Listen on the web, iTunes, Spotify, Amazon, and Stitcher Listen and Watch the Podcast on You Tube: @WayofChampionsPodcast Dr. Jeremy Alland (@JeremyAllandMD) is a sports medicine physician at Midwest Orthopaedics at RUSH, a renowned, consistently top-10 nationally-ranked orthopedic practice in Chicago, IL. In addition to a busy clinical practice, he serves as the head primary care team physician for the Chicago
- Published in Injuries, Podcast, Sports Parenting
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Getting Better vs. Getting Seen: The Conundrum That Derails Many Promising Young Athletes
Tuesday, 16 May 2023
“Thanks Coach, we had an amazing time in this program, but you just don’t do enough showcases and we are going to miss getting seen by college coaches. We will be joining Club X.” “But isn’t your daughter still in middle school?” “Yes, but they say if we don’t join now we won’t be able
- Published in College Recruiting, Parenting
#313 Some Thoughts on Parent Engagement, Building Trusted Relationships, and Coach/Parent/Athlete Accountability with John O’Sullivan
Monday, 27 February 2023
This week John shares his thoughts after two weeks on the road visiting college teams and conducting some parent and coach workshops on some topics that have come up a lot recently. Quite a few coaches have asked about parent engagement and how to work with those parents who just don’t get it, and John
Is FOMO Ruining Youth Sports?
Tuesday, 17 January 2023
(Yesterday I had the opportunity to present to a group of orthopedics, physical therapists, athletic trainers and coaches on FOMO: Fear of Missing Out, and why I think it is driving early specialization, burnout and dropout for our young athletes. I figured it was a good excuse to share an old blog of ours on
- Published in Coaching, Mindset, Parenting, Problems in Youth Sports
#307 How Adults Ruin Youth Sports, and How We Can Fix it
Friday, 13 January 2023
Listen on the web, iTunes, Spotify, Amazon, and Stitcher Listen and Watch the Podcast on You Tube: @WayofChampionsPodcast This week we are doing something a little different on the podcast. We had a last minute guest cancellation, so this week we decided to discuss one of our recent blog posts that just went a but viral, “How Adults Take the Joy
- Published in Parenting, Podcast, Problems in Youth Sports
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
#296 John and Jerry Ask Us Anything Episode: Using Exercise as Punishment, Do We Need a National Sports Ministry, When is is the Right Time to Quit My Coaching Job, and More
Friday, 28 October 2022
Listen on the web, iTunes, Spotify, Amazon, and Stitcher This week on the podcast, Jerry Lynch and John O’Sullivan answer some questions sent to us by our Patreon Podcast Champions. These are our biggest supporters, and we gave them the chance to ask us anything. The most popular type of questions revolved around some recent topics, including: using physical exercise
#293 Linda Flanagan: How Money and Mania Have Ruined Kids’ Sports, Why it Matters, and How to Take Back the Game
Friday, 07 October 2022
Listen on the web, iTunes, Spotify, Amazon, and Stitcher Linda Flanagan is a freelance journalist, researcher, and former cross-country and track coach. A founding board member of the NYC chapter of the Positive Coaching Alliance and 2020-21 Advisory Group member for the Aspen Institute’s Reimagining Sports initiative, her writing on sports has appeared in The Atlantic, Runner’s World, and NPR’s
- Published in Podcast, Problems in Youth Sports
#281 Wayne Goldsmith, World Renowned Coaching Professional, on Issues with Early Talent ID, and How to Fix Coach Education
Friday, 15 July 2022
Listen on the web, iTunes, Spotify, Amazon, and Stitcher Wayne Goldsmith has been at the forefront of sports innovation, education and development for over 25 years. His unique “whole of sport” background – having worked across every level and aspect of sport around the world gives him the insights to see the real problems in your sport and help you
#261 Luke Chadwick, Former Man United Player, on the Genius of Alex Ferguson, Struggles with Mental Wellness, and his Mission to Make Youth Football Fun Again
Friday, 25 February 2022
Listen on the web, iTunes, Spotify, Amazon, and Stitcher Ex-Manchester United football player Luke Chadwick played over 460 professional games for clubs such as United, West Ham, Stoke and others before retiring and beginning his coaching journey. Luke was a young boy who dreamed of running out at Old Trafford. But the reality of the pressure of being a professional
- Published in mental health, Podcast
#260 Dr Martin Toms: “You Coach a Child, Not a Sport!” (replay)
Friday, 18 February 2022
Dr Martin Toms is a senior lecturer in Sports Coaching in the School of Sport & Exercise Sciences, College of Life and Environmental Sciences at the University of Birmingham (UK). He has has been involved in sport coaching and development for a number of years, and has experience of teaching in schools, as well as coaching
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
