Youth Sports United

On today’s episode I chat with Jeoff De Waele and Brian Conklin, two of the three partners in PlayMakersUSA. Situated in West Linn, Oregon, PlayMakersUSA is a community-based youth sports program focused on helping youth athletes grow on and off the field. Their objective is simple: deliver a program that creates a pathway to personal growth for their players by integrating educational components that help build well-rounded individuals.During this conversation, Brian, Jeoff and I discuss PlayMakersUSA’s focus on fun and skill development and how it plays a crucial role in removing the stress from youth sports. We discuss the importance of establishing a love of sport first instead of jumping immediately into pressure-filled situations with young athletes - avoiding this pressure early on keeps kids playing longer and leads to better outcomes. We also discuss the role of parents in creating healthy sport cultures, how to innovate to create fun sporting environments, and how focusing on enjoyment and participation early builds the foundation for long-term athletic success. It was a pleasure to speak with Brian and Jeoff and learn more about their very original approach. There’s a lot here to help coaches, parents, and youth sport administrators think differently about the experiences we’re creating for our kids. Episode Sponsor:Bare Ware: Use code SPORTS15 at checkout to get 15% off your order. 👉 shopbareware.comTo learn more about PlayMakersUSA:Website: https://www.playmakersusa.com/Instagram: @play.makers.usaTo connect with Jason:Website: jasonmagennis.comLinkedIn: Jason MagennisInstagram: @youthsportsunitedpod or @jasmagenniThe best way to support Youth Sport United is to subscribe or follow, leave a rating or review and share your favourite episodes with friends and parents dedicated to creating healthy sporting cultures for our kids. If you’d like to learn more about my coaching practice, head over to jasonmagennis.com/coaching.

On today’s episode I sit down with Benson Langat. Benson is the Founder and Head Coach of Bensane Run Coaching and Sports Consulting. He’s also an elite marathoner, who’s finished top 20 in the Boston Marathon, and a Coaching Certification Instructor with the Road Runners Club of America - that’s how we know each other, he was my coach when I completed my run coaching certification.Our conversation focuses on Benson’s coaching philosophy and his beliefs around the importance of supporting character development in our young athletes. We discuss the importance of failure as a learning tool, the impact of social media on youth sports and the significance of building a supportive environment for our young athletes. We also explore the importance of individualization in coaching and how positive feedback can enhance an athlete’s motivation and performance - we should always be looking for opportunities to catch our athletes “doing things right”.Benson is one of the coaches I most look up to and I was so grateful for his willingness to share his wisdom. Please enjoy my conversation with Benson Langat. Episode Sponsor:Bare Ware: Use code SPORTS15 at checkout to get 15% off your order. 👉 shopbareware.comTo connect with Benson:Website: https://bensanecoaching.com/LinkedIn: Benson LangatInstagram: @bensane_coaching or @benrun26.2Facebook: /bensanecoachingTo connect with Jason:Website: jasonmagennis.comLinkedIn: Jason MagennisInstagram: @youthsportsunitedpod or @jasmagenniThe best way to support Youth Sport United is to subscribe or follow, leave a rating or review and share your favourite episodes with friends and parents dedicated to creating healthy sporting cultures for our kids. If you’d like to learn more about my coaching practice, head over to jasonmagennis.com/coaching.

My guest this week is Roger Barnsley. Roger is a psychologist, educator and retired President and Vice-Chancellor of Thompson Rivers University. In the early 1980’s, while attending a Junior hockey game, his wife Paula, also a psychologist, noticed an unusual trend in the game's program - the majority of players were born in the first three months of the year.This finding led Roger deeper into the age demographics of competitive hockey and became the underpinning for his work on the “Relative Age Effect”, a circumstance where athletes born immediately after a selection cutoff date are overrepresented in elite sports due to being older, larger and more mature than peers born later in the same year. Roger’s work on the RAE now spans decades and has been featured in multiple publications, including Malcolm Gladwell’s 2008 book Outliers.In our conversation, Roger and I go deep on the impact of the Relative Age Effect, and the privilege gap it creates in both sports and academics. We discuss a variety of ways to adapt the structure of youth sports to remove the privilege awarded those with an advantageous birth date, while also creating environments that slow player attrition. Ultimately, addressing RAE at an early age can maximize the opportunity for success for everyone, while keeping kids playing longer and fostering a lifelong love of sport and movement. Episode Sponsor:Bare Ware: Use code SPORTS15 at checkout to get 15% off your order. 👉 shopbareware.comTo learn more the Relative Age Effect:Outliers by Malcolm GladwellRevisionist History: Outliers, RevisedFrontiers in Sports and Active Living: 40 Years of Relevant Age Effects: Life is Not FairTo connect with Jason:Website: jasonmagennis.comLinkedIn: Jason MagennisInstagram: @youthsportsunitedpod or @jasmagenniThe best way to support Youth Sport United is to subscribe or follow, leave a rating or review and share your favourite episodes with friends and parents dedicated to creating healthy sporting cultures for our kids. If you’d like to learn more about my coaching practice, head over to jasonmagennis.com/coaching.

