Listen on the web, iTunes, Spotify, Amazon, and Stitcher Listen and Watch the Podcast on You Tube: @WayofChampionsPodcast Craig Parnham is the current High Performance Director fo USA Field Hockey, and former Head Coach for the US Women’s National Team. He also served as Assistant Coach for Team Great Britain in the 2008 and 2012 Olympic games, and played for Team
- Published in Coaching, Podcast, Talent Development
No Comments
How Labeling Young Athletes ‘Talented’ Limits Athletic Achievement (And Why We Should Ignore It)
Tuesday, 13 December 2022
The word “talent” gets thrown around quite often in youth sports circles, but what exactly does it mean? And do we really know what talent looks like, what its components are, how to properly develop it, and how labeling kids talented at a young age can actually limit their achievement? These are the questions we
- Published in Talent Development
302 Dr. Joe Baker on Talent, Why We Should Ignore it, How it Limits Athletic Achievement, and Why We Must Stop Labeling Young Athletes Talented
Friday, 09 December 2022
Listen on the web, iTunes, Spotify, Amazon, and Stitcher Listen and Watch the Podcast on You Tube: @WayofChampionsPodcast Dr. Joe Baker (@bakerjyorku) is Professor and head of the Lifespan Health and Performance Laboratory in the School of Kinesiology and Health Science at York University, Canada. He is a world-leader in research on talent identification, developing sport expertise, relative age effect, and
- Published in Podcast, Relative Age Effect, Talent Development
Creating the Ideal Learning Environment
Thursday, 01 September 2022
I have been on the road the last few weeks, visiting with some high performance teams and coaches across numerous sports from New York to Belgium to Vermont and finally, Colorado. In that time, regardless of whether these coaches were working with adults or children, similar questions kept popping up. “What does a great learning
- Published in Coaching, Leadership, Talent Development
#270 Mirelle van Rijbroek, US Soccer Director of Talent Identification for Girls, on Defining, Identifying and Developing Talent
Friday, 29 April 2022
Listen on the web, iTunes, Spotify, Amazon, and Stitcher Mirelle van Rijbroek has been US Soccer’s Director of Talent Identification for the Girls Program since 2017. van Rijbroek is a UEFA A Licensed coach, and began her coaching career in her native Netherlands working for clubs and the KNVB, as well as the head of Talent Identification, Talent Development, and
- Published in Podcast, Talent Development
#269: Dr Lee Hancock, Performance Psychologist, Discusses his New Book “Talent Zones: 10 Tools to Help Kids Develop Their Talents”
Friday, 22 April 2022
Listen on the web, iTunes, Spotify, Amazon, and Stitcher Dr. Lee Hancock (@DrLeeHancock) is a professor, performance psychology coach, and program creator who works with students, athletes, coaches, educators, parents, organizations, and other high-level performers. Dr. Hancock earned his Master’s and Ph.D. from Arizona State University and is a tenured professor in kinesiology at California State University Dominguez Hills. He
- Published in Coaching, Podcast, Talent Development
Can You Over-Sample in Youth Sports?
Wednesday, 02 February 2022
Every month we get interesting emails and messages from our Changing the Game family, and once in a while we get one that is worth throwing to the community. We got an email from a set of parents, both former NCAA Division I athletes, with three young children highly involved in sports. As avid readers
- Published in Specialization, Sports Parenting, Talent Development
#229 Rasmus Ankersen: How to Find and Develop the Talent That Whispers
Sunday, 18 July 2021
Listen on the web, iTunes, Spotify, Amazon, and Stitcher Rasmus Ankersen (@RasmusAnkersen) is an internationally known author, speaker, and film producer and one of the worlds leading experts on talent identification and development. He is also the co-director of football for Brentford FC of the English Premier League and Chairman of Champions League club FC Midtjylland of the Danish Super
- Published in Podcast, Talent Development
Performance is a Behavior, NOT an Outcome!
Thursday, 21 September 2017
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
- Published in Coaching, Talent Development
The Talent That Whispers
Tuesday, 18 April 2017
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
- Published in Relative Age Effect, Talent Development
Podcast #4: David Epstein, The Sports Gene, and the Science of Extraordinary Athletic Perfromance
Thursday, 13 April 2017
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
- Published in Podcast, Talent Development
Should My Child Play Up? The Do’s and Don’ts of Moving Kids to Older Age Groups
Monday, 27 March 2017
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,
- Published in Relative Age Effect, Talent Development
Does Youth Sports Get the Math All Wrong?
Monday, 14 December 2015
“I did not know there would be math on this test,” is something I say (jokingly) when I get a difficult question at my speaking engagements. Recently, I received an email from a frantic mom, and it got me thinking about math. Yes, math. When it comes to our current sporting environment, I think we often
- Published in Problems in Youth Sports, Specialization, Talent Development
Faster, Higher, Stronger: An Interview with Mark McClusky
Sunday, 14 December 2014
Every day the limits of the human body and being pushed. From sport science to nutrition, and from psychology to neuroscience, elite athletes are being trained differently, and are pushing the boundaries of performance. In his fantastic new book Faster, Higher, Stronger: How Sports Science Is Creating a New Generation of Superathletes–and What We Can
- Published in Book reviews, Talent Development
The Tipping Point in Youth Sports
Tuesday, 11 November 2014
“What happens to us parents and coaches,” I often get asked, “that turns us from sensible, relaxed people to stressed out adults roaming up and down sports sidelines and screaming at every play?” It is a question I ponder a lot, especially as I often get to watch my young children’s games played side by
- Published in Leadership, Problems in Youth Sports, Talent Development
Is Social Media Ruining Your Youth Sports Experience?
Wednesday, 24 September 2014
Do you turn get on Facebook, or Pinterest, or Instagram, and ever think to yourself “Everyone’s kid has a trophy, won their big game, and is having great success, but mine is not?” Does it drive you nuts when everyone else’s kids seem to be achieving something remarkable, or looking so happy, and you are
- Published in Problems in Youth Sports, Sports Parenting, Talent Development
The Missing Ingredient in US Talent Development
Friday, 15 August 2014
In 2005, the coaches at one of the top English Premier League Youth Soccer Academies held one of their semiannual meetings to decide upon which players they would keep for the upcoming cycle, and whom they would let go. As they were evaluating their players –many of whom would go on to star not only
- Published in Coaching, Problems in Youth Sports, Soccer, Sports Parenting, Talent Development