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 how the fear of your kid falling behind athletically, how kids are afraid of failure and what we can do to help, and the importance of unstructured play in their development. We also hit on a whole bunch of other smaller topics throughout the conversation. I know I say this a lot, but this conversation truly was a joy to record.

Get Steve's Book: https://www.amazon.com/Win-Inside-Game-Surviving-Thriving/

Follow Steve on Social:

https://www.instagram.com/stevemagness/

https://www.threads.com/@stevemagness

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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 multiple instruments and is the epitome of the kid who has tried everything.

In our conversation, we talk about her journey growing up playing multiple sports, how those other sports helped her become a better basketball player, and what the college recruitment process was like.

We also hit on the struggles of club sports, how expensive they are, and the realities of trying to balance everything both as a student athlete and for the parent involved as well.

I was a fan of Sarah before this conversation just from watching her social media, but after spending some time talking to her, I can’t help but root for her as she enters college basketball next year.

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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 of competition, what he and his wife learned throughout the years AJ played at that level, and how he would advise parents who have kids wanting to play at elite levels. We also hit on the dynamic of blended families and how sports helped Nick and AJ build their relationship.

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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 player.

In our conversation we talk about how he came to invent this new version of baseball, the importance of fun in sports, and what he’s learned through all his levels of baseball. We also hit on the importance of failure and give you an inside look at the business side of youth sports.

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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. They also talk about the importance of helping your kid find their identity outside of their sport and how to prepare your kid for when they leave your house and go to college.

For everyone watching the week this episode comes out: Happy Easter!

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About the Guest:

Pastor Johnny Pereira is the lead pastor of Salem Chapel in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He's the dad of two athletes: Lily - a college basketball player and Lucas - a high school football player.

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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 being active well into their adult years.

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About the Guests:

Dr. Levi owns Kinetic Performance Rehab and Physical Therapy in Winston-Salem, NC. Together with Dr. Lauren, they help people of all ages get out of pain, address the root cause of the pain, and learn how to rebuild their body in a way that lets them stay active long-term.

You can learn more about KPR at https://www.kprpt.com.

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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 son and answer a few questions listeners sent in regarding ASD and sports.

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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 literally been rewired in ways that are different than ours when we were growing up.

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About the Guest:

Lindsey Nadler is the founder and head mental performance coach at Elite Mental Edge, a company dedicated to changing women's sports by equipping athletes and coaches with mental skills training. Lindsey specializes in helping female athletes develop an elite mental edge to thrive at the next level, while also empowering coaches to seamlessly integrate mental skills into their programs. With a unique blend of experience as a former D1 softball player, high school coach, former police officer with crisis intervention expertise, and a bachelor's degree in psychology, Lindsey creates practical, simple strategies that transform the mental game and drive peak performance.

Want to work with Coach Lindsey?

https://stan.store/elitementaledge/p/the-mental-edge-playbook-for-coaches-

https://stan.store/elitementaledge/p/private-mental-skills-coaching--vqobc

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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-field talk, Edose gives us a look at his upbringing as the son of Nigerian immigrants, tells us how his parents supported him unconditionally, and talks about the importance of mental health through the entire journey.

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About the Guest:

Edose Ibadin is an accomplished track runner having competed in the 2024 Olympic Games representing Nigeria. While in college running for Hampton University, he was a Division I All-American in the 800m and 4x400 relay while earning a bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering. He currently holds the Nigerian record in the 800m and has represented them at multiple world championships. He runs professionally for UA Baltimore 800.

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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's episode, we talk to her about how she uses sports to prepare her players for life in general. We also talk about one of the unique parts of her program: how she has her college athletes volunteer their time to coach at the rec league level. We discussed what she hopes they learn from that and the benefits she sees from it both as athletes and as people.

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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 simply just "getting strong" isn't the route to go. He also gives you tips on how to find the right gym/trainer, what to do if you don't have access to a gym, and how to fit training into an already overpacked schedule.

