Youth Sports Done Right

65% of Athletes who suffer a torn Anterior Cruciate Ligament in the knee (ACL)never return to the level they were at prior to the injury. If you could reduce your athlete's likelihood of ACL injury by as much as 85%, would you like to know how? Listen in on this conversation I have with Brianna Bren of the Institute of Athletic Medicine. Bri is  an expert on the prevention of Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) injuries and she shares ways to modify what you are doing to protect athletes from this unfortunate injury.You can reach Bri via email bbren1@fairview.orgBrianna has created this video to help you protect yourself:Dynamic warm-up videohttps://ptrx.org/en/Fvx3hntzwp

Mark Arjes of Youth First shares his thoughts on setting up the season for success by having a pre-season parent and player meeting. We lay out some ideas for preparing for the meeting and how to give the parents some resources to have their most enjoyable season, and help their youth athlete to achieve their goals.Youth First Contact612.968.9192contact@youth1st.com

Lynn Newton was a seven time state champion swimmer and an All-American  at the University of Minnesota, as well as being ranked in the world; not too shabby eh? Rather than rest on her laurels, she went on to become an amazing high school coach and for 26 years she has been helping athletes learn the physical and mental skills necessary to reach their maximum potential. Lynn shares how she learned, used and has evolved with these skills and tools, to become the best she can herself and provide opportunities for her athletes to do the same.

Sports broadcaster and former Minnesota Gopher Basketball player Lea B. Olsen shares wisdom she has earned playing, coaching and broadcasting basketball from youth to professional. Lea shares a wonderful perspective on youth sports and the lessons that she has used to build an amazing career in sports entertainment. Lea has experienced some of the Minnesota Lynx chemistry and culture that has helped to develop our own Minnesota Sports Dynasty. We talk about her experience as a mom and a coach; we hear how her experience helped her as a youth coach as she lead her son's youth basketball team from elementary through high school. She is an amazing role model for young women and men alike!

Coach Matt McDonald is a 3rd generation coach, it's in his family bloodlines and he's really good at building young men into great people and baseball players. Coach shares his story and talks about the importance of building team culture and how he has continued to incorporate new ideas into his program, while keeping true to timeless baseball strategies. 

I love battling with my kid to do the things  they must do to get better is something nobody has ever said. If you can develop the motivation and desire to chase your own dreams it will always be easier to do the tough things that need to be done to master any activity. In this episode we break down Self-Determination Theory. Please don't be scared off. SDT in a scientific research field working with motivation. We take a complex theory and explain it in a way that incorporates much of the information we have shared about parenting and coaching our youth and applies it to teaching them the skills to find what motivates them and why. By understanding this skill, we can help empower our child to find and chase their dreams! 

Every want to know how what we say as parents and coaches has been received? How do the kids see what we are teaching? How do our players and kids want to be coached?In this episode, I sit down with a young man I have coached and who is an amazing player and young man. Will is a junior in High School and he sits down and talks about what it is like to be on the other side of all this coaching and how he prefers to be coached. He also shares his thoughts on the mental game and how he stays motivated when things seem to be grinding.

Our conversation here is LOADED with great examples of parenting and coaching as well as things to smile at. Coach Bateman shares his story and the influences he has had on his life as well as how he has shared these with his son and the young men he helps to develop in his professional role as the Augsburg head Baseball Coach. We met at the World Headquarters of Augsburg Baseball in Coach Bateman's office on campus.

Watching our children compete can give us butterflies and just plain stress us out. We talk in this episode about some of the things we have learned...the hard way in some cases about how to prepare ourselves and our child for a more enjoyable experience when they are taking on new challenges.

Perspective from someone who has experience at every level of sports. Jason is the athletic director for Hamline University in St. Paul Minnesota. He Pitched at ASU and as a professional baseball player as well with the San Francisco Giants. Jason was a 3 sport star in high school and played baseball and football at Arizona State University, in Tempe AZ. He pitched for the St.Paul Saints pitching in their championship earning a complete game win. Jason was the head coach at Hamline for 11 years winning over 200 games and retiring as the all-time wins leader in baseball prior to being named AD. Jason shares some interesting perspectives as someone who has literally seen the sport at all levels and has experienced success wherever he has been,

We breakout some specific tools for developing the mindful performance athlete. Journaling, goal setting, as well as several other tools you can implement to create the optimal performance environment.We partner in this episode with Travis Rogers of Mindrite Training, in Arden Hills Minnesota, providing practical tools.

In this episode Coach Frost of the University of Minnesota Women's Hockey shares what he has learned as a coach of a Division 1 program while simultaneously coaching his son's through youth sports, He offers some excellent thoughts on how you his athletes improve their performance as well as sharing what he's learned himself watching his own children play. Coach Frost really hits the nail on the head as he talks about how you feel as a parent when your child is competing and how that can begin a stressful cycle for all involved. Great perspective from a coach who has 4 national titles as Division 1 head coach.

