at school or youth club level hasn't done anything to help arrest the drop-out culture, but he is sure they can be brought back on board.

"We need to re-address the culture in sports clubs so that they become welcoming places," he says. "There is often in-fighting, too few people doing too many jobs, and very few leaders and coaches speaking to parents about what not to do. Something the project will do is to engage with parents on how to speak to their youngsters about sport and equip them with an armoury of tools that they can use.

"What we need is a combination of positive role models and what we call teachable moments. When someone gets sent off, for example, we can use it as an educational moment and ask children - do you really think that was the right thing for that person to do?"

Coaches and teachers will soon discover how this Californian plant adapts itself to the Scottish climate, but already Boyle is looking further ahead. "Turn the clock forward ten, 20 years - rather than spending billions on fixing health problems, we could be spending more on preventing them in the first place. Key influencers in young people's lives could be using sport to teach life lessons, motivating them to become better and try harder. It could be the foundation of a more successful country."

With the Commonwealth Games coming to Glasgow in 2014, that would be some legacy.