This week’s guest is Greg Dunn. Greg is a former collegiate hockey player, executive coach and CEO of Exult Sports, a Denver, Colorado based company focused on transforming youth sports organizations into truly athlete-centric environments that support, challenge, and empower youth athletes. In this conversation, Greg and I discuss the need to hold the athlete, and their personal development, at the centre of the youth sports experience. We examine the benefits of intentional coaching and the need for coaches and parents to go beyond athletic skill development and help kids learn life skills such as self-regulation and problem-solving. We also explore how coaches and parents can use youth sports as a vehicle to give kids the agency to make decisions and recover from setbacks. We then discuss the benefits of youth sports organizations creating learning cultures for not only their athletes but their coaches, volunteers and executives as well. When the adults demonstrate a learning mindset, and embrace their mistakes as opportunities to grow, they are setting a truly positive example for the children in their lives.Our discussion also touches on how the monetization of the youth sports experience is, in many cases, detracting from the athletic experience and making it harder for many kids to participate. Here, Greg shares some valuable wisdom on making developmentally focused decisions regarding youth sports investments. Finally, Greg leaves us with some important thoughts for coaches and parents to reflect on regarding the behaviours we’re modelling for our children. Greg and the folks at Exult are doing some great work to help youth sports organizations rethink their approach to creating a positive, growth experience for the children they serve. I really enjoyed this conversation and I hope you do as well!Episode Sponsor:Bare Ware: Use code SPORTS15 at checkout to get 15% off your order. 👉 shopbareware.comTo learn more or connect with Greg:Website: Exult AthleticsLinkedIn: Exult Athletics or Gregory Dunn Instagram: @exultsports To connect with Jason:Website: jasonmagennis.comLinkedIn: Jason MagennisInstagram: @youthsportsunitedpod or @jasmagenniThe best way to support Youth Sport United is to subscribe or follow, leave a rating or review and share your favourite episodes with friends and parents dedicated to creating healthy sporting cultures for our kids. If you’d like to learn more about my coaching practice, head over to jasonmagennis.com/coaching.

I’m really excited to share a bonus episode of Youth Sports United this week. My guest, Paul Gamble, is an exercise physiologist, coach, sports consultant, and author. He recently re-released his book Sports Parenting, Negotiating the Challenges of the Youth Sports Journey to Help Kids Thrive and it is a must read for all parents and coaches dedicated to making the youth sports experience a positive one for their kids.In this conversation, Paul and I focus on the physiological aspect of youth sports. We discuss the benefits of mobility and strength training, and when to add these to your child’s routine. We examine the importance of individualizing training based on the maturation curve, as well as the danger zone for injuries and strategies to prevent them. From there, we dive into the generalization vs. specialization debate and discuss the positive impact generalization has on the development of athletic skills. We also explore the commercialization of youth sports and how parents can make informed decisions about investments in their children's athletic pursuits.This is a really great episode, full of practical advice and easy-to-implement strategies. I hope you find it as informative as I did!Episode Sponsor:Bare Ware: Use code SPORTS15 at checkout to get 15% off your order. 👉 shopbareware.comTo learn more or connect with Paul:Website: Informed Practitioner in SportWebsite: Prepared Athlete Training & HealthSubstack: Athlete GenerationInstagram: @paulgamblephdBook: Sports Parenting: Negotiating the Challenges of the Youth Sports Journey to Help Kids ThriveTo connect with Jason:Website: jasonmagennis.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonmagennis/Instagram: @youthsportsunitedpod or @jasmagenniThe best way to support Youth Sport United is to subscribe or follow, leave a rating or review and share your favourite episodes with friends and parents dedicated to creating healthy sporting cultures for our kids. If you’d like to learn more about my coaching practice, head over to jasonmagennis.com/coaching.

