John O’Sullivan is the Founder of the Changing the Game Project, an initiative to educate parents, coaches and athletes about the positive benefits of youth athletics, and the need to remove adult priorities and values from our children’s’ sports. He is the author of the national bestselling book Changing the Game: The Parents Guide to Raising Happy, High-Performing Athletes and Giving Youth Sports Back to Our Kids, and has been featured by the Huffington Post. He speaks about developing more competitive, high-achieving athletes by building environments of love and respect, rather than fear and pressure.
John spent nearly three decades as a soccer player and coach on the youth, high school, college and professional level.
John is here to talk about why it’s the race to nowhere in youth sports and what we can do to course correct and bring youth sports back to the children.
“When I was growing up, youth sports was about children competing against other children. Today, all too often it is about adults competing against other adults through their children. This is driving our kids out of sports, and this needs to change!”
~ John O’Sullivan
LISTEN HERE
In this interview we discuss:
- the problem in youth sports
- the truth about college athletic scholarships
- impact of fear
- the role of parent
- the role of coach
- how do we really course correct
- athlete’s mindset
- Two takeaways – for listeners
“Athletics like anything else is an education and it’s a process. It takes a long time to be proficient at anything.”
~ John O’Sullivan, on How She Really Does It
Mentioned in this Podcast
- Changing the Game Project
- Book: Changing the Game
- The Race to Nowhere blog post
- Carol Dweck interview about Mindset (Growth + Fixed)
smiling,