#245: NYT Bestselling Author David Epstein: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World (replay)
Friday, 05 November 2021
Listen on the web, iTunes, Spotify, Amazon, and Stitcher David Epstein (@DaviidEpstein) is the author of Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World, and of the New York Times bestseller The Sports Gene: Inside the Science of Extraordinary Athletic Performance. He has master’s degrees in environmental science and journalism and has worked as an investigative reporter for ProPublica and a
- Published in Podcast, Specialization
Choosing the Hard Right in Youth Sports
Wednesday, 20 January 2021
As many long time listeners and readers know, I am a graduate of Fordham University in New York City. This past Monday, on the occasion of Martin Luther King, Jr., Day, one of my former teachers and current university president Father Joseph McShane sent a letter to alumni about courage. I thought it was worth
Reimagining Youth Sports in a Post-COVID-19 World
Tuesday, 14 April 2020
“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
- Published in club sports, COVID-19, Youth Sports
An Open Letter to the Out of Control Sports Parent Sitting Next to Me in the Stands
Wednesday, 20 March 2019
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
- Published in Article
#101 How to Create a Season to Remember with former MLB player Jack Perconte
Sunday, 10 February 2019
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
- Published in Podcast
The Professionalization of Youth Sports
Friday, 18 January 2019
“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
- Published in Article
#78 Pause before you post – why athletes must be intentional on social media, with 2x All-American and USA Basketball Assistant Coach Scott Fitch
Sunday, 09 September 2018
One post. One moment of poor judgment frozen in time on social media. That is all it takes to alter your future trajectory as a youth athlete. In this episode Scott Fitch shares stories of athletes who should have “paused before they posted” and much more. Enjoy the Show! Show Notes 1:15 Scott’s development journey
- Published in Podcast
#77 Mindfulness, Peak Performance, and “Playing in the Space Between” with Dr. Amy Saltzman
Sunday, 02 September 2018
What would it look like if all your athletes were able to acknowledge, resolve, and let go of emotions and feelings during games? If they could choose the right behaviors, even in moments of high pressure because they were able to understand and forgive their own feelings and thoughts and not get stuck in negative
- Published in Podcast
Parenting and Coaching The Perfectionist Athlete
Tuesday, 08 May 2018
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
WOC #29 Retired NBA Player, Bob Bigelow, Just Let the Kids Play
Sunday, 01 October 2017
“When I was a child, the vast majority of my sporting activities were in playgrounds and sandlots. Now, the majority of youth sports activities are organized and administered by adults …. The biggest problem in organized youth sports is very simple to explain — too many adults who want to compete through children.” — Bob Bigelow,
- Published in Podcast, Problems in Youth Sports
WOC #28 Brett Fischer, PT for the Arizona Cardinals, on injuries, early specialization, and teaching movement before technical skills.
Sunday, 24 September 2017
Brett Fischer used to see Tommy John Surgery in 25 to 28 year old athletes. Now he is seeing it in 13 year olds. What has happened to simple joy of the game and playing for fun when we push our athletes so hard they need surgeries at half the age they used to need
- Published in Podcast, Specialization
WOC #25 Dr. Richard Bailey, Head of Research at ICSSPE, On What We Need to Make Coaching a True Profession
Sunday, 03 September 2017
Is the way we coach based upon the latest science, research, and best practices of how children learn? Or is it based upon how we were coached growing up? In this fantastic interview, Dr. Richard Bailey, Head of Research at ICSSPE, separates fact from fiction and discusses some of the common mistakes that he sees
A Final Game of H-O-R-S-E
Tuesday, 08 August 2017
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
- Published in Family Values, Parenting
WOC #17 Lynn Kachmarik, First Female Coach of a Men’s Division I Sport, On Protecting Our Children In Sports
Monday, 10 July 2017
Lynn has over 45 years of experience in youth, high school, collegiate, and professional sports. Lynn was an All-American water polo player and swimmer at Slippery Rock University where she received her BS and MS Degrees in Physiology and Education. She was a 12-year member of the United States National Water Polo team, and then
It’s Time to End the Sideline Sportsanity
Monday, 10 April 2017
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
- Published in Problems in Youth Sports, Sports Parenting
Is Your Child’s Youth Sports Experience Transactional or Transformational?
Monday, 03 April 2017
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
- Published in club sports, Family Values