Football Starts at Home, with Tom Byer

Tom Byer is a former professional soccer player originally from New York but who is now based in Tokyo, Japan as one of the most decorated and admired grassroots soccer coaches in the Asian region. HIs official title is Tom is the Technical Consultant for the Ministry of Education School Football Campus Program”.  He was
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Using Play to Enhance Player and Team Development with Richard Cheetham

Richard Cheetham MBE is Senior Fellow in Sports Coaching. He recently been awarded the 2018 UK Coaching Coach Developer of the year. Cheetham has worked at the University of Winchester since 2005, following three years spent teaching and coaching in New Zealand. He has a reputation at national and international level in coach education and development
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Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World, our Favorite book so far in 2019

Yes, it is summer, which means it’s time to sit back, relax and catch up on some reading. Well, you are in luck, because this has been a banner year for some new releases, plus some 2018 books I am just getting to. Let’s go! Best Book (so far) of 2019 Range: Why Generalists Triumph
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How to Learn Like a Jungle Tiger with Trevor Ragan from TrainUgly.com

Meet Trevor Ragan, the guest on this week’s Way of Champions Podcast. Trevor is the founder of Train Ugly, and the host of a fantastic podcast called The Learner Lab [link]. This one goes a little over an hour, but we promise it is worth the time! Grab a notebook and a pen, and maybe some coffee or
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Bonus Episode: John and Jerry Discuss the 4th Annual Way of Champions Conference

In this bonus episode, John and Jerry discuss the Way of Champions Conference in Denver, CO on August 2-4. Visit https://changingthegameproject.com/wocconference for more information! WOCERALYBIRD for $100 off (good until June 15, 2019) Discounts for students from 1/2 off Group discount, 1/2 off with 5 or more coaches Highlights from the Podcast: Why Jerry is learning
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Turning Confrontation into Communication, not Conflict” with Rob Miller from Proactive Coaching

Rob is a motivational speaker for “Proactive Coaching“. Along with Bruce Brown, Rob uses his speaking skills and “coaching” knowledge to promote the “Proactive Coaching” mission of helping coaches positively impact their athlete’s lives. His experience gives him an amazing view at the status of modern day coaching and parenting. Highlights from the Podcast: Teaching
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A Coach’s Words Can Change a Life

(This article was submitted by Pete Jacobson, a varsity HS coach in New York for almost 20 years. He also works with coaches of all levels through WinSmarter to help them get better at what they do, have a greater impact and go home happy.) “When you hit your leg attacks well, you can take
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#116 Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World with David Epstein, NYT bestselling author of Range and The Sports Gene

David Epstein is the author of Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World, and of the New York Times bestseller The Sports Gene. He has master’s degrees in environmental science and journalism and has worked as an investigative reporter for ProPublica and a senior writer for Sports Illustrated. He lives in Washington, DC. Highlights
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#115 Former US olympic Soccer Player and National Team Coach Erik Imler on Developing a Coaching Philosophy

Our guest this week is Erik Imler. Imler, a UVA graduate, was a NCAA National Champion in 1989, 1991 and 1992 and went on to be a member of the 1992 Olympic Team and represented the United States as a player and then as a coach. As a Youth Academy Director and passionate blogger who
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#114 “Is Coaching an art or a Science?” A discussion with former Team USA Volleyball Head Coach Terry Liskevych

Terry Liskevych spent 12 years as the head coach of the USA National Women’s Volleyball Team. During his tenure with the National Team, the U.S. posted over 300 international victories and earned bronze medals at the 1992 Olympics and the 1990 World Championships. In 1995 Liskevych led his team to the gold medal at the
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#113 The Difference Between Talent and Ability, a discussion with Stuart Armstrong of The Talent Equation

Stuart Armstrong is the Head of Coaching for Sport England. Prior to Sport England, he was the Player Development Manager for the Rugby Football Union. He is one of the world’s top experts on player development pathways and skill acquisition, and has helped thousands of coaches in the UK create better learning environments and develop
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Don’t Steal the Reps from Your Athletes

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
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#112 Training the Mind for Optimal Performance with Lindsey Wilson

