Summer Books for Busy Sports Parents

Summer books for busy sports parents:

Getting To Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In.  By Roger Fisher.  Lots of tips for communicating with different personalities and conflict resolution.

The Pursuit of Happyness.  The Story of Chris Gardner.  From homelessness to multi-millionaire.  Good lessons on grit and resilience.

David and Goliath.  By Malcolm Gladwell.  "What got you here won't get you there."  Tons of stories on creative problem solving.  

Zero Offseason: Student Athlete Development & NCAA Recruiting Tips

New sports parenting book that covers student athlete development and NCAA recruiting tips.

Includes info on:

Practice Mode vs. Game Mode Mindset
Dealing with Sports Burnout
Specialization vs. Multiple Sports
NCAA Academic Reqs
The Recruiting Process
Benefits of Div III Sports
Dangers of Agents and Boosters

Zero Offseason is now available @ www.Amazon.com.

Free for Amazon Prime members for now.  And if you pick up a copy by Friday, June 5th send me an email and I'll send you a free PDF version to share with other coaches, sports parents and student athletes.

http://www.amazon.com/Zero-Offseason-Student-Development-Recruiting-ebook/dp/B00XT6XAEK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1432908342&sr=8-1&keywords=zero+offseason

NYT: Leadership & Pushing Comfort Zones

New York Times leadership article from The Corner Office.  "Do something uncomfortable every 90 days." 

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/25/business/mitch-rothschild-of-vitalis-juggle-but-dont-tiptoe.html

Zero Offseason: Student Athlete Development & NCAA Recruiting Tips

Just published a quick read for busy sports parents on student athlete development and advice on navigating NCAA recruiting compliance, timelines, and athletic scholarships.

Zero Offseason is available at www.amazon.com

And if you're an Amazon Prime member you can download it for free for now.

http://www.amazon.com/Zero-Offseason-Student-Development-Recruiting-ebook/dp/B00XT6XAEK/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1432651159&sr=8-2&keywords=zero+offseason

"Action Creates Opportunity"

Good interview from the NYT on the value of coaching and leadership - from youth sports to the corporate world.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/24/business/lori-senecal-on-coaching-when-the-bar-is-high.html?_r=0

Numbers Don't Lie: Athletic Scholarships and Football

Numbers don't lie.

There's 1.9M kids playing 11-man high school football.  And there's only 767 college football programs.  I don't know math but that's not a lot of athletic scholarships to go around. 

Have a back up plan.  Hit the books.

More sports parenting tips in my new book, "Zero Offseason: Student Athlete Development & NCAA Recruiting Tips."  Available @ www.Amazon.com.

http://www.amazon.com/Zero-Offseason-Student-Development-Recruiting-ebook/dp/B00XT6XAEK/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1432309132&sr=8-2&keywords=zero+offseason

TED Talk: Perspective is Everything

Great TED Talk for sports parents on how "perspective" is everything.

http://www.ted.com/talks/rory_sutherland_perspective_is_everything

Zero Offseason: Student Athlete Development & NCAA Recruiting Tips

Just published a new book for busy sports parents titled, "Zero Offseason: Student Athlete Development & NCAA Recruiting Tips"

Zero Offseason is a quick read with tips on effective offseason routines, mental preparation, NCAA recruiting and what college coaches are looking for "off the field" when evaluating scholarship offers.

If you pick up a copy please send me an email and I'll forward you a free PDF version to share with other coaches, sports parents and student athletes.  

Zero Offseason is available through Amazon Prime and as an e-book @ www.amazon.com

http://www.amazon.com/Zero-Offseason-Student-Development-Recruiting-ebook/dp/B00XT6XAEK/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1432130183&sr=8-2&keywords=zero+offseason

NCAA Athletic Scholarship & Recruiting Webinar

Good NCAA athletic scholarship and recruiting webinar.  And free.

http://www.freerecruitingwebinar.org/

TED Talk: How Schools Kill Creativity

Great Ted Talk by Ken Robinson on how schools kill creativity. If you haven't seen it yet, it's well worth watching.  20 minutes.


http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity?language=en

Sports Parenting & NCAA Recruiting

Recruiting.  What’s the difference between a “quiet period” and a “dead period” in the recruiting calendar?  Is a homesick college freshman penalized for dropping out after signing a binding letter of intent?  Can a free taco lunch with a sports agent wreck a kid’s future? 

The NCAA Division I Manual is a brain-charring “read” that weighs in at a robust 432 pages of rules, exceptions to the rules, and exclusions to the exceptions…to the rules.  And no pictures.  That’s the bad news.  The worse news is that these academic requirements, amateurism standards, and recruiting restrictions start the freshman year of high school - so study up on the byzantine world of NCAA compliance before high school starts.

The good news, however, is that the NCAA provides several free resources for parents.  Consider bookmarking these websites:

NCAA Recruiting Guidance:  NCAA.org

NCAA Compliance Bylaws:  NCAAPublications.com

National Letter of Intent and Scholarships:  NationalLetter.org                

                NCAA Academic “Core Course” Requirements:  EligibilityCenter.org

Youth Sports - Offseason Practice

Isolate Skills:  drill down, isolate, and focus on a specific skill to develop during purposeful practice. 

The attitude should not be, “well, let’s go play around and work on seven to nine different, unrelated skills until it gets dark or until dinner, whatever comes first.”  The attitude should be, “we will spend exactly 35 minutes on wide receiver ‘stance and start’ technique.  We will not work on release techniques against press-man coverage today.  Next week we will build on stance and start by isolating and focusing on release options vs. press coverage.” 

Mashing up skills and hoping some of it sticks is not purposeful practice.  Mashing up skills lacks proper sequencing, hurts retention, and leads to sloppy practice technique.  And sloppy practice technique carries over into game performance.

More sports parenting tips in "Zero Offseason" now available @ www.amazon.com
 

Parents Parent...and Coaches Coach

Parent – Don’t Coach.  Players play, parents support, and coaches coach.  Simple rules yet complex roles.  Sports mom won’t agree with every decision the coach makes.  You may not like the coach, the style of play or personnel decisions.  But if you trust the coach with your child’s physical and mental welfare then please allow the coach to coach - they earned the title “coach” through many hours of unpaid time on the field away from family, paying and traveling for coaching education and studying game film on the weekends. 

If you want to work with your child at home on technique definitely speak to the coach ahead of time and find out what technique to teach.  But remember the best way to be effective is to let the coach do the coaching and for parents to play the supporting role – be the emotional backstop for your child and provide unconditional support and encouragement for the ups and downs of youth sports.

More sports parenting tips in, "Zero Offseason" now available @ www.amazon.com  

Youth Sports & the 7 Mental Dwarfs

Seven Mental Roadblocks.  If this is your child’s first sports season, review those areas where he or she has struggled making progress outside of sports (school work, chores, etc).  It usually involves a combination of these seven roadblocks: 

procrastination;
perfectionism;
fear of failure;
analysis paralysis;
limited comfort zone;
indecision, or
complacency. 

Expect to see these same roadblocks pop up in their athletic development.  Develop a plan to keep them motivated.