Re Designing Youth Sport

Many observers have pointed out what is wrong with youth sport: an emphasis on winning at all costs; parental over-involvement; high participation costs that exclude many families; lack of vigorous physical activity; lack of player engagement; and no focus on development. Currently, most attempts at righting the wrongs of youth sport have focused on coach education and curriculum, but in this book, the authors offer a different approach—one that involves changing the game itself. Re-Designing Youth Sport combines vivid examples and case studies of innovative sport programs who are re-designing their sport with a comprehensive toolkit for practitioners on how to change their game for bigger and better outcomes. It offers a fresh and exciting perspective on the seemingly intractable issues in sport. It presents a practical and empowering pathway for readers to apply the examples and tools to the outcomes that they aspire to achieve in their sport, such as increased fun and excitement, life-skills building, gender inclusion, increased sportspersonship, greater parity and avoidance of one-sided competition, and positive parental roles. The book also reveals how community leagues as well as national and international sport governing bodies are using re-design to accelerate player skill development, tactical awareness, and physical fitness.

Many observers have pointed out what is wrong with youth sport: an emphasis on winning at all costs; parental over-involvement; high participation costs that exclude many families; lack of vigorous physical activity; lack of player engagement; and no focus on development. Currently, most attempts at righting the wrongs of youth sport have focused on coach education and curriculum, but in this book, the authors offer a different approach—one that involves changing the game itself. Re-Designing Youth Sport combines vivid examples and case studies of innovative sport programs who are re-designing their sport with a comprehensive toolkit for practitioners on how to change their game for bigger and better outcomes. It offers a fresh and exciting perspective on the seemingly intractable issues in sport. It presents a practical and empowering pathway for readers to apply the examples and tools to the outcomes that they aspire to achieve in their sport, such as increased fun and excitement, life-skills building, gender inclusion, increased sportspersonship, greater parity and avoidance of one-sided competition, and positive parental roles. The book also reveals how community leagues as well as national and international sport governing bodies are using re-design to accelerate player skill development, tactical awareness, and physical fitness.

"Directing Youth Sports Programs is loaded with helpful tools to get your program on the right track, including sample recruiting plans, job descriptions for coaches, a sample calendar of events, a first aid inventory, emergency medical information, and up-to-date addresses and reference information. You'll also find more than 30 forms and 20 practice exercises to use to organize and manage your program, plus a unique Sport Event Planner - an indispensable tool to guide you through the process of planning youth sport events." "Whether you're a novice youth sport director looking for a user-friendly handbook or an experienced administrator in search of a strategic reference, turn to ASEP for the ideal resource: Directing Youth Sports Programs."--BOOK JACKET.

Although the physical and psychological benefits of youth participating in sport are evident, the increasing professionalization and specialization of youth sport, primarily by coaches and parents, are changing the culture of youth sport and causing it to erode the ideal mantra: “It’s all about the kids.” In Best Practice for Youth Sport, readers will gain an appreciation of an array of issues regarding youth sport. This research-based text is presented in a practical manner, with examples from current events that foster readers’ interest and class discussion. The content is based on the principle of developmentally appropriate practice (DAP), which can be defined as engaging in decisions, behaviors, and policies that meet the physical, psychological, and social needs of children and youth based on their ages and maturational levels. This groundbreaking resource covers a breadth of topics, including bone development, burnout, gender and racial stereotypes, injuries, motor behavior, and parental pressures. Written by Robin S. Vealey and Melissa A. Chase, the 16 chapters of Best Practice for Youth Sport are divided into four parts. Part I, Youth Sport Basics, provides readers with the fundamental knowledge and background related to the history, evolution, and organization of youth sport. Part II, Maturation and Readiness for Youth Sport Participants, is the core of understanding how and why youth sport is different from adult sport. This part details why it is important to know when youth are ready to learn and compete. Part III, Intensity of Participation in Youth Sport, examines the appropriateness of physical and psychological intensity at various developmental stages and the potential ramifications of overtraining, overspecialization, overstress, and overuse. The text concludes with part IV, Social Considerations in Youth Sport, which examines how youth sport coaches and parents can help create a supportive social environment so that children can maximize the enjoyment and benefits from youth sport. In addition to 14 appendixes, activities, glossaries, study questions, and other resources that appear in Best Practice for Youth Sport, the textbook is enhanced with instructor ancillaries: a test package, image bank, and instructor guide that features a syllabus, additional study questions and learning activities, tips on teaching difficult concepts, and additional readings and resources. These specialized resources ensure that instructors will be ready for each class session with engaging materials. Ancillaries are free to course adopters and available at www.HumanKinetics.com/BestPracticeForYouthSport. Best Practice for Youth Sport provides readers with knowledge of sport science concerning youth sport and engages them through the use of anecdotes, activities, case studies, and practical strategies. Armed with the knowledge from this text, students, coaches, parents, administrators, and others will be able to become active agents of social change in structuring and enhancing youth sport programs to meet the unique developmental needs of children, making the programs athlete centered rather than adult centered so that they truly are all about the kids.

