We founded Whole Child Sports and wrote Beyond Winning: Smart Parenting in a Toxic Sports Environment to raise awareness about the many problems in youth sports today and to provide advice and offer solutions to help improve our children’s sports experiences. We all want our kids to play sports long into adulthood. We all want our kids to have fun and develop as athletes and people. It’s why we spend so much time and energy (and money) shepherding our children through so many youth sports activities.
We can all see that our youth sports system is broken. Three out of four kids quit youth sports by the age of thirteen. Too many of the 40 million kid who play organized youth sports get seriously injured, emotionally scarred or simply learn the wrong lessons about teamwork, social cooperation and leadership. It’s downright tragic that at precisely the age when kids are physically, emotionally, socially and neurologically primed to benefit most from team sport participation, they opt out in droves.
Let’s work together to change the status quo. We—as parents—have a vested interest in our children’s future. We want our kids to have wholesome, safe, and developmentally appropriate athletic experiences as they grow up.
Please use this website as a reference guide, touchstone, discussion forum and launching pad for change. We can all make a difference. Individually and Collectively!