How Do I Balance My WHY with the Demands of the Youth Sports Culture?

“This season was a disaster.” A former colleague of mine said to me recently. “We had a ton of fun, the kids learned a lot of new skills and gelled as a team, but we didn’t win as many games as last season.” “Fun and learning are the two primary things we always wanted out
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“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
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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
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Parenting and Coaching The Perfectionist Athlete

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
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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
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Can Youth Sports be Both Fun and Competitive?

I got an email from a distraught parent the other day. She described a scene where the coach was screaming at the girls after a loss. She was beside herself at how the coach treated the girls. He was demeaning, he was loud and scary, and he had lost perspective on the age he was
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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
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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
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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
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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.
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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
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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.
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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
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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
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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
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Google it! What Youth Sports Can Learn from the Tech Giant About Building Great Teams

110-2. 24-0. Headed into the 2004 Olympic Games, the Men’s USA Basketball team was 110-2 all-time. They were 24-0 since the introduction of the 1992 “Dream Team”(NBA-era). The team consisted of current and future NBA stars. The best of the best. The greatest players from the greatest league in the world. LeBron James, Dwayne Wade,
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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
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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
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When Will What We Know Change What We Do in Youth Sports?

“My daughter and I had to miss her grandfather’s funeral when she was 12 for a cheerleading competition.” I had to read that twice to be sure what I was reading. This was an actual comment we received recently on Facebook. We receive a lot of heartbreaking stories from readers, but this one sentence stopped
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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
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A Case for Nurture Over Nature

“Your daughter is so beautiful.” The kind woman said, smiling at my 18-year-old daughter. “Thanks, she got her mother’s looks.” I said reflexively. Then I cringed. That’s my “go to response”. Anytime I receive a compliment on my daughter’s looks, I immediately reply about her genetic connection to her mother. She did get her mom’s
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Can We Shift the Paradigm in Youth Sports?

I was recently in Ohio for a family event. At this event, my father and his friends began sharing stories of their childhood. Everyone shared stories of their days of triumph on the sporting fields in their small Midwest town. As the event progressed, it evolved into a full on discussion about youth sports coaching
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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
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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
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It’s Time to End the Sideline Sportsanity

As soon as I stepped out of my car in the parking lot, I could hear it. It was a beautiful Saturday afternoon of travel soccer, but there it was. You know what I’m talking about: that sometimes beautiful, often times excruciating cacophony of sounds that we have come to know as “cheering for our
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Is Your Child’s Youth Sports Experience Transactional or Transformational?

Back in January 2017 I moderated a panel at the National Soccer Coaches Association of America convention on “Reimagining Youth Development in the United States.” An audience member asked us very interesting question. He spoke about how families were always jumping ship to the neighboring club that focused on winning and not development. The neighboring
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Should My Child Play Up? The Do’s and Don’ts of Moving Kids to Older Age Groups

Manchester United’s Carrington Training Center is not only one of the finest youth soccer academies in the world. On every field, the future of the club is evident, as aspiring young players dodge, weave, pass and move the United way. At the same time, everywhere you turn you stare at history. Images of Ryan Giggs,
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Don’t Turn Your Young Athlete Into a Mini Me

“Dad, am I a disappointment to you?” My son asked, choking back tears. I stopped dead in my tracks. We were walking out of a local amusement park on our way to the car. We had spent the day at the park to bond. It seems the plan backfired. I gathered myself. Inside I was
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Is “Fear of Missing Out” Ruining Youth Sports?

I remember the day I coached my son TJ’s first soccer game. He was only five, and I was so proud, so excited, and couldn’t wait for him to play the game I loved. There was one problem. He didn’t want to play. When the game was about to start, he said, “Dad I don’t
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Developing Warriors, not Winners, is the Path to Excellence

(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
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