Be all in Raising kids for success in sports and life

Why do you want your kids to play sports? To learn teamwork? Promote mental toughness? Become physically stronger? Or is it to earn personal glory? Or to live out your own dreams? Rampone and Keane bring their unique backgrounds to these key questions. Rampone is a professional soccer player and an Olympic gold medalist; Keane is a neuropsychologist who works with both young and professional athletes. As they examine each aspect of youth sports from the parents' and the coaches' perspectives, the authors share personal findings and address communication, authenticity, mental toughness, and confidence. They frankly reveal the messages that parents actually send their kids when they argue loudly with referees, shout instructions, and rehash the game on the car ride home. Parents are not coaches, say the authors; their role is to provide support and encouragement. Then there are the negative lessons coaches teach when they focus on winning at the cost of educating young players. Backed by considerable experience, knowledge, and common sense, Rampone and Keane's game plan should be required reading for all student athlete parents and coaches.

A star athlete provides expert advice for parents and coaches. In this comprehensive analysis, written with clinical neuropsychologist Keane, Pearce Rampone, "the most decorated female American professional soccer player of all time," shares her personal experiences on and off the field, as a player and mother of two athletes, alongside coaching tips geared toward young athletes. Although most of the stories involve soccer, the advice is useful for any sport. The authors discuss the importance of having parents refrain from coaching from the sidelines, the idea of signing a mission statement of appropriate conduct for everyone to endorse prior to the season, and the need for open communication on and off the field. They explore body language and how a parent can tell whether a child is enjoying the sport or playing because they feel like they should as well as building confidence, working through performance anxiety, and what to say and not to say on the ride home from a game. Throughout, the authors include anecdotes of young players that bolster their guidance. Bulleted lists and clipboard-type notes are inserted into the text, placing extra emphasis on key points and making it simple for readers to find relevant concepts. The authors also cover the all-important topic of injuries, particularly concussions, and Pearce Rampone shares her own experiences with concussions as well as a checklist of symptoms to watch out for in a person with a suspected head injury. Especially dangerous is "the second concussive blow--more serious injury and prolonged recovery time, sometimes resulting in the loss of an entire season." As a professional athlete who has been both a winner and a loser and who has played while injured, Pearce Rampone's counsel on these important topics is easy to assimilate and should be required reading for any coach or parent who wants their child to play sports, regardless of the level. Informative, nourishing reading for parents and coaches and their young charges. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.