Changing the Game

My seven-year old, Luke, has a clear passion for soccer. He loves to play the game and he shows absolute joy every time he scores a goal, whether it’s playing for Hampton, the local community club team that I coach or Arsenal FC of Pittsburgh the more “elite” youth soccer club he participates in at various times throughout the year. John O’Sullivan’s Changing the Game is all about how to keep that joy in sports that Luke demonstrates and how we should take the focus off of results and put the emphasis on the learning process to enable our kids to learn and grow and ultimately be high-performing athletes.

Sports were a big part of my upbringing. Much of it was far from what could be described from “elite” and most was very unstructured. Today, kids have access to specialized training and elite competition year-round from an early age. However, that early specialization and lack of “periodization” runs the risk of burning our kids out and taking the joy out of the sport. Changing the Game discusses how to address these concerns by encouraging multi-sport athletes, giving our young athletes control over their athletic experience by stepping back and enabling them to enjoy what they are doing, develop a growth oriented mindset and perform at a high level.