#353 Dr. Michael Gervais, Performance Psychologist and Host of Finding Mastery Podcast: “Performance is meant to be an EXPRESSION of who we are not a DEFINITION of who we are”
Tuesday, 28 November 2023
Dr. Michael Gervais (@MichaelGervais) is one of the world’s top high-performance psychologists and leading experts on the relationship between the mind and human performance. Dr. Gervais has spent his career being called on by the best of the best across the worlds of business, sport, the arts, and science when they need to achieve the
- Published in Parenting, Podcast, sport psychology
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#352 Maureen Monte on How to Win Like a Girl and Overcome the Confidence Crisis in our Female Athletes
Friday, 24 November 2023
Maureen Electa Monte (@maureenemonte) builds winning teams that unite, overcome obstacles, and achieve big goals. She has a B.S. and M.S. in Mechanical Engineering, and an M.S. in Leadership and Business Ethics, and is a Gallup-certified StrengthsFinder subject matter expert. She provided leadership development training for executives as an adjunct professor at Cornell and delivers
- Published in Confidence, lacrosse, Parenting, Podcast
The Storm Has Its Purpose
Thursday, 16 November 2023
The other day I was on a live webinar with a couple of dozen parents of young athletes, almost all moms. They were there to gain some insight into how they could best support their children on the sporting journey across a variety of sports. I was asked a question that is a very common
- Published in Adversity, Family Values, Mental Toughness, Parenting
Youth Sports is a Journey (And We Have Lots to Be Grateful For)
Wednesday, 11 October 2023
This week I wanted to share with you some thoughts I recently sent to my local youth soccer club. I wrote these as I was working in the Middle East, visiting a series of international schools and doing coach, parent and leadership education in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Kuwait. It was a fascinating trip, as I learned
- Published in Adversity, High School Sports, Parenting
#343 Dr. Stephen Norris, World Renowned LTAD Expert: “Kids Love to Compete; Adults Love to Compare” (replay)
Thursday, 21 September 2023
Listen on the web, iTunes, Spotify, Amazon, and Stitcher Listen and Watch the Podcast on You Tube: @WayofChampionsPodcast In this replay of a brilliant episode from year 2 of the podcast, we welcome Dr. Stephen Norris to the show. Norris was the Director of Sport Physiology & Strategic Planning at the Canadian Sport Centre Calgary for the three Winter Olympic cycles
- Published in Coaching, Long Term Athlete Development, Parenting, Podcast
“Winning’s the Great Deodorant” (But That is Not Always a Good Thing)
Tuesday, 05 September 2023
Legendary NFL coach John Madden was once asked about the importance of winning in professional football. His answer is one of my favorite quotes: “I’ve always said winning’s the great deodorant, and conversely, when you have a bad record, everything stinks, and everything starts to unravel, and everything falls apart.” I love this quote because
- Published in Coaching, High School Sports, Parenting
Getting Better vs. Getting Seen: The Conundrum That Derails Many Promising Young Athletes
Tuesday, 16 May 2023
“Thanks Coach, we had an amazing time in this program, but you just don’t do enough showcases and we are going to miss getting seen by college coaches. We will be joining Club X.” “But isn’t your daughter still in middle school?” “Yes, but they say if we don’t join now we won’t be able
- Published in College Recruiting, Parenting
#319 A Mediterranean Tapas Chat with Todd Beane of TOVO Academy, Skye Eddy of Soccer Parenting, and John O’Sullivan of Changing the Game Project
Friday, 07 April 2023
This week we bring you a special episode recorded in Sitges, Spain with TOVO Academy Founder Todd Beane (@_ToddBeane), Soccer Parenting founder Skye Eddy (@SoccerParenting), and John. We all happened to cross paths in Spain when John’s team was participating in a training week at TOVO, and we took the opportunity to have a few
#313 Some Thoughts on Parent Engagement, Building Trusted Relationships, and Coach/Parent/Athlete Accountability with John O’Sullivan
Monday, 27 February 2023
This week John shares his thoughts after two weeks on the road visiting college teams and conducting some parent and coach workshops on some topics that have come up a lot recently. Quite a few coaches have asked about parent engagement and how to work with those parents who just don’t get it, and John
Is FOMO Ruining Youth Sports?