This week on the Way of Champions Podcast, we have a discussion with Lindsey Wilson from Positive Performance Training about the importance of the mental game for athletes of all ages. Lindsey works with athletes and coaches to unlock player and team potential through mental performance training. As an athlete, Lindsey had the privilege to play
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#111 Coaches are terrible at Talent ID, so we must be architects of an optimal learning environment: A discussion with Dr. Joe Baker

Dr. Joe Baker is one of our favorite people in talent development, sport specialization, and long term athlete development, and our conversation this week does not disappoint. We talk about David Epstein’s new book Range, discuss sport specialization, as well as the relative age effect, what great coaching looks like, how poor the evidence shows
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#110 Understanding the Sport Parent Psyche with iSport360’s Ian Goldberg

Ian Goldberg is a sports dad, coach and Founder of iSport360, a SportsTech company that is helping coaches, kids and parents set goals, share player feedback and track player progress.  His informative and frequently-funny youth sports newsletter has 70,000 subscribers, earning Ian a place on the Advisory Council of the National Alliance for Youth Sports. https://isport360.com/ Connect
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Why Do We Think Physical Punishment is a Good Teaching Tool in Sports?

The other day I got an interesting question via email from a mom of a young travel volleyball player. Her daughter and her team had missed quite a few serves their previous tournament. There were serves into the net. There were serves wide of the court. There were serves over the endline. They were told
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#109 USA Hockey Technical Director Ken Martel: How to successfully implement a Long Term Athlete Development model

With over 25 years of experience in player development and a long history as a coach with USA Hockey, Ken Martel was named technical director of USA Hockey’s American Development Model in May 2009. He is charged with helping provide a framework for associations nationwide to follow for optimal athlete development. From 2006-08 at USA Hockey’s
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#108 How to Find Your Coaching True North with Celia Slater and Jerry Lynch

Celia Slater Celia brings nearly 30 years of unmatched experience in college athletics as both an organizational head and a collegiate basketball coach, most recently serving as co-founder and executive director of both the NCAA Women Coaches Academy (WCA) and The Alliance of Women Coaches (The Alliance). The WCA started as a professional development program
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#107 “If you love the process, the process will eventually love you back” a conversation with Super Bowl Champion Strength Coach Jon Torine

Jon’s professional career began with the Buffalo Bills as assistant strength and conditioning coach. For 14 years he worked as the head strength and conditioning coach for the Indianapolis Colts where he was the youngest to be hired in this role. His responsibilities were many and are proud to have worked on a fully integrated
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An Open Letter to the Out of Control Sports Parent Sitting Next to Me in the Stands

Dear Out of Control Sports Parent, You. Yeah, you. The one shouting “Get the rebound!!!” to your kid. The one with the heart palpitating so loudly that you cannot contain yourself. The one yelling and complaining about the coach. The one hollering at the 13-year-old referee.  The one angry at my kid for making a
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#106 “How to Put Play Back into a Child’s Day” with Eric Seibel and Tim Bedley from “Global School Play Day”

Global School Play Day is an ad-hoc leadership team of educators inspired by Dr. Peter Gray’s research on the decline of play and the adverse psychological, emotional and physical effects this has had on children. They continue to be a shoestring operation, promoting almost entirely through Twitter, Facebook and occasional spots on educational podcasts. No fees are
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#105 Parenting Young Champions and Peak Performance with Gold Medal Winning Sport Psychologist Dr Roberta Kraus

Dr. Roberta V. Kraus is currently featured as an expert in a new video series launched by TrueSport, an educational program powered by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency that inspires athletes, coaches, parents, and administrators to change the culture of youth sport through active engagement based on cornerstone lessons of sportsmanship, character-building, and clean and healthy
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#104 “You Coach a Child, Not a Sport!” with Dr. Martin Toms

Dr Martin Toms is a senior lecturer in Sports Coaching in the School of Sport & Exercise Sciences, College of Life and Environmental Sciences. Dr Toms has been involved in sport coaching and development for a number of years, and has experience of teaching in schools, as well as coaching (Professionally) prior to undertaking posts
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#103 How to Build a Model Youth Sports Organization w/ John Luetkemeyer

Join us as we talk to John Luetkemeyer about how a youth sports organization went from a local disaster to national recognition based on volunteers changing how we trained players! It is an incredible conversation filled with nuggets of wisdom. John has spent 25 years as a youth hockey coach working with players from mini-mite to high
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#102 “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
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#101 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
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#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
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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
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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,
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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
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