Does it matter what you say as a coach or leader? Does our approach to coaching affect how hard someone will work to get better? What can we do to create an optimum performance environment?In this episode we offer a quick hit to begin to provide an environment where our players will push themselves to grow continually and avoid the pitfalls that can come from fearing failure. As we dig into this topic we offer ways for you to help your players embrace growth by being mindful of how we frame opportunities and challenges and the words we use to describe their results, and how they can be used to set your compass for future goals.

Our first listener question:How do we teach mechanics without talking too much and losing their attention? We discuss this topic between two coaches and thrown out some thoughts for you to chew on. One of the most challenging skills as a coach is finding the right mix between talking and doing. Our players are exposed to so many stimulating technologies it makes it even harder to keep their attention. We debate the most effective way to work with players, teaching in an effective way and managing the mix of technical coaching with giving the opportunity for them to try, fail and learn through experience. I would love to hear your thoughts on the proper mix for each age that people coach. Many times trial and error is the best teacher. It seems to make sense that if we share our experiences we can shorten the learning curve for all of us.

Control the controllable, embrace failure, processed based; these are all catch phrases you hear in sports and performance psychology. Where do these come from? Carol Dweck, Stanford University,  has drawn attention to the benefits of the Growth Mindset, which simplified says that all skills are learned and rewarding hard work over innate talent results in higher performing students, athletes and workers. In this episode, I work with Travis Rogers of Mindrite Training. We introduce our Quick Hits Skills episodes, where we unpack an aspect of youth sports in a quick and digestible format, for easy implementation in your next practice. We share our thoughts on how to help not only athletes, but anyone, perform at their best and to create an environment where the focus is on improvement and  becoming the best they can be. Rather than getting anxious about your wins and losses, you focus on the parts you can control and your performance reaches new levels. The best part of embracing this approach is that it actually results in more wins!. it also increases the enjoyment of players, parents and coaches. SOUND TO GOOD TO BE TRUE? Listen in and share your feedback with me: associationservices@myas.org

I sit down with Will Short, coach of Simley High School Wrestling, and we discuss what is working with today's athletes and how it has changed since he was competing. Will discusses how he came to understand that building love for the sport creates the intrinsic motivation his athletes need to succeed at the highest level they possibly can. Every wonder about how to motivate youth athletes? What are the parents role? How do you keep your passion as a coach? Answers to all these questions and more are waiting for you as I learn from one of the most successful coaches as he carries on the program his father began and has made the program his own. This is a must listen for any youth coach interested in getting the most out of his/her athletes.

Erika Sandell-Savor joins us this episode to share some thoughts on how to protect your players and create a plan to prevent damage to their arms. By working on proper mechanics, you not only protect the health of their arm, but increase their maximum performance and endurance. We discuss best practices as well as introduce a new coaches arm training certification coming to Minnesota coaches in early 2020. Erika is a DPT and SCS with the Institute for Athletic Medicine, a division of M-Health and Fairview Health Services.Erika is not only a Physical Therapist, but also and athlete and a parent. Her experiences give her an excellent perspective on injury prevention as well as performance enhancement.

I have a conversation with Travis Rogers of Mindrite Training (www.mindritetraining.com) regarding performance psychology in youth sports, as well as how coaches and parents can improve the experience everyone has with youth sports while improving the performance of athletes. Travis shares some secrets for relating to young athletes, and shares a gift that will allow parents and coaches to enjoy watching their players perform. We are not able to be perfect, but Travis explains how failure can become our best friend, guiding us by highlighting our weaknesses and helping us prepare for the "tests" we face in sports and life. Great examples of how to, and stories humanizing the practical application of the the skill.

Eavesdropping on a conversation I had with Coach Bambenek (we both were aware) about our experiences with coaching youth baseball. We talk about how our perspective has changed over the years and how we are getting better results, both developing young men and creating an environment where players can perform at their highest potential.

In this episode, I sit down with Brian Bambenek, owner of Great Lakes Baseball Academy in Woodbury, Minnesota. We talk about Brian's background in education and take a look at the dynamics of youth baseball from a club owner's perspective. Brian partners with several youth organizations and shares some of what he sees working well and some of the struggles we are currently facing, as well as what the future appears to be bringing. Brian shares what has made his club successful, and offers insights that might help youth associations grow and strengthen their own culture, resulting in a stronger program. Brian is a professional, full-time baseball program director, with a degree in education from Augsburg College and a Masters in Education from Hamline University. There are excellent insights for anyone who runs a baseball program, is a parent, or a coach.