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About the Guest:

Brealon Ashworth has been in the strength world since his sophomore year of college where he fell in love with strength sports. He attained a B.S. in Exercise Science from Appalachian State University and a USA Weightlifting certification during his time in college. He has dedicated his career to helping athletes become more powerful and explosive. Brealon currently lifts with the powerlifting and olympic weightlifting team competing regularly.

Coach Brealon owns two gyms - Ignite Performance (IgniteWinston.com) in Winston-Salem, NC and Spark Fitness & Performance (SparkFP.com) in King, NC.

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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 responses.

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About the Guest

Laura Fleetwood offers communication consulting for nonprofits and mission-focused businesses at laurafleetwoodconsulting.com and helps females learn how to holistically manage stress at seekingthestill.com. She founded the non-profit, A Million Messy Miracles in 2024 as part of her doctoral work with the goal of sharing stress resilience tools to one million early adolescent girls and their moms in her lifetime. Learn more at twirlworkshop.com.

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Research articles mentioned:

https://www.dove.com/us/en/campaigns/purpose/confident-sports.html

https://womeninsport.org/news/more-than-1-million-teenage-girls-fall-out-of-love-with-sport/

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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 youth sports journey.

The one consistent thing?

Unconditional love from his parents, his most influential coaches, and those who have supported him along the journey.

4:32 - When to push kids vs when to let them just be kids

9:35 - What to do when your kid loves the sport but the local options aren’t great

11:36 - Why it’s so important to foster a love for the game your kid plays

13:42 - What high school parents can do to produce healthy, well-rounded kids

17:07 - How to be a parent college coaches love

18:16 - The importance of being parents who love unconditionally

20:24 - The dangers of having your hopes for your kids wrapped in sports

23:16 - The majority of any scholarship your kid gets will be academic

24:09 - The differences in Division I and D2/D3

26:14 - Do you want to sit the bench at Division I or play at lower levels?

28:06 - What does your kid actually want from sports?

31:50 - We never know what opportunities are next for our kids

37:20 - The difference in coaching boys and girls

40:07 - What motivates most kids under 12-years-old

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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 recruitment process she experienced. She tells us how her mom's support made a huge impact on her, why/when she started specializing, and how the game you played when you were a kid is different than the game your kid is playing today.

3:56 - Letting the kid lead the post-game debrief

6:01 - Playing multiple sports as a young kid

6:56 - One reason to start specializing you might not have thought of

8:09 - Giving your kid ownership of their athletic journey

12:13 - What it actually looks like to chase a college scholarship

16:52 - The key to remaining close to your kid through their journey

19:20 - What to do when a kid has potential but doesn’t want to work at it yet

24:50 - The game you played is not the same game your kid is playing

26:58 - What the recruiting process looks like for current athletes

34:56 - The thank you note you want from your kids when they’re done playing

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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 you can say to your kid after a game, and how the youth sports journey changes as your kids get older. We also discuss how your kid is more than the athlete they're becoming, why losing is an important part of growing up, and how approaching youth sports with the end in mind actually changes your entire outlook of your kid's athletic career.

3:29 - When your kids want to get better on their own

4:18 - Balancing your own competitiveness with not burning out kids

6:06 - Why you shouldn’t coach from the stands

9:20 - Our kids want to see us as mom and dad first

9:52 - The most important thing you can say to your kid after a game

12:40 - Letting our kids lead when it comes to putting in work to get better

14:52 - The journey changes as your kids get older

15:25 - Your kid is more than simply the athlete they’re becoming

17:52 - The way we respond to our kids are often interpreted different than we intent

19:32 - The importance of celebrating the little things

20:48 - Taking the pressure to perform off of kids can lead to better results

22:44 - Before puberty, the kids with more developed kids will most often win

23:27 - The things sports should be teaching you aside from winning

25:01 - Eventually your kids are going to play their last game

26:30 - Approaching youth sports with the end in mind

28:04 - The mental/emotional work it takes to be a healthy sports parent

32:01 - Why losing is an important part of growing up

33:54 - No one tries to be a bad parent, but it takes work to be a good one

35:47 - Encouragement for parents this week

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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 gives a unique perspective of the power imbalance between parents and youth officials that will likely give you something to think about that you've never considered before.