On today’s episode of Youth Sports United, I sit down with Colin McLaren, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Experiential Studies in Community and Sport at Cape Breton University, and the Associate Director of the Research Institute for Community, Sport, and Health. Colin and I discuss in detail the importance and lasting impact of creating positive sports experiences for our kids. We examine the benefits of embracing mistakes and how, as coaches and parents, demonstrating a growth mindset can teach our children resilience. We explore the connection between resilience and risk-taking and how enabling the latter helps kids extract more fulfillment, joy and fun from their athletic pursuits. We also discuss the importance of intentionality when communicating with our young athletes and how everyone benefits when we reframe what success looks like. As parents, it’s easy to get caught up measuring the return on our youth sports investment in terms of our kid’s performance and wins. But what if we reconsidered the equation and measured our return in terms of our children’s personal growth, their joy and instilling them with a life-long love of movement? Colin and I explore the benefits of tweaking our expectations and thinking longer term about the role youth sports play in our children’s development. Episode Sponsor:Bare Ware: Use code SPORTS15 at checkout to get 15% off your order. 👉 shopbareware.comTo learn more or connect with Colin:Website: Resilient Youth Sport and Community Research LabInstagram: @coli.nmclarenX (Formally known as Twitter): @colinmclaren13Facebook: Colin McLarenTo connect with Jason:Website: jasonmagennis.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonmagennis/Instagram: @youthsportsunitedpod or @jasmagenniThe best way to support Youth Sport United is to subscribe or follow, leave a rating or review and share your favourite episodes with friends and parents dedicated to creating healthy sporting cultures for our kids. If you’d like to learn more about my coaching practice, head over to jasonmagennis.com/coaching.

On today’s episode of Youth Sports United, I sit down with Carolyn Coffin, professional running coach, host of the “Inspired Soles” podcast and active sports parent, to chat about the role parents play in helping their children build healthy relationships with sport. Carolyn and I explore how sports teach kids life skills such as resilience, teamwork and risk-taking and how intentional parenting facilitates their personal growth. We dive into the impact of family dynamics on children’s experiences with athletics and how to avoid some common pitfalls that can limit their enjoyment and development. We discuss in detail the benefits of embracing a growth mindset, helping kids see the learning experience offered by failure and teaching why it’s important to separate sport outcomes from how one measures their self-worth. To learn more or connect with Carolyn:Instagram: @inspiredsolescast or @carolyn.c.coffinInspired Soles Podcast: Apple or SpotifyTo connect with Jason:Website: jasonmagennis.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonmagennis/Instagram: @youthsportsunitedpod or @jasmagenniThe best way to support Youth Sport United is to subscribe or follow, leave a rating or review and share your favourite episodes with friends and parents dedicated to creating healthy sporting cultures for our kids. If you’d like to learn more about my coaching practice, head over to jasonmagennis.com/coaching.

On the first episode of Youth Sports United, I sit down with Jordan Sutcliffe, an Assistant Professor and Sports Psychologist at the Royal Military College of Canada, to discuss the dynamics of parental involvement in youth sports. We start by exploring the crucial role parents play in their children’s emotional regulation, the impact parental behaviour can have on children’s athletic experiences and the downside of parental identities rooted in children’s performance.From there, Jordan and I discuss creating healthy team cultures for both parents and their children. We dig into the benefits of focusing on growth and development vs. winning, establishing and communicating team norms and creating environments where parents feel actively engaged in the team culture. We discuss the positive impacts of healthy relationships between parents, children and coaches and how creating a supportive community enhances the youth sports experience for everyone.To learn more about Jordan:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordan-sutcliffe-b4434936a/X (formerly Twitter): @JordanSutcliff3To connect with Jason:Website: jasonmagennis.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonmagennis/The best way to support Youth Sport United is to subscribe or follow, leave a rating or review and share your favourite episodes with friends and parents dedicated to creating healthy sporting cultures for our kids. If you’d like to learn more about my coaching practice, head over to jasonmagennis.com/coaching.