Establishing Boundaries and Culture in Youth Sports

One of the most common questions we get here is could we cover the challenges of being a parent coach. Statistics tell us that on the grassroots and recreational level, somewhere around 80% of coaches are also parents of one of the athletes on the team. As we move into the travel and more competitive older ages, that number shrinks, but as those of us who have coached their kids in a high performance environment know, the scrutiny increases exponentially. 

A few weeks back, John received an email from a listener who was struggling with coaching her child in a high performance environment, not sure whether she should drop out or continue, hyper aware of the talk behind the scenes and how it was affecting her daughter, and concerned about her own coaching development.

We thought it would be a great podcast discussion topic, and invited on Skye Eddy of www.SoccerParenting.com to join us. Skye has become the go to resource for parents and parent coaches in the soccer world, as a former All American athlete, mom and coach to two soccer players, board member, and Founder of Soccer Parenting. She has partnered with clubs and state associations throughout the US, Canada and Europe to provide resources, and we are so excited for this discussion today. If you are  a parent coach, or know one to share this with, you will definitely want to tune in for some good tips, guidelines and thoughts from the three of us. 

BOOK A SPEAKER: Interested in having John or one of our speaking team come to your school, club or coaching event? We are booking late Fall 2025 and Spring 2026 events, please email John@ChangingTheGameProject.com to set up an introductory call.

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This week’s podcast is brought to you by our friends at Sprocket Sports.  Sprocket Sports is a new software platform for youth sports clubs.  Yeah, there are a lot of these systems out there, but Sprocket provides the full enchilada. They give you all the cool front-end stuff to make your club look good– like websites and marketing tools – AND all the back-end transactions and services to run your business better so you can focus on what really matters – your players and your teams.

Sprocket is built for those clubs looking to thrive, not just survive, in the competitive world of youth sports clubs.  So if you’ve been looking for a true business partner – not just another app – check them out today at https://sprocketsports.me/CTG.

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If you or your club/school is looking for all of our best content, from online courses to blog posts to interviews organized for coaches, parents and athletes, then become a premium member of Changing the Game Project today. For over a decade we have been creating materials to help change the game. and it has become a bit overwhelming to find old podcasts, blog posts and more. Now, we have organized it all for you, with areas for coaches, parents and even athletes to find materials to help compete better, and put some more play back in playing ball. Clubs please email John@ChangingTheGameProject.com for pricing. 

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Thank you for all your support these past eight years, and a special big thank you to all of you who become part of our inner circle, our patrons, who will enable us to take our podcast to the next level. https://www.patreon.com/wayofchampions