How to be a Great Sports Parent During and After COVID-19

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
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#174 “Talent can be the obstacle” with Allon Khakshouri, former manager of world #1 Novak Djikovic

This week on the Way of Champions Podcast, we welcome High Performance Expert, Allon Khakshouri. Allon Khakshouri is a recognized personality in the sports world, and has managed the careers of some of this generation’s greatest tennis players, including current world number one Novak Djokovic. We dive into what separates the great players from everyone else,
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#173 How to be an Effective Coach with David and Keith Mayer

This week on the Way of Champions Podcast, we welcome David and Keith Mayer, authors of the book Gold Dust: How to Become A More Effective Coach, Quickly: How to become a better communicator. We discuss intentionally evolving as a coach, writing a book with a family member, and why good coaches are great teachers. You can
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#172 How to Be a Great Sports parent and a Better Coach with Seth Taylor and Skye Eddy Bruce

This week on the Way of Champions Podcast, we welcome Skye Eddy Bruce and Seth Taylor. We dive into the youth sports world and discuss the topic of being a great sports parent like how to get parents to listen to what their children want/need, the difference between encouraging and distracting sideline behavior by parents,
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Why Volunteer Coaches Need to be More Like Volunteer Firefighters

If you are a longtime reader of this blog, you may know that my father was a firefighter on the New York Fire Department many years ago. His father was a firefighter. My brother was a firefighter. But what you may not know is that after seven years on the job, my father was badly
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#171 The Miraculous Story Of Austin Hatch: From 2x Plane Crash Survivor to University of Michigan Basketball

This week on the Way of Champions Podcast, we welcome Austin Hatch, a two-time plane crash survivor and inspirational speaker. Hatch’s story is nothing short of Miraculous. On Labor Day of 2003, Hatch and his family were flying home from their vacation home in northern Michigan. As they were preparing to land, the aircraft crashed
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#170 The Language of Great Coaching: Nick Winkelman Discusses the Art and Science of Teaching Movement

This week on the Way of Champions Podcast, we welcome Nick Winkelman, head of athletic performance & science for the Irish Rugby Football Union. He is also the author of The Language of Coaching, a book that focuses on the impact that communication has on an individual’s ability to learn and perform a movement. We discuss
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#169 (Bonus Episode) How Do We Get 40 Million Kids Back to Playing Sports Safely? Bill Kerig from GreatCoach.com has some answers

This week on the Way of Champions Podcast, we welcome Bill Kerig, founder and CEO of GreatCoach.com. Bill Kerig was a collegiate ice hockey player as well as a professional skier. In addition to Great Coach, he founded the sports fundraising platform RallyMe and was the COO of the extreme sports portal LevelRed as well as
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168 Dr Neeru Jayanthi: Overuse Injuries, Specialization and the importance of Providing a Healthy Youth Sports Experience

This week on the Way of Champions Podcast, we welcome Dr Neeru Jayanthi, Emory Sports Medicine & Tennis Medicine physician specializing in research on safety and risks of young athletes. You may recognize his name. We have mentioned him in blogs and podcasts, and his work is cited all over the youth sports world. We discuss how
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#167 What is the Purpose of Youth Sports? A Fireside Chat with Joe Ehrmann, Jody Redman, Nate Baldwin and Bev Smith

This week on the Way of Champions Podcast, we welcome Joe Ehrmann, Jody Redman, Nate Baldwin and Bev Smith for an incredible cup of virtual coffee as we dive into what the purpose of youth sports is and what we should do when sports start back up. We discuss how the pandemic will change the demand
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#166 The Purpose of Coaching is NOT to Fix the Next 30 Seconds: A Conversation with Mark Bennett and Alan Keane

This week on the Way of Champions Podcast, we welcome Alan Keane and Mark Bennett, both previous guests on our podcast. We dive into the purpose of coaching, how to be a “deficit detector”, and the behaviors a coach needs to help their players become problem solvers. If you have listened to episodes #31, #76, or #90,
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#165 Hall of Fame Coach Tara Vanderveer, Head Coach of Stanford Women’s Basketball Team

This week on the Way of Champions Podcast, we welcome Tara Vanderveer, Head Coach of the Stanford Women’s Basketball team. Coach Vanderveer is a 2-Time national champion coach, has been to 12 Final Fours, coached the 1996 US National Team at 1996 Olympics, and has been named Pac-12 Coach of the Year 10 times! She is also
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What Will You Be Proud of When We Return to Sports?

Tony Robichaux was a legendary collegiate baseball coach upon his passing in 2019. His teams at McNeese St and Louisiana won numerous conference titles, well over 1000 games, and made over a dozen trips to the NCAA Championships, including a College World Series in 2000. The other day I came across a quote from Robichaux
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#164 It’s Not a Skill Unless it Holds Up Under Pressure: A Conversation with Ben Freakley, Toronto Blue Jays Head of Mental Performance

This week on the Way of Champions Podcast, we welcome Ben Freakley, head of mental performance for the Toronto Blue Jays. Ben brings a lot of experience working with athletes at a high level, from working with the 75th Ranger Regiment to now going into his 4th season with the Blue Jays. We dive into
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#163 George Mumford: How to Become a Mindful Coach, and Develop Mindfulness in Your Athletes