If you like this conversation and want more of David's content, you can join his nearly 250,000 followers on social at the links below:

Instagram.com/RefsNeedLoveToo

TikTok.com/ @refsneedlovetoo 

8:38 - What level of youth soccer has the worst parents?

10:38 - What you need to know about the level of referees at different playing levels

13:05 - How should parents respond when they disagree with the official?

16:49 - Youth referees don’t get training or mentoring - your games are where they’re learning

17:20 - How should youth coaches question an official?

18:45 - The power imbalance between parents and youth officials

21:50 - 80% of youth referees quit within three years because of parental abuse

23:32 - A new perspective for viewing your kid’s officials

28:27 - The correlation between how players treat refs and their parents

31:04 - An encouragement to parents who are just trying to keep up

35:22 - Every referee will make a mistake in a game

36:38 - Youth sports are not about winning

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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, we talk about how we connect with kids who don't love doing things that don't come easy, the importance of developing independent kids, and how we balance what's best for now vs what's best long term. She also shares valuable insight into how our voice become's our kid's inner voice and the importance of positive reinforcement.

6:39 - Parenting talented kids who don’t have a competitive drive

13:13 - Puberty is the ultimate divider athletically

17:49 - How to connect with kids who don’t love doing things that don’t come easy

21:55 - Reinforcing past positive behaviors

23:16 - The dangers in having different goals than your kids

30:00 - The importance of developing independent kids

34:42 - Balancing what’s best for now vs what’s best long term

37:04 - Using the car ride to develop character and relationships

38:06 - Does being overly positive with our kids make them soft?

41:13 - Our voice becomes our kid’s inner voice

43:15 - We have to be okay learning new information

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Scott Jackson played Division I baseball and has been a coach at the D-I level since the year 2000, including eight years as a head coach. In this conversation, we talk with him about balancing our own competitiveness with supporting our kids, establishing non-negotiable for your athletes, and how to juggle multi-sport athletes. And we get a little nostalgic about rec league concession stand hot dogs.

3:42 - Balancing your own competitiveness with supporting your kid

5:53 - Navigating the car ride home

8:14 - Establishing non-negotiable for your athletes

10:07 - What to do when your kid doesn’t play the sport you want them to play

12:13 - Balancing multi-sport athletes

17:20 - When should kids start specializing?

22:28 - Shifting from “wanting to play with friends” to “want to get better”

25:14 - The beauty (and gift) of rec league sports

30:10 - We have to avoid controlling the outcomes for our kids and let them experience failure

31:56- An encouragement for parents trying to figure it all out

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Brad Raby played small college baseball, has coached at the high school and small college level, and is now dad to four aspiring athletes of all different levels. In our opening episode, we talk with him about parenting kids in a blended family, how to view the role of sports in the younger years, and the importance of speaking into the abilities we see in our kids.

4:54 - Parenting kids who are not your biological kid

12:44 - Navigating pre-high school sports

15:08 - The importance of speaking into kids’ abilities

16:46 - Allowing kids to be kids until it clicks for them

19:41 - When to jump to more competitive leagues / travel ball

25:33 - Why do so many parents push their kids so hard so early?

30:19 - The type of coaches your kids should be playing for

34:00- A healthy tip to change how you talk to your kids during games

36:17 - An idea for a parental perspective shift

40:11 - Encouragement for this week

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Youth sports can be really hard - especially if you’re wanting to raise your kid in ways that produce healthy adults when they’re done playing. Each week on healthy sports parents we have conversations designed to help you keep your athlete mentally and emotionally healthy. Whether you’re starting out in rec ball or traveling every weekend to elite tournaments, we’re here to help you strengthen your relationship with your kids through sports.

Follow along on social:

https://www.tiktok.com/@healthysportsparents

https://www.instagram.com/healthysportsparents

https://www.threads.net/@healthysportsparents

https://www.youtube.com/@HealthySportsParents

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