At 15, after never playing club/competitive soccer, Nick’s stepson, AJ, made an unexpected jump to the highest level of youth soccer in America. To make the story even more out-of-nowhere, Nick and his wife Sabrina are not your typical elite athlete parents - they’re both self-described computer nerds who don’t have athletic backgrounds.

In our conversation with Nick, we talk about what it was like being thrust into that level of competition, what he and his wife learned throughout the years AJ played at that level, and how he would advise parents who have kids wanting to play at elite levels. We also hit on the dynamic of blended families and how sports helped Nick and AJ build their relationship.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Chris Martin is the founder and owner of the Tri-City Chili Peppers. He’s also the inventor of cosmic baseball - a glow-in-the-dark version of baseball the Chili Peppers play that’s going on tour starting this week. I’ll actually be at their first game on Friday night.

Before starting all of that, Chris ran - and still runs - a baseball academy called Rise Baseball outside Richmond, Virginia. He was also a Division 3 baseball player.

In our conversation we talk about how he came to invent this new version of baseball, the importance of fun in sports, and what he’s learned through all his levels of baseball. We also hit on the importance of failure and give you an inside look at the business side of youth sports.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

One of the common questions we get asked is how to balance youth/travel sports - which play games on Sundays - with church. If you play long enough, especially at club/competitive levels, those two things will inevitably come into conflict with each other.

But they don't have to compete with one another.

In this episode, Jonathan talks with Pastor Johnny Pereira about how we find the balance between church and youth sports. They also talk about the importance of helping your kid find their identity outside of their sport and how to prepare your kid for when they leave your house and go to college.

For everyone watching the week this episode comes out: Happy Easter!

-----

About the Guest:

Pastor Johnny Pereira is the lead pastor of Salem Chapel in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He's the dad of two athletes: Lily - a college basketball player and Lucas - a high school football player.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We are seeing a giant increase in injuries amongst youth sports athletes. The consensus is the same from all the professionals: kids are playing too much while training too little.

In this week's episode, we talk to Drs. Levi Kerby and Lauren Sibley about the importance of strength training, rest, and recovery in injury prevention. We also discuss how the goal of youth sports is to create healthy, lifelong athletes who love being active well into their adult years.

-----

About the Guests:

Dr. Levi owns Kinetic Performance Rehab and Physical Therapy in Winston-Salem, NC. Together with Dr. Lauren, they help people of all ages get out of pain, address the root cause of the pain, and learn how to rebuild their body in a way that lets them stay active long-term.

You can learn more about KPR at https://www.kprpt.com.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

April 2 is World Autism Awareness Day. As people who believe youth sports should be accessible to everyone, we wanted to do a dedicated episode to kids with ASD and special needs finding their place in youth sports.

Our guest this week is Eric Williams. Eric's a dad of a son with autism along with a youth sports (rec + travel) coach and a background in rec league management. In our conversation we talk about his journey with his son and answer a few questions listeners sent in regarding ASD and sports.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As parents, most of us have never studied the brain in-depth to understand how it works. Coach Lindsey Nadler joins us this week to give us a crash course on how kids are wired, what we can do to help them on their sports journey, and why understanding these things can be a super power as a parent.

We also talk about the importance of our kid owning their youth sports journey and discuss how this generation's brains have literally been rewired in ways that are different than ours when we were growing up.

-----

About the Guest:

Lindsey Nadler is the founder and head mental performance coach at Elite Mental Edge, a company dedicated to changing women's sports by equipping athletes and coaches with mental skills training. Lindsey specializes in helping female athletes develop an elite mental edge to thrive at the next level, while also empowering coaches to seamlessly integrate mental skills into their programs. With a unique blend of experience as a former D1 softball player, high school coach, former police officer with crisis intervention expertise, and a bachelor's degree in psychology, Lindsey creates practical, simple strategies that transform the mental game and drive peak performance.

Want to work with Coach Lindsey?

https://stan.store/elitementaledge/p/the-mental-edge-playbook-for-coaches-

https://stan.store/elitementaledge/p/private-mental-skills-coaching--vqobc

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If the athlete you fanboy or fangirl over had a bad game, you would know they're better than that one performance and encourage them to shake it off before the next game.

In this episode, Olympic running and NCAA All-American Edose Ibadin shares why we need to be fanboys and fangirls of ourselves as we compete. He also talks about the importance of learning to love the process more than the results.

In addition to on-the-field talk, Edose gives us a look at his upbringing as the son of Nigerian immigrants, tells us how his parents supported him unconditionally, and talks about the importance of mental health through the entire journey.

------

About the Guest:

Edose Ibadin is an accomplished track runner having competed in the 2024 Olympic Games representing Nigeria. While in college running for Hampton University, he was a Division I All-American in the 800m and 4x400 relay while earning a bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering. He currently holds the Nigerian record in the 800m and has represented them at multiple world championships. He runs professionally for UA Baltimore 800.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jen Greeny has been coaching volleyball at the college level for over 20 years. Over that time she's won over 60% of the games she's competed in, been to the Division I NCAA Tournament eight times, had six Top 25 finishes at the Division I level, and been awarded two Pac 12 Coach of the Year honors.

She's also the mom to a college and high school athlete.

Before all that, she was a collegiate athlete herself.

In this week's episode, we talk to her about how she uses sports to prepare her players for life in general. We also talk about one of the unique parts of her program: how she has her college athletes volunteer their time to coach at the rec league level. We discussed what she hopes they learn from that and the benefits she sees from it both as athletes and as people.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.