My last blog post about over-invested ski racing parents caught fire with more than 14,000 views. With the race season just around the corner, I get the feeling that parents are hungry for helpful tips on how best to support their young ski racers this winter. So, to keep that mo’ going, this week’s post [...]
One of your most essential goals as a sport parent in your children's lives as athletes is to have them gain ownership of their participation. They need to feel that their sport is their thing. But ownership isn’t just something that they can gain on their own. Rather, it is a gift you give them [...]
I was recently interviewed by John O'Sullivan, the founder of Changing the Game Project. about my new sport parenting book, Raising Your Athletes: Prepare Your Children for Victory in Sports and Life. The wide-ranging discussion explores many topics focused on helping parents be the best sport parents they can be. To listen to or download the [...]
As I described in Part I, Part II, and Part III of this four-part series on Meeting the Challenges of Tryouts, my focus is on what athletes can do to make their tryout experiences as enjoyable and successful as possible. So far, I wrote about the psychological challenges for young athletes and how they can [...]
My two daughters are pretty serious athletes. They’ve been competing in one sport for seven years (along with several others less seriously), trained hard this summer, and are committed to being the best they can be in their sport. Because of this burgeoning involvement in their sport and my being a sport parenting expert of [...]
My two daughters are officially ski racers. They’ve been on the Sugar Bowl Ski Team for seven years now, skied twice this summer, and will attend winter term at Sugar Bowl Academy this coming season. Because of this burgeoning involvement in our sport, I’m often asked by other parents why they ski race and why [...]
It's almost become a cliche. Parents yelling at their children at practice or during games. Parents heckling the opposing team. Parents berating coaches. Parents threatening referees. Parenting fighting each other in the stands. In just about any sport, at every level of youth sports, on any given day, and on fields, courts, courses, and rinks [...]
As I noted in Part I and Part II of this four-part series on the Psychology of Tryouts, my focus is on what athletes can do to make their tryout experiences as successful and enjoyable as possible. At the same time, the athletes themselves aren’t the only ones who impact their tryout efforts. This article, [...]
In this final segment of my eight-part vlog series on sport parenting, we shift our focus onto what you can do with other sport parents to ensure a healthy athletic experience for your children. There is little doubt that you as a parent have an immense impact on your children’s sports involvement. At the same [...]
Note: This is the first in a series of four articles that explore the psychology of tryouts that I recently published on YSPN360.com, a great new website and organization whose values about youth sports align with mine. Subsequent articles in the series will look at what young athletes can do to mentally prepare for tryouts; what [...]
