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Surviving Youth Sports

by C. John McCoglin

366 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #02-0854; ISBN 1-55395-140-9; US$29.00, C$34.95, EUR22.95, £17.00

A clear step-by-step guide to steer parents and kids through the confusing and intimidating world of athletic competition for young people.

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about the book      about the author      table of contents and sample excerpt      catalogue info

About the Book Surviving Youth Sports strips away the thick layer of myth and nonsense surrounding organized sports for young people. This clearly written, easy-to-follow guide shows parents how to avoid the frustrations and pitfalls of adult-dominated games and how to help their children actually enjoy playing. Most importantly, Surviving Youth Sports explains how to make sports fun and inviting and how to lay a firm foundation for a healthy lifestyle that will last for a lifetime. This book will make enemies. Adults who are focused on their own selfish agenda--winning games and championships no matter the cost to the kids--will see Surviving Youth sports as a blueprint for giving games back to kids and the adults who care about them. With the myriad of sports now available for young people, which should a kid select? What level of competition is right? How do you deal with a coach who obviously cares nothing for your child? When is it time to go elsewhere? And what should your objective really be throughout the whole stressful process of finding a sport, a team, a league and a coach? Surviving Youth Sports will answer these questions and dozens more that you may not even be have encountered yet. The book will give you clear directions in plain language and will show you how to make sense of the emotional turmoil that surrounds kids and athletics. As Surviving Youth Sports points out again and again, kids want to play and kids need to play. This book will show you how to make that happen.

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About the Author A scientist by education and training, C. John McCoglin has worked for more than fifteen years as a writer, covering mostly science and medicine. He has two teenaged sons who are avid athletes, competing in multiple sports at multiple levels. He has been an active volunteer in public schools and in the operation of young athletic clubs. He has coached, but only, he says, "in desperation." Surviving Youth Sports grew out of McCoglin's troubling observation that young people were becoming visibly less fit and healthy. The more he examined this unsettling trend, the more he realized that the way kids play--or don't play--was one of the root causes of a progression that can lead to obesity, diabetes, heart disease, stroke and a galaxy of infirmities that threaten to make us a nation of sick people. Reversing that trend, he realized, requires that we re-think our approach to youth sports and return it to its rightful owners--the kids who want to play. Surviving Youth Sports is a blueprint for that action.

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Table of Contents and Sample Excerpt

Surviving Youth Sports: The Secret Rules and How to Use Them

Foreword
1 Why Youth Sports?
2 The Structure of Youth Sports
3 "Just" Rec?
4 Finding the Right Sport
5 Secret Rule #1: It's all for the coach
6 Finding the right place
7 Secret Rule #2: The coach is the team
8 Evaluating the coach and team
9 Secret Rule #3: Loyalty is one-way
10 Pitching in and Sucking up
11 Secret Rule #4: Winning trumps everything
12 Ugly Adults
13 Secret Rule #5: Players are interchangeable
14 How much will all this cost?
15 Secret Rule #6: Special Rules for Special Players
16 Rights, Responsibilities and Reasonable Expectations I: Players
17 Rights, Responsibilities and Reasonable Expectations II: Coaches
18 Nutrition: Playing with Food
19 Player Health and Safety
20 Secret Rule #7: The players are junior professionals
21 Dedication vs. Obsession
22 Secret Rule #8: The Future is now

excerpt from Chapter 14: How much will all this cost?

Keeping It Reasonable

Some tips to hold down costs.

Register early. This avoids late fees and gives you time to shop for equipment, possibly buying it on sale instead of frantically paying any price at the last minute. Some teams form as long as a year before the season starts.

Look for options close to home. A difference of only a couple of miles can add substantially to the cost involved in a sport, in terms of both money and time. It can also make carpooling much harder.

Investigate thoroughly before committing. Fees listed on application forms and brochures are likely to be underestimates of what the real cost of a sport will be. Talk to team and club officials to learn about other expenses. Ask for the names of team parents so you can check with them to find out what to reasonably expect.

Find families to trade equipment with. The trick is to find families that have kids about a year older and a year younger than yours. It's not as hard as it seems; most teams and clubs have lots of kids around the same ages. Be sure that the equipment you receive is still serviceable and that it is right for your child.

Barter. Some teams and clubs have arrangements whereby parents can trade labor--field maintenance, concession duty, etc.--for all or part of the fee package. If that option isn't available to you, ask to start it.

excerpt from Chapter 5 - Secret Rule #1: It's all for the coach.

Test Questions

To find out how player oriented a coach is, ask the following questions. You may or may not get completely honest or informative answers, but you may get some insight into the coach's orientation. 1. How many players do you expect to cut? Sometimes players have to be separated from teams for good reasons, but those should be the exceptions. A player-oriented coach will understand that. Coaches who casually toss off numbers should arouse your suspicions.

2. What do you do about a player whose development lags behind the rest of the team? A player-oriented coach will talk about extra training opportunities and motivational techniques for bringing the slower player up to speed. He will not talk about threatening the player or cutting the player.

3. Where do you look for new players? The question you really should ask is, "Why do you look for new players?," but that would probably trigger defensiveness. A coach who talks comfortably about his player search techniques may be telling you that his focus is on his own enjoyment, not on the players' development.

4. What is the biggest challenge you face as a coach? Instilling confidence in players, helping players who are slow to develop, finding the right level for a team'those and similar considerations are the things that challenge coaches who are really player oriented. Coaches who are focused on themselves will more likely talk about problems with parents, annoying players, and teams that don't perform up to the coach's expectations.

excerpt from Chapter 19: Player Health and Safety

Self-Control

Young athletes should learn early on to be involved in their own health-care management. They should be led to understand that their health and well-being are not controlled exclusively by others, that they are in charge of their own bodies and will have that responsibility for the rest of their lives. A few things that will help to get that lesson across:

Get out from between the athlete and the health-care provider. Conscientious adults take an active role in their children's health care. All too often, however, those same adults so totally dominate the health-care process that the young people become silent bystanders. To the maximum extent possible (and this will depend partially on the age of the athlete) try to let the young player interact directly with health-care providers. Most physicians, nurses, therapists, trainers and other health professionals who routinely deal with kids are pretty good at understanding them and setting up good information flow with them. You will not enhance that flow if you insist on being in the middle of every exchange. Be available, be supportive, but, unless your input is really necessary, be quiet.

Give the athlete honest information. Don't withhold, overdramatize, sugar coat or otherwise distort information about injuries and other conditions that might affect an athlete's ability to play. Dealing with stresses and traumas are part of learning to be a competitor. Don't handicap the athlete by misleading him.

Give the athlete options. Wherever safety and health considerations permit, let the young athlete choose which health-care option to pursue. If the health-care provider gives treatment options, pass those on to the athlete and let her make the decision. You may be surprised at the mature responses that treatment of that type elicits.

Trust the athlete's judgment. Unless you have very good reason for doubt, accept what the player tells you about injuries and other conditions. It isn't necessary to second guess everything the young player says or to dismiss the player's opinions. Kids are surprisingly good about pinpointing and describing problems. Let the player develop that skill. It will serve her well for the rest of her life.

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Catalogue Information

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