“Is there a difference between Coaching Girls and Coaching Boys?” with Dr. Kristen Dieffenbach

Kristen Dieffenbach is an associate professor of Athletic Coaching Education and the director of the Center for Applied Coaching and Sport Science at West Virginia University. She earned her PhD in exercise and sport science with an emphasis in sport and exercise psychology and is an Association of Applied Sport Psychology (AASP) certified mental skills
Read more
No Comments

How to Create a Season to Remember with former MLB player Jack Perconte

John Patrick “Jack” Perconte (born August 31, 1954) is a former second baseman in Major League Baseball who played from 1980 to 1986. In addition to his Major League baseball career, Perconte has authored three books: “Creating a Season to Remember: The New Youth Sports Coaching Leadership Handbook “The Making of a Hitter- A Proven and Practical Step-by-Step Baseball Guide” “Raising
Read more
No Comments

#100 “Every Child is One Relationship Away from a Successful Life:” A Lesson on Transformational Coaching from Joe Ehrmann and Jody Redman of the InSideOut Initiative

This podcast would not exist, the Changing the Game Project would not exist, if it were not for Joe Ehrmann. Many years ago, I read his incredible book InsideOut Coaching, and it changed my life forever. It validated for me that there was more to coaching than Xs and Os, and that I wanted to
Read more
No Comments

The Professionalization of Youth Sports

“The Fulham coaches distilled the threat, defined the tactics and dictated the tempo at which they expected their team to play. It was a tough European tournament, featuring Paris Saint-Germain, Monaco, Inter Milan, Bayern Munich, Anderlecht and Feyenoord, but it was deemed to be winnable.” So begins Chapter 2 of the great book No Hunger
Read more
1 Comment

The Best Sports Books of 2018

Yes, it is that time of year again, time for our favorite books of 2018, and time to get the coaches, parents and athletes in our lives some good holiday reading material. The Changing the Game Project team is always reading, always listening, and always learning, in order to help you take your coaching, parenting,
Read more
2 Comments

Our Children Become the Messages They Hear the Most

Picture the young swimmer stepping up to the starting blocks in a championship race. What is he thinking in that moment? Visualize the soccer player, stepping up to take the deciding penalty kick. What is going through her head? Think of the basketball player, standing on the free throw line needing to make two free
Read more
2 Comments

“When I’m Running, it Feels like I am not Disabled:” Lessons on Being a Great Teammate from the Best Team You’ve Never Heard Of

Dick Hoyt was not a runner in any sense of the word. By his own accounts, he could not remember the last time he had run more than a mile. So when his son Rick told him in the spring of 1977 that he wanted to participate in a 5-mile run to benefit a classmate
Read more
No Comments

Why is Abusive Coaching Tolerated in Sports?

On May 29, 2018, University of Maryland lineman Jordan McNair ran the last sprint of his life. After a series of 110 yd runs, during which he became disoriented and had trouble standing, McNair collapsed and died of heat stroke. He had a body temperature of 106 degrees in the hospital. He was only 19.
Read more
1 Comment

“Make Failure Your Fuel”: How to Help Your Athletes Learn from Adversity

In May 2018, retired US Women’s National Soccer team star Abby Wambach gave the commencement address to 600 women from Barnard College in New York City. Wambach, the all-time leading scorer for Team USA, an Olympic and World Cup champion, and an inspirational athlete known for playing with passion and giving her all every time
Read more
4 Comments

Our Favorite Books for Summer 2018

Every year, as summer rolls around, we give you the list of our favorite reads of the year so far. Between Memorial Day, Fathers Day, and that upcoming vacation I hope you are taking, it’s a great time to catch up on some reading. There have been some great new books that have come out
Read more
3 Comments

In Youth Sports, there is no LTAD without STAE

“Imagine youth sports was a room. On one end of the room, there is a door where everyone enters. At the other end, there is another door where everyone leaves.” So began a long conversation I had with Peter Hugg, the Head of Football (soccer) for Football New South Wales in Australia, on my recent
Read more
1 Comment

How to Make Coaching a True Profession

“It ain’t what you know that gets you in trouble. It’s what you know that just ain’t true.” – Mark Twain “What makes you a professional?” That was the question Dr. Richard Bailey, Head of Research at the International Council of Sport Science and Physical Education, posed to me and 250 PGA instructors in Orlando
Read more
3 Comments

When Will Youth Sports Actually Serve the Needs of Youth?

