Help, My Child is a Late Bloomer: 5 Tips for Overcoming the “Relative Age Effect” in Youth Sports

“Here is my question,” a mother concerned with her 10 year-old son’s sports experience recently wrote me. “I am not afraid that my son will quit sports by the time he is 13.  I am afraid that he will be denied the opportunity to play. My son is coordinated and coachable. He LOVES sports; we
Read more
11 Comments

Why Kids Quit Sports

“I just can’t take it anymore coach,” a talented but underperforming player named Kate told me a few years back. “I think I am done playing.” My mind went through all the reasons this might be happening: burnout, other interests, team dynamics, I was too hard on her, the gamut. What could it be? “It’s
Read more
61 Comments

The Adultification of Youth Sports

The other day I had a conversation with a coaching colleague about the state of youth sports. I stated that the emphasis on travel sports and playing multiple games per day for young children was hurting kids and damaging sports. “I agree with what you are saying,” he said, “but you are forgetting that youth
Read more
23 Comments

What Youth Sports can Learn from Video Games

On a recent sunny Saturday, I took my kids out to the local park to play soccer with some friends. They ran, they jumped, and they competed hard. They laughed, they schemed, and they made the rules. Everyone played, no one was excluded from the game, and all the kids tried and failed over and
Read more
10 Comments

Faster, Higher, Stronger: An Interview with Mark McClusky

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
Read more
1 Comment

The Tipping Point in Youth Sports

“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
Read more
9 Comments

Starting Your Athletes the Right Way

(A child’s first contact and first impression of a sport goes a long way to determining whether or not he will fall in love with the game. As basketball great Steve Nash says, upon receiving his first ball and playing in his first organized league at age 13, “I felt like I had a new
Read more
3 Comments

The 4th Path: Reinventing US Youth Soccer Player Development

When it comes to the development of young soccer players in the United States, many parents and coaches come to that proverbial fork in the road, and are unsure what path to take. Most parents want their child to try many sports, yet are faced with the harsh reality of high participation costs, nearly year-round
Read more
No Comments

What About the Single Sport Athlete? Specialization Part II

My article on sport specialization, “Is it Wise to Specialize,” prompted quite a bit of discussion, commentary, and controversy, with people chiming in from all across the globe. Certainly the dynamics of single v multiple sport participation, and its effect upon performance, injury, and burnout, is not a settled issue, and arouses many emotions. It
Read more
14 Comments

Is it Wise to Specialize?

The greatest difference between our children’s sporting experience and our own is the rise of year round, sport specific organizations that ask – even require – season after season of participation in order to stay in the player development pipeline. The pressure to have your child specialize in a single sport at a young age
Read more
118 Comments

5 Thoughts That Will Change Your Youth Sports Experience for the Better

“Imagine life as a game in which you are juggling some five balls in the air. You name them – work, family, health, friends and spirit – and you’re keeping all of these in the air. You will soon understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. But
Read more
1 Comment

Why Kids Play

One of the great divides in youth sports is the divide between why kids say they play, and why parents and coaches think they play! Lucky for us this issue has been studied numerous times, all over the world, by institutions of higher learning. The results are quite profound. Check out my latest video to
Read more
6 Comments

Empowering and Educating Parents Will Fix the Youth Sports Mess

When I was a child, my father used to jokingly tell my siblings and I that he was convinced we had another brother whom he had never seen, but was quite the trouble maker. This brother, named “Not Me,” seemed to be responsible for every broken, dirty, and disheveled thing around the house. Who broke
Read more
No Comments

“Never Stop Learning!” Part III of Three Things Great Coaches and Leaders Do

In part III, I share perhaps the biggest realization I ever had as a coach; the best coaches do not know it all! In fact, they are the first to admit it, and they never stop learning, never stop asking questions, and always are looking for ways to improve. If you want to be a
Read more
No Comments

Are You Setting Goals AND Expectations for Your Athlete? Do You Know the Difference?

As a parent, it is incredibly important that we understand the difference between the goals we set with our children, and the expectations we place upon them. The difference is subtle but very important, for both are crucial tools when it comes to raising high performers. We should place expectations upon our children and set
Read more
1 Comment