This week on the Way of Champions Podcast, we welcome George Mumford, author of The Mindful Athlete and Mindfulness & Elite Performance Expert. We dive into why sports are so important in teaching life-lessons, how to get buy-in from players, and the most important lesson to teach athletes for peak-performance. Named Phil Jackson’s ‘Secret Weapon’ to winning
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Reimagining Youth Sports in a Post-COVID-19 World

“When do you think we will play again, coach?” “Will we finish our season, coach?” “I sure miss practice, even the fitness!” “What about tryouts?” If you are part of a school or youth sports club, these are the questions you have been fielding on a daily basis. Since the state of Oregon closed down
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#162 Chris Armas, NY Red Bulls Head Coach, “Every Player Has a Fire Inside Them, it is our Job to Stoke It”

This week on the Way of Champions Podcast, we welcome Chris Armas, New York Red Bulls Head Coach, and former professional soccer player. Armas made 66 appearances with the US National Team,  and was US Soccer’s Player of the Year in 2000. He was names to 6 MLS All Star games and five times was
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#161 The Influence of Sleep on Performance with Dr. Meeta Singh

This week on the Way of Champions Podcast we welcome Dr. Meeta Singh, a sleep medicine doctor from the Henry Ford Sleep Disorder Center. Dr. Singh specializes in a variety of Sleep Disorders with a focus in Insomnia, Obstructive and Central Sleep Apnea, and Sports Medicine. Sleep is perhaps the most important component to peak
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#160 Inside the Mind of a World Cup Referee with Esse Baharmast

This week on the Way of Champions Podcast we welcome Esfandiar “Esse” Baharmast, a former referee, player, coach and current instructor who has been involved in more than a dozen World Cup tournaments and Olympic Games, and was named the 2020 winner of U.S. Soccer’s prestigious Werner Fricker Builder Award. We dive into how great referees
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#159 How to support your athletes during COVID-19 w/ John O’Sullivan and James Leath

John O’Sullivan and James Leath get together and do a free webinar about how to support your kids and your athletes during these uncertain times. First, John shares practical advice about what you should do to help kids cope with what is going on, including defining success, being careful not to rupture any relationships, and do whatever you can to
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I Already Miss Watching My Kids Play

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
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#158 Quin Snyder: NBA Head Coach, philosopher, and Master of the Relationship Game

This week on the Way of Champions Podcast we welcome NBA Head Coach of the Utah Jazz, Quin Snyder. We discuss Coach Quin’s journey of going from a player to a coach and how coaching overseas overseas helped him create his coaching philosophy. Coach Snyder is not like a lot of coaches, in that he
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#157 How to be a Great Coach with Martin Rooney, author and NFL, MMA and Special Forces Trainer

This week on the Way of Champions Podcast we welcome Martin Rooney, author and trainer for the NFL, MMA, Special Forces Trainer…and high school kids! Martin doesn’t just talk the talk, but he is in the trenches daily training people to perform at their peak level. There is so much goodness in this episode! Martin has been educating coaches
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#156 “Don’t End Up a Flat Squirrel” with sport psychologist Dr. Tiff Jones

This week on the Way of Champions Podcast we welcome Dr. Tiffany (Tiff) Jones, a Certified Mental Performance Consultant (CMPC) who is on the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) Sport Psychology Registry.  With over 15 years of consulting experience, Dr. Tiff is the Founder of X-Factor Performance Consulting, specializing in mental skills training for athletes,
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How to Coach Your Own Child: An Excerpt from Every Moment Matters

This week, John will be reading a chapter from his new book Every Moment Matters on “How to Coach Your Own Child.” It is estimated that over 80% of coaches at one time or another coach their own child, yet this unique dynamic is never discussed in coaching education classes, and rarely mentioned by Park and
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Raising Strong, Resilient Girls through Positive Psychology with author and coach Lani Silversides

This week on the Way of Champions Podcast we welcome, Lani Silversides. Lani is a former Division I athlete, current high school mathematics teacher, high school varsity and youth coach, sport psychology enthusiast, avid photographer and mother of two. We dive into transitioning from high school to college sports, the importance of understanding sport psychology as a
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#153 How to Help Athletes Transition Out of Sports with former NFL player Phil Costa

This week we welcome Phil Costa, former NFL Player for the Dallas Cowboys. We dive into a question every athlete must eventually face when they come to the end of their plying career: “What now?” Phil shares his experience trying to remake himself after football is over, we discuss how sports prepares athletes for life,
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Another Great Coach Bites the Dust. How Sad!

Yesterday was a tough day. It was a tough day because I had a conversation with another coaching friend who had lost his job. He was not fired for doing anything illegal. He was not fired for anything inappropriate. He was not fired for bullying or demeaning behavior. He was complimented for his integrity and
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#152 The Future Coach: Incorporating psychology into every session with EPL and Olympic Sport Psychologist Tom Bates

This week we welcome back to the podcast Sport Psychologist Tom Bates. Tom has over 15 years working with youth and senior domestic international athletes, coaches, managers and teams helping them to perform under pressure and be at their best when it matters the most. We discuss implementing sport psychology into daily practice, how to
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#151 Kevin Kirk: Olympic and Professional Golf Coach and 2019 PGA Teacher of the Year

In 2019, Kevin Kirk was voted PGA Coach of the Year. Kevin Kirk is one of the top golf coaches in the world. He is a deep thinker, culture creator, and ll-around great guy. We talk bout how to incorporate mental training to golfers, talking with parents, preparing for the national stage as an athlete…you do
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