In late February I was traveling and speaking in Sydney and Perth, Australia, working for a variety of sports organizations including the Football (Soccer) Federation of Australia, Football New South Wales, the Western Australia Department of Sports and Recreation, and the WA Aussie Rules Football Committee. While on site, I got to visit the brand
Read more
5 Comments

Pound the Rock! What the San Antonio Spurs Can Teach Us About Getting 1% Better Every Day

One of the most successful sporting franchises across the globe the last few decades is the San Antonio Spurs of the NBA. With five NBA titles since 1999, 22 overall division titles, having won at least 50 games for 18 consecutive seasons, and having missed the playoffs only 4 times in their history, the Spurs
Read more
3 Comments

Winning the Race to the Right Finish Line in Youth Sports

Kevin McLaughlin, USA Hockey’s Director of Youth Hockey Development, was not looking forward to opening his email in January 2009. He knew it was going to be full of angry posts. He knew he and his colleagues at USA Hockey would be accused of destroying the game and taking the toughness out of the sport.
Read more
8 Comments

The Culture Code: Our 2017 Book of the Year (Plus Other Staff Picks)

It’s that time of year again, our final blog where we review our favorite books of 2017. There were some amazing books out there this year, and the choices were tough. This year, we also brought in some staff favorites to add to our master list. Hopefully, you can find a great read for the
Read more
2 Comments

The One Question All Coaches Should Ask Their Athletes

Coaches, imagine if there was a way to gain insight, understanding, and connection with your athletes by asking a simple question? There is. let me explain how. A few years back, I coached a talented, yet underperforming sixteen-year-old girl I will call Maddy. She was incredibly inconsistent in her play and often looked very depressed.
Read more
2 Comments

The “Power of Moments” in Youth Sports

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
Read more
6 Comments

Performance is a Behavior, NOT an Outcome!

Last week I received the following email (edited for anonymity). We get calls and emails like this quite often from amazing, passionate coaches who are trying to make a difference. Take a read: Dear John, I’m currently a head football coach…I took over the program last January after being on staff for the previous 10
Read more
3 Comments

A Final Game of H-O-R-S-E

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
Read more
3 Comments

Looking for Answers? Get Our FREE Booklet With Links to Our Most Popular Articles for Parents, Coaches, Athletes and Youth Sports Organizations

Here at Changing the Game Project, every week we get a call or email that says “remember that article you wrote about…? We want to use it in our newsletter and we can’t find it. What was it called?” Well, after four years of publishing thousands of words a month, we have realized that we
Read more
1 Comment

How to “Win at Losing” and our Other Favorite Books of 2017

As the summer holidays roll around for those of us in the northern hemisphere, it is a great time to do some reading. Twice a year we compile a list of the books we have enjoyed in the fields of athlete development, leadership, coaching, and parenting, and share them with our readers so that you
Read more
1 Comment

How Would You Spend $100 Million to Improve Your Favorite Sport? My Advice for US Soccer

What would you do with $100 million to improve the sport you love? It’s kind of a magic wand question, isn’t it? You have enough money to make a significant impact in a sport on every level, how do you spend it? Recently in the news, it has been reported that the US Soccer Federation
Read more
1 Comment

WOC #7: Destination Unstoppable, The Journey of No Teammate Left Behind with Author Maureen Monte

Maureen Monte is the author of the incredible book Destination Unstoppable: The Journey of No Teammate Left Behind, one of our favorite books of 2016. She was also a participant in our first ever Way of Champions Conference in 2016, and will be joining us again in Princeton NJ June 2-4 for our next event.
Read more
1 Comment

WOC Podcast #6: USOC Coaching Education Director Chris Snyder

It is not often you get the opportunity to speak to a coach that has the task of supporting and assisting some of the best coaches in the world, across a multitude of sports, but that is what Chris Snyder does. Chris is the Director for Coaching Education in the Sports Performance Division of the
Read more
1 Comment

Lionel Messi and the Will to Compete

Lionel Messi lay battered on the turf. As he raised his head from the grass, he spit out a mouthful of blood and a tooth. He’d just taken an elbow to the face, one of many kicks, elbows, and bruises he would endure that day. Soon after another player was given a red card for
Read more
1 Comment

WoC Podcast #5: 2x Olympic Decathlon Champion Ashton Eaton

It’s not often you get to speak with the greatest athlete in the world, and pick his brain about coaching, practice habits, multi-sport participation, parental and coaching influences, staying on top of your game, and so much more. This week John sits down with world record holder and 2x Olympic Gold Medalist Ashton Eaton for
Read more
No Comments

The Talent That Whispers

The scouts snickered. They looked at the time again. To this day the 5.28 second 40 yard dash time is one of the slowest for quarterbacks in the history of the NFL combine. His 24.5 inch vertical leap didn’t have them lining up at his door either. He had been a good, but not an
Read more
3 Comments

Podcast #4: David Epstein, The Sports Gene, and the Science of Extraordinary Athletic Perfromance

This week on the Way of Champions Podcast, John O’Sullivan gets to chat with David Epstein, author of the internationally best-selling book The Sports Gene: The Science of Extraordinary Athletic Performance and one of our FAVORITE all-time books. The book is a top 10 New York Times bestseller and was chosen as a best non-fiction book of 2013 by
Read more
No Comments

Episode #1-3 of the Way of Champions Podcast with 36x NCAA Champion Dr. Jerry Lynch, EPL Sport Psych Dan Abrahams, and Coach Lisa Cole

Today marks a huge day in the evolution of the Changing the Game Project, as we launch the first three episodes of our brand new endeavor, the Way of Champions Podcast (click here to subscribe)! Our goal is to give parents, coaches, youth sports administrators, and athletes access to the top minds in coaching, talent
Read more
2 Comments