Win The Youth Sports Game

How to Ensure That Your Children Are Given The Opportunity to Succeed at Sports Win The Youth Sports Game objectively narrates how ordinary kids can progress, survive, and thrive within today's $20 billion, youth-sports industrial complex. The sixteen-year developmental trek from toddler to collegiate athlete is chronicled while juxtaposing the real-life challenges that athletes in all sports must endure and overcome. Win The Youth Sports Game is the first title ever to provide an honest reality-check for parents—a What to Expect When You are Expecting for youth sports. Fifty incredibly common, adult-imposed obstacles are exposed so that parents can help their athletes navigate and overcome these challenges along their own sports journeys. Fifty million parents may be hopeful their young athletes are on track to play college sports and win a scholarship, but only about 2 percent of elite high school athletes receive even a partial sports scholarship. Share this book's table of contents with any sports parent, and they'll immediately identify with some of the seemingly outrageous storylines. The unfortunate outcome is that more than 75 percent of kids quit sports by age fourteen, with over-zealous adults being a big contributor. The author will donate half of any profits to Project Play's youth-sports advocacy programs.

A first-of-its-kind investigative book on the least examined and most important topic in sports today. Youth sports isn't just orange slices and all-star trophies anymore. It's 14-year-olds who enter high school with a decade of football experience, 9-year-olds competing for national baseball championships, 5-year-old golfers who shoot par, and toddlers made from sperm donated (for a fee) by elite college athletes. It's a year-round "travel team" in every community--and parents who fear that not making the cut in grade school will cost their kid the chance to play in high school. In short, a landscape in which performance often matters more than participation, all the way down to peewee basketball. Much as Fast Food Nation challenged our eating habits and Silent Spring rewired how we think about the environment, Tom Farrey's Game On will forever change the way we look at this desperate culture besotted by the example of Tiger Woods. An Emmy award-winning reporter, Farrey examines the lives of child athletes and the consequences of sorting the strong from the weak at ever earlier ages: fewer active kids, testier sidelines, rising obesity rates, and U.S. national teams that rarely win world titles. He dives into the world of these games that are played by more than 30 million boys and girls, and along the way uncovers some surprising truths. When the very best athletes enter organized play. The best approach to coaching them. And the powerful influence of wealth and genetics. Farrey has written a surprising, alarming, thoughtful, and ultimately empowering book for anyone who wants the best for the newest generation of Americans, as athletes and citizens. From the Hardcover edition.

“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

This book was written expressly for you who are coaching children in sports. We stress how to teach children to participate in sports and to have fun doing it. The most important thing is participation by everyone. Planning your training program and what you should have in it is the next most important objective you have. We’ve covered that in this book. How to prepare your training schedule and what you are able to accomplish effectively. We cover player rotation, substitution and fairness management. Progressive training is the key to getting the team working as a team. We have taken the children from kindergarten through the eighth grade and grouped them into categories. In each category we discuss the players abilities, what they are capable of in both the physical and emotion sense, and their limitations. We have also defined the coach’s role, the parent’s role and the player’s role. As a coach, we cover the teaching attitude and methods. Always keeping in mind these are children, and the games are for the kids. In youth sports, winning isn't everything, but learning to play well and wanting to win is.

A close look at how big money and high stakes have transformed youth sports, turning once healthy, fun activities for kids into all-consuming endeavors—putting stress on children and families alike Some 75% of American families want their kids to play sports. Athletics are training grounds for character, friendship, and connection; at their best, sports insulate kids from hardship and prepare them for adult life. But youth sports have changed so dramatically over the last 25 years that they no longer deliver the healthy outcomes everyone wants. Instead, unbeknownst to most parents, kids who play competitive organized sports are more likely to burn out or suffer from overuse injuries than to develop their characters or build healthy habits. What happened to kids' sports? And how can we make them fun again? In Take Back the Game, coach and journalist Linda Flanagan reveals how the youth sports industry capitalizes on parents’ worry about their kids’ futures, selling the idea that more competitive play is essential in the feeding frenzy over access to colleges and universities. Drawing on her experience as a coach and a parent, along with research and expert analysis, Flanagan delves into a national obsession that has: Compelled kids to specialize year-round in one sport. Increased the risk of both physical injury and mental health problems. Encouraged egregious behavior by coaches and parents. Reduced access to sports for low-income families. A provocative and timely entrant into a conversation thousands of parents are having on the sidelines, Take Back the Game uncovers how youth sports became a serious business, the consequences of raising the stakes for kids and parents alike--and the changes we need now.

In this fascinating journey into a culture gone haywire, an Emmy-award winning reporter examines what's right and what's wrong with the fevered pursuit of excellence in youth sports.

"Bob's message is a must for all parents and coaches. He challenges adults to understand their effect on youngsters, and that kids' needs have to be met first." Bob Trupin, Westport, CT This is not just another book touting improved sportsmanship and better coaching to remedy the violence in youth sports today. Just Let the Kids Play is the first book to identify the youth sports systems as the cause of the problem, and offers practical ways to rebuild them so they better serve the physical and emotional needs of children. First-round NBA draft pick, part-time NBA scout and youth coach Bob Bigelow joins journalists Tom Moroney and Linda Hall to put youth sports under harsh review. They explain the controversial belief that elite traveling teams at young ages should be abolished and replaced with equal playing time, team parity and shortened seasons, among others. Focusing on soccer, basketball, baseball and hockey, they highlight ten programs nationwide where these principles are working, and offer ways to integrate them into existing programs without sacrificing a child's chances for success. Soccer moms and hockey dads will discover that it really is possible to sleep in on Saturdays without sacrificing their child's future!

All across the country, a growing number of children are dropping out of organized sports--not because they don't like to play, but because the system they play in is failing them. Written by one of this country's leading advocates of youth sports, Why Johnny Hates Sports explains why many of the original goals of youth leagues have been affected by today's win-at-all-costs attitude. It then documents the negative physical and psychological impact that parents, coaches, and administrators can have on children, while providing effective solutions to each of the problems covered. Why Johnny Hates Sports is both an exposé of abuses and a call to arms. It clearly illustrates a serious problem that has plagued youth sports for too long. Most important, it provides practical answers that can alter this destructive course.