Rob Ludeman is back. When he first came on The Struggle Bubble in Season 1, his son Matt was a two-sport senior at Los Gatos High — starting at center in football playoffs and on the mount for baseball's post season. Matt's now a freshman pitcher at University of the Pacific, and Rob stopped by to discuss what it took to get there and his takeaways as a fther.

The recruiting process that came down to two late-season outings and a phone call between coaches. The D1-vs-JUCO decision that almost went the other way. The summer training programs that started the day he signed. The daily grind of college baseball where every hitter in the lineup was the best player at their high school and some of your teammates are 24 years old.

Rob talks about what travel ball actually contributed (zero recruiting videos watched, for the record), why multi-sport athletes have an edge, and what he'd tell himself ten years ago: put the scorebook away and just watch the game.

If you're a parent in the thick of youth sports wondering what the end of this road actually looks like — this is the episode.

No guest this week — just Chad and Craig, a stack of listener questions, and zero filter. Craig's fresh off a brutal week commuting to RSA in San Francisco ("two hours to go 55 miles"), and Chad's still processing a nail-biting state cup match in Davis that went to PKs in the final three seconds. So yeah — business as usual in the Struggle Bubble.

The episode opens with a quick follow-up on Andrew McRobbie's appearance last week and the wave of listener messages it sparked — parents saying they'd never considered that any given game could be the last one. From there, Chad and Craig rip through a Q&A covering the stuff their audience actually lives with every weekend: is club soccer worth thousands a year? What do you do when you feel yourself becoming the sideline parent you swore you'd never be? Should your kid quit Little League for travel ball? And what happens when a parent tells a volunteer coach they're "ruining the sport"?

The back half gets more personal. They dig into what happens when a kid's entire identity is wrapped up in their sport, how to break the cycle of negative self-talk before a game, and whether anything they've said on this podcast has actually changed their own behavior. (Spoiler: Chad doesn't know his son's baseball record for the first time in ten years. Progress.) They close with the question from the very first Q&A episode — what would you do without kids?

Episode presented by Gaimplan

Andrew McRobbie has been in the middle of all of it as Director at All-Stars SC in Saratoga — and as a stepdad who just watched his daughter's soccer career end without knowing it was her last game.

Chad, Craig, and Andrew get into the real stuff: why 91% of academy players never play a professional minute, what "elite" actually means (hint: someone's paying you), the social media trap that's teaching kids to chase highlights instead of fundamentals, and Andrew's one-line philosophy every soccer parent needs to hear. His three-year-old Jude also makes an appearance in a vintage Aberdeen kit, which is its own kind of struggle.

Episode 35 Presented by Gaimplan

This week it's just Chad and Craig — no guest, no filter, a lot of real talk. They kick things off in the middle of their own Struggle Bubble: Chad's packing for a youth soccer tournament in Davis while baseball opening day looms, and Craig's sneaking in a podcast recording while Brittain manages a dance competition across town. Chaotic? Yes. On-brand? Absolutely.

From there the conversation goes deep on a question they keep circling back to: why are we doing this? Not "this" as in the podcast — but all of it. The travel tournaments. The pressure. The sideline screaming. The dad who's keeping a mental scorecard of which league his ten-year-old is in. They dig into comparison culture in youth sports, what actually happens to the kids who aren't getting game time, and what it means to reframe a tournament as a mini vacation rather than a must-win.

They also get into a wild real-life story: an opposing coach who pulled his entire team off the field mid-game over a physical-but-legal soccer match — and what it says about the state of youth coaching, burnout, and the economic pressures that are quietly running the show.

The back half of the episode hits on something more personal: what we model for our kids when we struggle ourselves. Chad talks about going back to weightlifting after 25 years. Craig talks about getting destroyed by a Theraband in a dance studio full of twelve-year-olds. And both of them make the same point: when our kids see us fail and watch how we respond — that's the real coaching.

• The comparison trap in youth sports — and how it starts at the club level, not just the sideline
• Why the first question after a game ("did you win?") might be the most damaging one we ask
• Process over outcome — and what that actually looks like in practice for a parent
• Letting kids fail, struggle, and advocate for themselves
• Coaching burnout, pay-to-play culture, and the economic motive that corrupts youth sports
• Modeling grit: what your kids learn when they watch you do hard things

Heath Clark has been coaching football and teaching history at Los Gatos High School since 2008. He's the kind of coach whose former players still come back. He's also the kind of dad who had to stop going to his daughter's flag football games — not because of scheduling, but because a parent accused his 14-year-old of conspiring to throw a game. For five-year-olds. That story is the tip of it. This episode tears into what we've gotten wrong about youth sports, education, and what "success" actually means when your kid is eight and everyone around you is acting like the scouts are watching. Heath talks about why football is actually better learned late, why the hardest workers — not the biggest kids — end up ahead, and why he writes a single sentence for himself before every season about who he's trying to be as a coach. This year's word: love. Chad and Craig push into specialization, the pay-to-play trap, and why the best Sunday of flag football season happened when nobody kept score. The conversation also gets into Heath's nonprofit, We Train LG — built because paying to play shouldn't lock kids out. NFL guys and awkward seventh graders train side by side on the same principles: work hard, get better, be a good human. Craig wraps it with a challenge from his English childhood: backpacks for goalposts, a dad with a ball, and nobody getting in a fight. That's it. That's the whole model.

The conversation covers a wide range of topics, including the start of season two, challenges of podcasting, high school soccer, AI and technology, youth sports, coaching, and the impact of technology on education and sports. The conversation also delves into the importance of feedback, mental preparation, and the role of parents in youth sports.

Chapters

• 00:00 Season Two Kickoff and Podcasting Challenges
• 07:03 High School Soccer and Coaching Approach
• 17:02 AI, Technology, and Education in Sports
• 26:12 Youth Sports and Parental Role

In this episode of the Struggle Bubble, hosts Chad Kutting and Craig Surgey welcome Nate Vandegrift, who shares his journey from a passionate young athlete to a dedicated father and professional. Nate discusses the challenges he faced in sports, the consequences of his actions during high school, and his struggles with alcohol. He reflects on the journey to parenthood through in vitro fertilization and the lessons learned from health challenges, including a heart attack at a young age. The conversation emphasizes the importance of family, accountability, and the legacy we leave behind.

Support the show

Help support our podcast by subscribing on YouTube, Apple Music, and Spotify. Keep up to date with all things Struggle Bubble on our Instagram Page @thestrugglebubblepod

In this episode of The Struggle Bubble, we’re joined by Jackie Pimentel, Director of Ads Product Marketing at Meta, to talk about balancing a high-pressure career, parenting, and life’s curveballs. Jackie shares her experience navigating family life, managing work trips, and the importance of community and support systems. Whether it's stepping in to coach her daughter's soccer team or coordinating last-minute trips with her husband, Jackie offers a candid and relatable perspective on how to thrive amidst the chaos. Tune in for insights on resilience, work-life balance, and the value of being present in the moment.

Support the show

Help support our podcast by subscribing on YouTube, Apple Music, and Spotify. Keep up to date with all things Struggle Bubble on our Instagram Page @thestrugglebubblepod