Jim Thompson’s son was only in first grade when he noticed how cutthroat some parents could be about youth sports. Thompson started coaching himself and then writing about coaching. Eventually, after his son was grown, he founded the Positive Coaching Alliance, which trains league leaders, coaches, parents and players on how to create a positive culture and use sports to build character and teach life lessons.

Since its inception at Stanford University in 1998, the Mountain View-based organization has partnered with more than 1,100 leagues, schools and organizations and conducted more than 6,000 workshops. Los Angeles Lakers coach Phil Jackson is its national spokesman.

For more information, visit positivecoach.org.

What should be the goal of youth sports?

The first goal is winning, but the second, and more important goal, is to use sports to learn life lessons. Winning is important. We live in a competitive world. But sports can really be used to instill positive character traits. There’s an endless procession of teachable moments – this idea of honoring the game and competing in a fierce and friendly way. It’s important to win graciously and lose with dignity. Can you learn to give it everything you have to win, but do it in a way of which you can be proud?

What about when professional athletes and coaches, who are often role models, behave badly?

As a parent or coach, you can create teachable moments out of bad examples as well as good ones. If you start looking for them, there are a lot of good ones. They just don’t get as much publicity.

You can tell kids what you think, but a better way is to ask them what they think. If one player mouthed off and another one hit him, ask: What would you do if somebody taunted you? That can be a rich conversation with kids.

What can children learn from the Winter Olympics?

Research shows if you focus exclusively or primarily on winning, your anxiety goes up and your self-confidence goes down. You really can’t control the outcome of the game. We emphasize effort, learning and bouncing back from mistakes. If you focus on mastery, sooner or later you’ll be successful.

Olympic athletes who focus on mastery win more medals than those who focus on trying to win a medal. You can tell kids: These people have to work very hard over a long period of time, and they haven’t always been successful. They make mistakes, and they get injured. The question is: how do you respond to that?