Youth Sports: Still Failing Our Kids - How to Really Fix It
By Bob Bigelow with Doug Abrams
Bob Bigelow, former college and NBA player, has advocated for youth sports reform for over 25 years, conducting hundreds of community talks, and making numerous conference and media appearances since 1990. He co-authored Just Let the Kids Play (2001), the first book to identify that youth sports “systems” are the root cause of the many problems children face in simply enjoying and learning as they grow. This first book offered practical ways to restructure youth programs to better serve the physical and emotional needs of children. Bob’s recommendations included limiting (and even eliminating) elite traveling teams at young ages, promoting equal playing time, creating team parity, implementing shorter seasons to avoid burnout and overuse injuries, playing multiple sports for better long-term athletic development, recognizing some kids are later bloomers who shouldn’t get left out, and improving coach training and parent education. Bob also introduced his unique “Recess Model” for youth sports. Bob urged that parents, coaches and program administrators need to change their philosophy to truly allow children to enjoy sports and better learn the fundamentals.
NOW, in his second book, Youth Sports: Still Failing Our Kids – How to Really Fix It, Bob goes many steps further in demonstrating how improved structures for play can actually increase the development of children’s skills. Bob has conducted first-of-their-kind quantitative studies that show how a better model for youth programs boosts how much kids learn as well as solves the problems in today’s youth sports environment. While other approaches in many previous books haven’t yet created true change, Bob offers a genuine blueprint for success. He also cites real world examples where new play models have already improved youth sports while offering terrific fun and enjoyment!
If you really want to change kids’ sports, you must read this new book!
Chapters:
- LESSONS LEARNED SINCE I WROTE Just Let the Kids Play
- WHAT CHILDREN REALLY WANT FROM YOUTH SPORTS AND A BETTER WAY TO GET THERE
- EXAMPLE OF A PROGRAM THAT TRULY FITS CHILDREN’S NEEDS AND THE ROLE OF THE PLAY MODEL
- UNDERSTANDING THE ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF YOUTH SPORTS PLAY MODELS — THE PRELUDE TO A SOLUTION
- PLAY MODELS — IMPACT ON THE PLAY ENVIRONMENT AND KIDS’ SPORTS SKILLS
- A QUANTITATIVE STUDY OF THE IMPACT ON KIDS’ SKILLS — SPORTS CAMP MODEL VERSUS TRADITIONAL TEAM-LEAGUE MODEL
- RESULTS OF THE PILOT STUDY OF A SPORTS CAMP MODEL VERSUS A TRADITIONAL TEAM-LEAGUE MODEL
- TWO MORE STUDIES WHICH SHOW THAT THE PLAY MODEL MATTERS
- HOW COMMUNITIES CAN CAPITALIZE ON THE LEARNING FROM THESE STUDIES
- FINAL THOUGHTS ON FIXING YOUTH SPORTS BY ADOPTING A NEW PLAY MODEL
