Coach Ballgame is on a mission to help kids fall in love with baseball and softball so they can learn the invaluable life lessons they impact. That includes helping kids love the game, helping parents lead their kids through the journey, and supporting coaches who can redefine the win from chasing trophies to imparting life lessons through the game. All year long, Coach Ballgame travels the country to host his National Sandlot Tour, offer clinics, and teach coaches how to help kids. He just recently released his first book - Coach Ballgame: My Pillars of Coaching and How I Got There. You can pick that up on his website CoachBallgame.com. I tried to come up with a summary of our conversation but it was so rich I couldn’t sum it up in a couple sentences. Just trust me that you’ll want to listen to it.

Today’s guest is Steve Magness. Steve is one of my favorite voices in the youth sports space. He’s served as a performance coach for numerous professional teams, executives, and even artists. He’s coached at the high school and college level. And he’s written quite a few books. His newest is called Win The Inside Game and is out now wherever you get books. I can’t recommend it highly enough. In our conversation, we talk about how the fear of your kid falling behind athletically, how kids are afraid of failure and what we can do to help, and the importance of unstructured play in their development. We also hit on a whole bunch of other smaller topics throughout the conversation. I know I say this a lot, but this conversation truly was a joy to record. Get Steve's Book: https://www.amazon.com/Win-Inside-Game-Surviving-Thriving/ Follow Steve on Social: https://www.instagram.com/stevemagness/ https://www.threads.com/@stevemagness

Sarah Lessig is currently a high school senior who has signed to play college basketball at Princeton next year. But recently Sarah has gone viral all over social media because she is the girl who plays literally everything. I’ll let her tell the full story, but in high school, she’s played basketball, baseball, softball, flag football, and been a good enough skateboarder to attract sponsorships. Not only that, she plays multiple instruments and is the epitome of the kid who has tried everything. In our conversation, we talk about her journey growing up playing multiple sports, how those other sports helped her become a better basketball player, and what the college recruitment process was like. We also hit on the struggles of club sports, how expensive they are, and the realities of trying to balance everything both as a student athlete and for the parent involved as well. I was a fan of Sarah before this conversation just from watching her social media, but after spending some time talking to her, I can’t help but root for her as she enters college basketball next year.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.