There are more opportunities than ever for employment in recreational sport, which means the need to prepare students with a solid foundation of the design, delivery, and management of recreational sport has never been more critical. Recreational Sport is designed precisely with that need in mind. This text provides a contemporary perspective of recreational sport management, offering a comprehensive picture of recreational sport management for people in or entering all sectors of recreation and leisure, including public, nonprofit, private, and commercial. “We saw a need for broad-based recreational sport programming that reflects the myriad of recreational sport activities and opportunities that are out there,” says lead author Robert Barcelona. “To meet those increased needs and interests, people need to have an array of programming and management skills in recreational sport.” Barcelona and his coauthors help readers gain those skills in part by simplifying the complicated process of designing and delivering programs in various settings in recreation and leisure services. They present a macrocosm view of recreational sport in communities—a view that reflects the most current, application-based research in the field. Their text places recreational sport squarely in the middle of the recreation and leisure curriculum and is supported by the recreational sport core competencies as developed by Barcelona himself. Those competencies are based on what recreational sport managers need to know and be able to do to grow and succeed in the profession, and they connect with the NIRSA recreational sport competencies developed in 2013. In addition, Recreational Sport offers the following: • Coverage for all age groups and sectors in a range of settings and contexts for recreational sport • International perspectives to offer students great insights into career opportunities • The latest theory, research, and real-world approaches to help both students and professionals who program sports • Case studies of real-world issues in recreational sport and examples of theory-to-practice applications The text comes with an array of online ancillaries that will prove invaluable to both instructors and students. The instructor guide supports and extends the chapter content and offers numerous ideas for learning activities, projects, and topics for papers. It also supplies chapter summaries, glossary terms, and links to websites that contain information for both instructors and students. The test package has multiple-choice, true–or-false, matching, and short–answer questions that can interface with learning management systems, and the presentation package offers a visual overview of the material to help students retain the concepts. “In teaching recreational sport for many years, I know that students first need to grasp the big picture of recreational sports,” Barcelona says. “We deliver that big picture in addition to information on design, delivery, and management that every student needs to know to succeed, regardless of what recreational sport organization he or she is a part of.” That big-picture element, along with the cutting-edge information on program design, delivery, and management,, sets this book apart. In the three parts of the book, students will be able to do the following: • Be grounded in the philosophical concepts that define the field • Learn about the core competencies they need to know to deliver successful programs and events • Gain insights about the settings and contexts where recreational sport happens and learn about key ideas, issues, and career opportunities in the field Recreational Sport is a textbook critical to students’ future success in recreational sport management, offering the big-picture view of the field while offering practical guidance in and real-world examples of successful design, delivery, and management of recreational sport programming.

“A powerful guide for both parents and coaches who want kids to have fun, enjoyable, and meaningful youth sporting experiences . . . I highly recommend it!” —John Ballantine, president and co-founder, Kids in the Game The modern-day youth sports environment has taken the enjoyment out of athletics for our children. Currently, 70% of kids drop out of organized sports by the age of thirteen, which has given rise to a generation of overweight, unhealthy young adults. There is a solution. John O’Sullivan shares the secrets of the coaches and parents who have not only raised elite athletes, but have done so by creating an environment that promotes positive core values and teaches life lessons instead of focusing on wins and losses, scholarships, and professional aspirations. Changing the Game gives adults a new paradigm and a game plan for raising happy, high performing children, and provides a national call to action to return youth sports to our kids. “Changing the Game is, well, a game changer. It explores in both depth and breadth the youth sports experience, its blood, sweat, and tears. Any parent who wants their children to gain the physical, psychological, emotional, and social benefits of what sport has to offer (and isn’t that every parent!) better read this book. It will make you a better sports parent, and it will ensure that your children get all the good stuff and avoid most of the bad stuff from participating in sports.” —James Taylor, Ph.D., author of Positive Pushing: How to Raise a Successful and Happy Child

Design for Sport shows how socially responsible design can contribute to make sport practice widespread in the general population including disadvantaged and hard-to-reach groups, and those that have been traditionally excluded such as the elderly, disabled people, those living in deprived areas and from lower socioeconomic strata plus certain minority ethnic and religious groups. Contributions from around the world provide compelling case studies and an international perspective. While the main benefit from expanding sports practice in developed societies would be reduction of chronic disease rates and social inclusion, in the developing world where political instability and conflict are more common, the authors look at how sport can have other functions, such as a means of post-disaster relief. They discuss how Participatory Design (PD) techniques and appropriate ethnographies can be implemented in order to better understand users' needs and requirements as in the case of Paralympic sport where the increased sophistication of equipment used has evolved to meet the demands of the athletes. Reflecting the multi-disciplinary and cross-disciplinary nature of design for sport, the book also features case studies that look at environmental design to improve sport accessibility, social wellbeing, economic development and environmental sustainability.

Children and Yourth in Sport offers a comprehensive, multidisciplinary view of issues of concern to youth sport educators, researchers, and program administrators. This text effectively bridges the gap between research and application by including helpful guidelines for use in administration of youth sport programs and in coaching or teaching young athletes. The book's content and style is sufficiently challenging to serve as a text for upper level undergraduate or graduate youth sport courses; yet it is clear and interesting so nonprofessional audiences will also find it informative and enjoyable. Features specifically designed to fulfill classroom needs as a youthsport text multidisciplinary perspective by examining youth sports frombiological, psychological, and sociological perspectives, theauthors reveal how athletics affect youngsters in these areasof development chapters from previous edition have been updated, addingsignificant material two new chapters on overuse injuries and motivational climate