Changing the Game

The Parent's Guide to Raising Happy, High-Performing Athletes and Giving Youth Sports Back to Our Kids

By: John O'Sullivan

Narrated by: Jeff Cummings

The modern day youth sports environment has taken the enjoyment out of athletics for our children. Currently, 70% of kids drop out of organized sports by the age of 13, which has given rise to a generation of overweight, unhealthy young adults. There is a solution. John O'Sullivan shares the secrets of the coaches and parents who have not only raised elite athletes, but have done so by creating an environment that promotes positive core values and teaches life lessons instead of focusing on wins and losses, scholarships, and professional aspirations. Changing the Game gives adults a new paradigm and a game plan for raising happy, high performing children, and provides a national call to action to return youth sports to our kids.

©2014 John O’Sullivan. (P)2014 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.

It peters off at the end.

Although it is full of good advice, he is on his soap box and wont get the fuck off. The end tends to get boring. It is not the end all be all and must be adaptable to your situation.

Must read for sports parents!

The state of club/select sports is getting ridiculous! The promise of skill development and the dangling of the “scholarship carrot” is ruining the experience for children. This book explains how sports should be enjoyed by kids and how parents should approach supporting their kids in their quest to play and have FUN with their friends. I enjoyed the book very much and it is a great reminder to keep sports in perspective. Yes, there are millionaire athletes playing professional sports, but there are also MILLIONS of athletes that don’t get scholarships or play professionally. So learn how to support your child in sports and allow them to enjoy it rather than forcing your ideals down their throat. Stop living in the past like “Uncle Rico” and allow your children to enjoy sports rather than treat it like a job!

5 star book

This book was excellent! I have a very competitive hard working hockey player. He is also good at baseball, football, chess, and school. Most things come easier to him than his friends at this point in his life. He tried out for a very good hockey team this spring and was the last kid cut. His confidence was high going into that tryout and leaving that experience his confidence took a complete nosedive. Listening to this audiobook has helped me understand his situation better and has given me tips on how to boost his confidence to get him believing in himself again. I also coach my son's winter hockey team. A lot of good insight from the coaching side of things in this audiobook as well. This audiobook describes a lot of situations other youth sport families have gone through and gives a lot of great info on how to deal with different situations. This audiobook also lays the groundwork for how kids/parents/coaches need to communicate, act, etc. This book should help you as a parent or coach alleviate some of your frustrations. Must read for all parents and coaches!

Putting the “play” back into sports

The premise of this book is excellent. As a high level athlete myself who turned down multiple D1 offers to play volleyball as well as full rides to lower levels, I have a very different approach to raising my youth athletes so they don’t experience what I did. Burnout. We are trying very hard as a family to maintain a balance so we have time together, never miss church, and create lifelong athletes who are pursuing excellence not just specialists at the age of 7. Our children are still very young at 5.5 and 7 but the pressure to specialize has already begun. We’ve refused doing that and make them play multiple sports all year long and they are developing as well rounded athletes like John implies. The only criticism I have of this book are the parallels of cognitive giftedness mentioned. Because we do have children that are identified as gifted, I don’t agree exactly with the commentary posed here. Yes, in many areas of the country gifted programs are abused and many children who are not actually gifted do get in them. However, when you are raising children that truly are cognitively gifted, you know they are definitely outside of the bell curve. It is only self fulfilling prophecy to become a gifted adult because you are gifted your entire life and it has to do with the brain wiring and how these children learn information, not simply environmental factors and educational exposure. I guess my point is I would not have touched on the cognitive giftedness/intelligence component if I were the author. It isn’t necessary for what this book is addressing and it is a very, very complex topic and it is superficially watered down here to make a point that isn’t totally correlating. There is some evidence to suggest highly intelligent children may also be superior athletes but there’s not enough hard evidence to prove that. All this aside, great book for parents wanting to push against the system and ensure their kids love exercising when they’re adults and enjoy sport for a lifetime. Reinforcing a growth mindset and encouraging the notion there are lots of life skills to be learned is the key takeaway as readers. Have your kids play sports for a bigger goal than just winning a lot of trophies.

Great for Parents

This book is great for parents, and hpwvto inform them on how to change the youth sport culture.

For a coach, it was nothing I hadn't already heard before. Regardless, very good information, and a good listen.