The Tipping Point in Youth Sports 2024
When our patience for our kids development no longer exceeds our expectations of their performance, we reach a tipping point that leads to stress, anxiety, dropout and more.
Saying Goodbye to My #1 Fan
On April 19, 2024, I said goodbye to my #1 fan. I said goodbye to the person who always told me “I love watching you play.” To the person who believed in me no matter what, and always encouraged me to dream big, and to jump off the cliff and grow my wings on the way down. On April 19, my beautiful mom Kathleen O’Sullivan, known by all of us as Granny O, passed away. I am heartbroken.
Don’t Be a Starving Baker
Have you ever heard the parable of the starving baker? Once upon a time, there was a baker renowned for his delightful pastries and delicious breads who took great pride in feeding his community. As the town’s population grew, so did the demand for his baked goods. The baker, determined meet this need, started working harder. He started skipping his own meals.…
Is FOMO Ruining Youth Sports?
(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…
How Adults Take the Joy Out of Sports (And How We Can Fix It)
We have all seen it. I was recently watching a 12-year-old boys soccer game, and I saw it again. Like a deer in the headlights, the left defender on the blue team was seemingly stranded on the field and unsure where to go or what to do. He turned to one sideline, where his coach…
Creating the Ideal Learning Environment
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…
Timeout! The Importance of Downtime for Youth Sports Families
“But dad, we have so much going on!” “Do we have to go mom? I want to play in another tournament?” “Will we miss out if we don’t do the extra private training?” Have you heard these types of sentiments before from your spouse or your children? I know I have. The past few weeks…
Confidence is a Feeling, Competence is a Behavior
We have all seen the interview many times. The star athlete comes off the field or court, and the first question the interviewer asks is “You were looking really confident out there today, what was your secret?” We might even say the same thing to our own young athletes that we coach and mentor: “Wow,…
Don’t Win the Race to the Bottom During Tryout Season
“My kid is so stressed, she is so worried she won’t be able to play with her friends anymore,” a mom recently wrote us. “We have friends who tell us their daughter is physically ill with worry. She is 10!” Sound familiar anyone? It is the annual rite of passage we call tryouts in youth…
Can You Over-Sample in Youth Sports?
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…