Tuesday, 17 January 2023
(Yesterday I had the opportunity to present to a group of orthopedics, physical therapists, athletic trainers and coaches on FOMO: Fear of Missing Out, and why I think it is driving early specialization, burnout and dropout for our young athletes. I figured it was a good excuse to share an old blog of ours on
- Published in Coaching, Mindset, Parenting, Problems in Youth Sports
#307 How Adults Ruin Youth Sports, and How We Can Fix it
Friday, 13 January 2023
Listen on the web, iTunes, Spotify, Amazon, and Stitcher Listen and Watch the Podcast on You Tube: @WayofChampionsPodcast This week we are doing something a little different on the podcast. We had a last minute guest cancellation, so this week we decided to discuss one of our recent blog posts that just went a but viral, “How Adults Take the Joy
- Published in Parenting, Podcast, Problems in Youth Sports
#259 Juan Gonzalez Mendia, Professional Rugby Coach and Coach Educator: “If We Do Not Engage with Parents, We May Never Know What is Going on in a Kid’s Life”
Friday, 11 February 2022
Listen on the web, iTunes, Spotify, Amazon, and Stitcher Juan Gonzalez Mendia is a well known rugby coach and founder of Sudamerica Coaching (@sudcoaching), whose goal is to develop coaches, educators, professionals and volunteers through education and mentoring programs within their sporting or educational organization, and bringing increasing awareness on the importance of conscious, caring and people-centered environments. His organization
#251 “It’s Not D1 or Bust!” A Conversation with Nick Buonocore, Founder of the Reformed Sports Project
Friday, 17 December 2021
Listen on the web, iTunes, Spotify, Amazon, and Stitcher Nick Buonocore started The Reformed Sports Project to provide a platform for coaches and athletes from the highest levels to share their perspective and experiences with parents and kids. What started as a a few interviews and some social media posts with quotes from these athletes and parents has turned into
How to Help Your Athletes Build Great Habits and Break the Bad Ones
Tuesday, 21 September 2021
“Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement. They are the foundation of mastery.” – James Clear “I wish my kid would practice more on his own,” said one mom to me at a recent talk. “He could be so much better if he applied himself.” “I hear you,” said her friend. “If he spent as
#233 Dr. Jean Cote: Long Term Athlete Development Starts with Immediate Positive Experiences
Sunday, 15 August 2021
Listen on the web, iTunes, Spotify, Amazon, and Stitcher Dr. Jean Côté (@JeanCote46) is professor and Director in the School of Kinesiology and Health Studies at Queen’s University at Kingston (Canada). His research interests are in the areas of children in sport, coaching, positive youth development, and sport expertise. Dr. Côté has published more than 130 papers on a variety
- Published in Coaching, Parenting, Podcast, Specialization
Choosing the Hard Right in Youth Sports
Wednesday, 20 January 2021
As many long time listeners and readers know, I am a graduate of Fordham University in New York City. This past Monday, on the occasion of Martin Luther King, Jr., Day, one of my former teachers and current university president Father Joseph McShane sent a letter to alumni about courage. I thought it was worth
Two Magic Words
Tuesday, 20 October 2020
“What were you doing out there?” screamed an angry dad. “I told you to shoot!” yelled the coach to the shell shocked young boy who just passed to his teammate instead of fulfilling the coaches wishes. “He doesn’t know what he is doing” says a third parent, shaking his head as the attack falters and
Youth Sports is a Journey, Not a Destination
Monday, 14 September 2020
COVID. Demonstrations and riots. Divisive politics. Home schooling. Wildfires. Smoke. As a coach for 30 years, and a parent for nearly 15 of those years, I am probably like most of you in that I cannot remember a crazier, more stressful, anxiety inducing year than 2020. It seems every time we take one step forward, we
- Published in Parenting
How to be a Great Sports Parent During and After COVID-19
Monday, 29 June 2020
Many years ago, when I first started Changing the Game Project, I travelled to Los Angeles to speak at a parent education day for The Brentwood School. The keynote speaker that day was psychologist and author Madeline Levine. She has written two NY Times bestsellers on parenting (The Price of Privilege and Teach Your Children
I Already Miss Watching My Kids Play
Tuesday, 17 March 2020
It’s Tuesday, March 17, at 3pm. It has been a week since I got to watch my kids play soccer, at their final practice before the state of Oregon cancelled all group gatherings and sporting events. It has been 10 days since I watched their last games. And like all of you reading, I have
- Published in Parenting
Are Sports Fundamentally Good?
