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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.083
EAN num: 9781592402205
ISBN number: 1592402208
Label: Gotham
Manufacturer: Gotham
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 256
Printing Date: April 05, 2007
Publishing house: Gotham
Sale Popularity Level: 871282
Studio: Gotham
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Since he retired from baseball in 2001, Cal Ripken, Jr., has devoted his time to coaching kids, including his own son and daughter, who play baseball and basketball, among other sports. With a baseball league of nearly 700,000 kids, ages 5-12, named for him, he has also had a chance to meet and work with countless young athletes. Cal Ripken’s simple yet effective philosophy for helping kids get the most out of playing sports is to keep it simple, explain the “why,” celebrate the individual, and make it fun! But Ripken is troubled by what he sees in youth sports: a competitive intensity that removes the element of fun from playing. Now, drawing on his experiences as a father, a player, and a coach to his charges at his youth baseball based organization, Ripken Baseball, the legend offers his insights and advice on how to approach organized sports with your kids to ensure they have the best experience possible, stay fit, and enjoy themselves.
Whether you were a star player or a kid who never learned to throw, this book will tell you everything you need to know about sports parenting from the pre-school years to middle school. It covers all the bases, including:
* Teaching the basics of sportsmanship
* How an overemphasis on technique or winning can harm your child’s game
* How to develop a good relationship with your child’s coach
* The pros and cons of travel teams and club teams
* The importance of returning the games to the kids and how best to behave as a parent
* The latest on performance and nutrition
* Fun games and exercises to do with your kids to encourage them
* Why most kids burn out on team sports by middle school and how to avoid it
Few athletes embody sportsmanship and fair play as perfectly as Cal Ripken. His advice will inspire confidence in kids and parents alike.
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Rated by buyers -
I'm a coach. In another life, I think that I'd do that as a profession. In this life however, I've been coaching my 2 girls in a variety of sports and learning so many lessons. As they have gotten older, more and more issues have come up that have pushed me past those easy tee-ball days. Suddenly, drafts and organizational politics have come into play - neither of which I could care about all that much. I'm still more concerned with my singular goal for each season:
How many of these kids will have so much fun that they will come back and play another season?
There was a study done recently that showed that 75% of all kids who play sports stop completely by age 13. Athletics was such an important part of shaping who I am yesterday and for my girls, I feel that it is extremely important for them to keep playing (something, anything) and having fun.
I picked up a copy of "Parenting Young Athletes The Ripken Way" from the library this weekend and blew through it's pages in one sitting. What I read reconfirmed:
* Cal Ripken is a class act
* Youth Sports yesterday is very different than it was when I was a kid (not so long ago)
* Youth Sports are GAMES... and games are meant to be fun
* Parents and coaches may be hurting their kids inadvertently by pushing and not praising at all times
I jotted down a few notes as I read this book (I read with one eye on the Patriots playoff and their 17th victory this season - all those guys played youth sports I bet).
Cal talks a lot about praise and how to use praise to really build up a kids confidence. I do an OK job of this, but am realizing how important it is to not be critical - especially in the car on the way home from a game. My instinct is to keep coaching on the way home, giving my girls tips and pointers on what to work on. What I should be doing is going gaga over their performance and asking them about what they thought.
If my goal is to get my kids to keep playing a sport from season to season, I think a little less criticism and a ton more praise might just do the trick.
A lot of parents have asked me if I think travel teams and specialization is something they should be considering for their athletes - I get these questions more and more now that my older kid is approaching middle school. While I'm not an expert quite yet, Cal's book made some great points that are worth considering.
* By playing as many different sports as possible, your athlete develops cross-compatible skills that will help them in every sport they play. The quickness they get from playing aggressive defense in basketball will certainly help their footwork on a soccer field or on a baseball diamond.
* Cal also mentions that the college coaches he knows actually tend to favor well-rounded athletes - their thought being that a player who specialized at a young age is at risk for an injury (overuse of particular muscles) and burn out.
* The book also talks about travel teams and how for most kids, lack of playing time on a team focused only on winning can actually end up making no difference athletically for that child - and even worse can create other issues. The demands that travel teams make on families creates issues with school work, missing family time and meals and at it's worst, can create animosity or dislike for the game. At 7 or 8 years old, is this really necessary?
In the end, Cal makes a startingly simple and powerful statement that I 100% agree with:
It's not about your dreams, it's about your child's dreams.
I'd agree. Sports may not be your kid's dream - but giving them an opportunity to stay fit, learn a new game and make friends is worthy enough a goal!
Rated by buyers -
I thought this book was excellent. It made a lot of references to baseball but it can be applied to any sport. He does mention other sports and uses examples with them. This book is great for any parent that has a child in sports. It covers, the basics of sportsmanship and how an overemphasis on technique or winning can harm your child. It also covers how to develop a good relationship with your child's coach and why most kids burn out on team sports by middle school and how to avoid it. My 2 daughters swim on a swim team and one of them also plays soccer. I found myself thinking of myself in many of the examples and also of the other parents that I know on our team. I think it is a good down to earth book and it gives a lot of helpful advice on how to deal with various things that come up when your children play sports. I think it should be required for any parent that has a child in youth sports.
Rated by buyers -
What can one say, advice by Ripken is as good as it gets. If you want to keep athletics a positive experience for you and your kids, the Ripken Way is the way to do it. Great guide for parents, school athletic departments, and all those coaches who sometimes need to be reminded about what sports is all about...good experiences for kids! Extremely readable.
Rated by buyers -
Great book for parents with kids involved with sports. Very sensible advice. Ripken shares experiences he had with his own children.
Rated by buyers -
I have been honored to have coached youth sports for sixteen seasons. I've often struggled with what is best for the kids in the long run against a parent's internal drive for competition, and to win. This book should nearly be a mandate for every parent in this country who has kids playing sports. Cal, along with Rick Wolff, who is Chairman of the Center for Sports Parenting, have created an outstanding book that covers all the bases about child development, skill development, and long-term success. In a society where news is filled with overzealous, and even violent parents in kids sports, this book offers the cure. It even provides the secret to creating long-term athletic sucess (and it is not what most parents think it is).
The book is full of practical advice about how to broaden athletic skills and deal with the developmental and emotional challenges kids face when playing organized youth sports (how we wish for the sandlots of yesteryear). In fact, when my seven-year-old son got out at a play at second, and couldn't control his emotions, I found myself driving home frantically just to reread the chapter on "dealing with disappointment", so I could help him through it.
When I was a kid, I didn't have fun, wasn't given a chance, and I was one of the millions of kids in this country that stopped playing sports. Cal and Rick are right on target about what to do to keep kids playing. The messages in this can create happier kids, happier fields, less-stressed parents, and in the long run, more kids that choose to play sports for a lifetime (and do them well).
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