Parenting Young Athletes the Ripken Way: Ensuring the Best Experience for Your Kids in Any Sport

I'm a coach. In another life, I think that I'd do that as a profession. In this life however, I've been coaching my 2 girls in a variety of sports and learning so many lessons. As they have gotten older, more and more issues have come up that have pushed me past those easy tee-ball days. Suddenly, drafts and organizational politics have come into play - neither of which I could care about all that much. I'm still more concerned with my singular goal for each season: How many of these kids will have so much fun that they will come back and play another season? There was a study done recently that showed that 75% of all kids who play sports stop completely by age 13. Athletics was such an important part of shaping who I am today and for my girls, I feel that it is extremely important for them to keep playing (something, anything) and having fun. I picked up a copy of "Parenting Young Athletes The Ripken Way" from the library this weekend and blew through it's pages in one sitting. What I read reconfirmed: * Cal Ripken is a class act * Youth Sports today is very different than it was when I was a kid (not so long ago) * Youth Sports are GAMES... and games are meant to be fun * Parents and coaches may be hurting their kids inadvertently by pushing and not praising at all times I jotted down a few notes as I read this book (I read with one eye on the Patriots playoff and their 17th victory this season - all those guys played youth sports I bet). Cal talks a lot about praise and how to use praise to really build up a kids confidence. I do an OK job of this, but am realizing how important it is to not be critical - especially in the car on the way home from a game. My instinct is to keep coaching on the way home, giving my girls tips and pointers on what to work on. What I should be doing is going gaga over their performance and asking them about what they thought. If my goal is to get my kids to keep playing a sport from season to season, I think a little less criticism and a ton more praise might just do the trick. A lot of parents have asked me if I think travel teams and specialization is something they should be considering for their athletes - I get these questions more and more now that my older kid is approaching middle school. While I'm not an expert quite yet, Cal's book made some great points that are worth considering. * By playing as many different sports as possible, your athlete develops cross-compatible skills that will help them in every sport they play. The quickness they get from playing aggressive defense in basketball will certainly help their footwork on a soccer field or on a baseball diamond. * Cal also mentions that the college coaches he knows actually tend to favor well-rounded athletes - their thought being that a player who specialized at a young age is at risk for an injury (overuse of particular muscles) and burn out. * The book also talks about travel teams and how for most kids,

I thought this book was excellent. It made a lot of references to baseball but it can be applied to any sport. He does mention other sports and uses examples with them. This book is great for any parent that has a child in sports. It covers, the basics of sportsmanship and how an overemphasis on technique or winning can harm your child. It also covers how to develop a good relationship with your child's coach and why most kids burn out on team sports by middle school and how to avoid it. My 2 daughters swim on a swim team and one of them also plays soccer. I found myself thinking of myself in many of the examples and also of the other parents that I know on our team. I think it is a good down to earth book and it gives a lot of helpful advice on how to deal with various things that come up when your children play sports. I think it should be required for any parent that has a child in youth sports.

What can one say, advice by Ripken is as good as it gets. If you want to keep athletics a positive experience for you and your kids, the Ripken Way is the way to do it. Great guide for parents, school athletic departments, and all those coaches who sometimes need to be reminded about what sports is all about...good experiences for kids! Extremely readable.

Great book for parents with kids involved with sports. Very sensible advice. Ripken shares experiences he had with his own children.

I have been honored to have coached youth sports for sixteen seasons. I've often struggled with what is best for the kids in the long run against a parent's internal drive for competition, and to win. This book should nearly be a mandate for every parent in this country who has kids playing sports. Cal, along with Rick Wolff, who is Chairman of the Center for Sports Parenting, have created an outstanding book that covers all the bases about child development, skill development, and long-term success. In a society where news is filled with overzealous, and even violent parents in kids sports, this book offers the cure. It even provides the secret to creating long-term athletic success (and it is not what most parents think it is). The book is full of practical advice about how to broaden athletic skills and deal with the developmental and emotional challenges kids face when playing organized youth sports (how we wish for the sandlots of yesteryear). In fact, when my seven-year-old son got out at a play at second, and couldn't control his emotions, I found myself driving home frantically just to reread the chapter on "dealing with disappointment", so I could help him through it. When I was a kid, I didn't have fun, wasn't given a chance, and I was one of the millions of kids in this country that stopped playing sports. Cal and Rick are right on target about what to do to keep kids playing. The messages in this can create happier kids, happier fields, less-stressed parents, and in the long run, more kids that choose to play sports for a lifetime (and do them well).