Healthy Sports Parents

We hadn’t planned on doing any bonus episodes this summer but when you get an email saying, “Would you like to interview NBA Hall of Famer Ray Allen?” you say yes and decide to put out a bonus episode.

Ray is joined by ESPN Wide World of Sports General Manager Leroy Arrington.

In the episode, we talk with Ray about why the process matters more than results, how kids need to learn from failure, and we also get an inside look ...

Coach Ballgame ( ⁨@coachballgame⁩ ) is on a mission to help kids fall in love with baseball and softball so they can learn the invaluable life lessons they impact. That includes helping kids love the game, helping parents lead their kids through the journey, and supporting coaches who can redefine the win from chasing trophies to imparting life lessons through the game.

All year long, Coach Ballgame travels the country...

Today’s guest is Steve Magness. Steve is one of my favorite voices in the youth sports space. He’s served as a performance coach for numerous professional teams, executives, and even artists. He’s coached at the high school and college level. And he’s written quite a few books. His newest is called Win The Inside Game and is out now wherever you get books. I can’t recommend it highly enough.

In our conversation, we talk about ho...

Sarah Lessig is currently a high school senior who has signed to play college basketball at Princeton next year.

But recently Sarah has gone viral all over social media because she is the girl who plays literally everything.

I’ll let her tell the full story, but in high school, she’s played basketball, baseball, softball, flag football, and been a good enough skateboarder to attract sponsorships. Not only that, she plays mu...

At 15, after never playing club/competitive soccer, Nick’s stepson, AJ, made an unexpected jump to the highest level of youth soccer in America. To make the story even more out-of-nowhere, Nick and his wife Sabrina are not your typical elite athlete parents - they’re both self-described computer nerds who don’t have athletic backgrounds.

In our conversation with Nick, we talk about what it was like being thrust into that level o...

Chris Martin is the founder and owner of the Tri-City Chili Peppers. He’s also the inventor of cosmic baseball - a glow-in-the-dark version of baseball the Chili Peppers play that’s going on tour starting this week. I’ll actually be at their first game on Friday night.

Before starting all of that, Chris ran - and still runs - a baseball academy called Rise Baseball outside Richmond, Virginia. He was also a Division 3 baseball pl...

One of the common questions we get asked is how to balance youth/travel sports - which play games on Sundays - with church. If you play long enough, especially at club/competitive levels, those two things will inevitably come into conflict with each other.

But they don't have to compete with one another.

In this episode, Jonathan talks with Pastor Johnny Pereira about how we find the balance between church and youth sports. T...

We are seeing a giant increase in injuries amongst youth sports athletes. The consensus is the same from all the professionals: kids are playing too much while training too little.

In this week's episode, we talk to Drs. Levi Kerby and Lauren Sibley about the importance of strength training, rest, and recovery in injury prevention. We also discuss how the goal of youth sports is to create healthy, lifelong athletes who love bein...

April 2 is World Autism Awareness Day. As people who believe youth sports should be accessible to everyone, we wanted to do a dedicated episode to kids with ASD and special needs finding their place in youth sports.

Our guest this week is Eric Williams. Eric's a dad of a son with autism along with a youth sports (rec + travel) coach and a background in rec league management. In our conversation we talk about his journey with his...

As parents, most of us have never studied the brain in-depth to understand how it works. Coach Lindsey Nadler joins us this week to give us a crash course on how kids are wired, what we can do to help them on their sports journey, and why understanding these things can be a super power as a parent.

We also talk about the importance of our kid owning their youth sports journey and discuss how this generation's brains have literal...

If the athlete you fanboy or fangirl over had a bad game, you would know they're better than that one performance and encourage them to shake it off before the next game.

In this episode, Olympic running and NCAA All-American Edose Ibadin shares why we need to be fanboys and fangirls of ourselves as we compete. He also talks about the importance of learning to love the process more than the results.

In addition to on-the-fiel...

Jen Greeny has been coaching volleyball at the college level for over 20 years. Over that time she's won over 60% of the games she's competed in, been to the Division I NCAA Tournament eight times, had six Top 25 finishes at the Division I level, and been awarded two Pac 12 Coach of the Year honors.

She's also the mom to a college and high school athlete.

Before all that, she was a collegiate athlete herself.

In this week'...

Today's kids are practicing and playing more than any other generation. But what they're *not* doing is strength and resistance training for their sports.

In our conversation with Coach Brealon Ashworth (B.S. Exercise Science, USA Weightlifting certification) we talk about how kids need to dial back on sport specific skills training while increasing strength training, how old kids need to be to start resistance training, and why...

People think kids today are soft but in reality they haven’t had the chances to build resiliency in the ways past generations did. Dr. Laura Fleetwood has done extension research into developing resliency in adolescent aged (8-12) girls.

In this week’s episode, Dr. Laura talks with us about how we can help kids strengthen their resiliency muscles, develop personal independence in healthy ways, and understand their stress respon...

Adam Godwin is an assistant women's soccer coach for the Florida Gators. But before that, he was a Division 3 men's head coach. And before *that* he worked for a Division I football team. Seriously.

In this week's episode, Coach Godwin shares all the things he's learned from his crazy ride as an Englishman playing college soccer in America, rising through the coaching ranks, and parenting his two boys as they've begun their yout...

Cori McMillan had a breakout softball season for Virginia Tech in 2024 leading the ACC in home runs and slugging percentage, setting an a single-season home run record for VT, and going a perfect 20-20 on stolen base attempts (ranking third in the ACC).

In our conversation, we talk with her about what her journey was like from 8-years-old all the way through going into the transfer portal after her sophomore season and the recru...

Brett Carroll played six seasons in Major League Baseball. After retiring and starting a family, he opened BC Athletics - a baseball clinic dedicated to developing not just baseball players, but well-rounded athletes who are prepared to make an impact as future leaders in their homes, teams, schools, and communities.

In our conversation with Brett, we talk about why it's so important not to coach from the stands, the best thing ...

David Gerson ( @refsneedlovetoo ) has been a soccer referee for over ten years, officiating matches in the top amateur and semi-professional leagues in America.

In our conversation, David shares with us what he feels parents need to know about the level of referees at different playing levels, the training (or lack thereof) youth officials receive, and why 80% of youth referees quit within three years.

David also gi...

Dr. Jenna Wallace is a former Division I softball player who founded Unlocked Potential - a child psychology practice located in Fairmont, West Virginia and specializes in diagnosing and treating neurodevelopment disorders. Amongst the services they provide is the evaluation of collegiate student athletes so they can receive the accommodations needed to have academic success while in school.

In our conversation with Dr. Wallace,...