Thursday, 26 December 2019
I recently came across a great quote from the poet TS Elliot, who says “Nothing pleases people more than to go on thinking what they have always thought, and at the same time imagine that they are thinking something new and daring: it combines the advantage of security with the delight of adventure.” The quote
- Published in Coaching, Parenting, Problems in Youth Sports
Don’t Steal the Reps from Your Athletes
Wednesday, 01 May 2019
Imagine you went to your child’s algebra class and got to be a fly on the wall. Imagine the teacher was being assessed on your child’s test results in two days. Now imagine that instead of teaching your child how to problem solve, and the concepts behind doing algebra problems, she just took out the
Parenting and Coaching The Perfectionist Athlete
Tuesday, 08 May 2018
Last week, we received a question that we get often, so we thought it would make a great blog: “I was wondering if you could provide some advice. My son is 8 years old and plays on a travel baseball team. [He is ] blessed with athleticism. He’s fast and has great hand-eye coordination. The
The “Power of Moments” in Youth Sports
Tuesday, 17 October 2017
The Magic Castle Hotel is one of the top three rated hotels in Los Angeles. Of its nearly 3000 reviews, 93% rate it very good or excellent, putting it above properties such as The Four Seasons and the Ritz Carlton. Yet, as you flip through the photos online, you don’t see much that makes you
A Final Game of H-O-R-S-E
Tuesday, 08 August 2017
A few years back, my wife Lauren and I took our kids back for one final visit to her childhood home in Fairport, NY. Her parents were preparing to sell their house and move to a warmer climate, and we took the opportunity to fly across the country to say some final goodbyes to the
- Published in Family Values, Parenting
Developing Warriors, not Winners, is the Path to Excellence
Sunday, 05 March 2017
(This week’s blog is written by Reed Maltbie, our new Chief Content Officer and Lead Presenter for Changing the Game Project. If you haven’t seen Reed present for us yet, check out his amazing TED talk on the lasting power of a coach’s words. Drop him a line at Reed@ChangingTheGameProject.com to say hello or if you interested
- Published in Coaching, Parenting, Team Culture
An Open Letter to My Dad, who Makes Me Want to Quit Sports
Wednesday, 31 August 2016
Dear Dad, I was afraid to say this to your face after the game today, but I was thinking that maybe you could stop coming to my games for a while. It doesn’t seem that fun for you anyway, and I know it’s not fun for me when you are there. I used to love
- Published in Parenting, Problems in Youth Sports
3 Questions That Turn Losing into Learning
Wednesday, 03 August 2016
“Do you want to win every game you play for the rest of your life?” That was a question that Olympic gold medalist and current USA Women’s Volleyball team head coach Karch Kiraly asked his team as they prepared for the 2014 World Championships. “Because we can,” he told them. They could schedule easy opponents,
Life Lessons from my “Old School” Sports Dad
Tuesday, 14 June 2016
I remember the conversation like it was yesterday. I was a sophomore in high school, and I was mad. I was offended. I was aggrieved… I had been benched. When I got home from school, I wanted someone to tell me how I was right, and the coach was wrong. I wanted someone to tell
- Published in Parenting
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