When Tim Adams noticed an abundance of siblings watching their brothers play on an after school soccer team, he started to design a program that would accommodate childcare and physical activities. Nearly 20 years later, that simple idea has become a citywide program called Free Play for Kids that serves more than 5,000 children and their families in greater Edmonton every year.

In the opening episode of What's Working, Tim explains the importance of providing accessible sports programming, why collaborative partnerships with schools and community centres are essential for our youth, and what other cities can learn from the approach Edmonton has taken in leveraging many of its public facilities to serve its population.

For more information on Free Play for Kids, visit ⁠www.freeplayforkids.com⁠ and email Tim at [email protected].

Chapters:

0:00 Introduction

1:24 Welcome Tim Adams

1:56 What Is Free Play for Kids?

4:02 The Origin Story: From CBC Journalist to Coach

6:45 From a Volunteer Club to a Staffed Program

8:24 The COVID Pivot That Changed Everything

9:49 Training Coaches and Volunteers

11:10 What Is Social-Emotional Learning in Coaching?

13:26 Why This Model Works for Families

15:36 Getting Schools and Facilities on Board

17:45 Solving the Transportation Barrier

21:18 How the Program Is Funded

23:47 Advice for Replicating This in Other Communities

26:48 How to Get in Touch With Free Play for Kids

James Paxton pitched on some of baseball's biggest stages, battling through injuries to become one of only two Canadian pitchers to ever throw a no-hitter in the big leagues, and the only one to do it on Canadian soil. Earlier this year, he came out of retirement to pitch for Team Canada at the World Baseball Classic. However, these days, most of his innings are as a husband to Katie, a father to two young kids, and co-host of The Pitch podcast.

James and Scott dig into the catch-in-the-backyard relationship with his dad that shaped his love of the game, how getting cut from an all-star team at 10 years old became one of the best things that happened to him, and why he doubts the 2026 recruiting version of James Paxton would even get looked at today. They talk through the "allostatic load" youth athletes are carrying with school, friendships, and training stacked on top of each other without the recovery time James had as a kid. They also discuss why velocity gets over-indexed in youth baseball and what are we actually trying to teach kids through sport knowing that most will never become high performance athletes. James also opens up about untangling his identity from his performance on the mound, why he sought out a therapist, and the simple parenting shift he believes matters most: praise the effort, not the result.

If you've ever wondered how a former big-league starter thinks about raising his own kids through sport, this conversation is full of hard-earned, honest perspective.

Chapters:

0:00 Opening

1:35 Introducing James Paxton

4:11 Childhood Friendships Rooted in Youth Sports

5:33 Late Physical Growth

6:41 Getting Cut From the All-Star Team at 10

8:24 Baseball Was Always His Choice

9:25 Unstructured Backyard Play vs. Skills Clinics

12:05 Where Creativity Actually Comes From

16:12 Recruited to Division I Without Elite Velocity

18:28 Why Late Developers Outperform at the Pro Level

19:38 Why Velocity at 13 Doesn't Predict Anything

20:18 Building the Mental Game With a Sports Psychologist

21:13 Are We Over-Indexing on Velocity?

22:06 Baseball's Many Paths to the Pros

23:10 The Sacrifices of a Pro Career

24:22 "Treating Young Athletes Like Professionals"

25:35 Protecting Actual Childhood as a Parent

26:45 The Line Between Joy and Serious Development

28:00 What His Parents Actually Talked About After Games

30:36 His Dad Catching Bullpens in Steel-Toe Boots

32:57 Allostatic Load: Why Kids Are Burning Out

34:37 The Fear of Not Being Seen

36:39 Less Than 1% Go Pro, So What's the Real Goal?

37:11 What Youth Sports Actually Taught Him

38:22 Travel Sports and the "Free Agent" Problem

39:32 Is Money Driving the Pressure?

41:04 Why Every Kid Needs an Off-Season

42:50 Coming Out of Retirement for the World Baseball Classic

45:36 The Calm That Defined His Career

48:08 Teaching Kids to Reach Their Own Conclusions

48:56 Why You Learn More From Failure Than Success

50:47 The Mentors Who Shaped His Career

52:34 The Value of Playing Across Age Groups

53:46 Small Steps and Delayed Gratification

55:36 Growing Up Without Social Media Comparison

58:53 Separating James Paxton the Person From the Player

1:02:10 The Number One Issue in Youth Sports Today

1:03:53 Praise the Effort, Not the Results

1:05:03 Control the Controllables

Resources

The Pitch Pod

Better Sports Parents

Manny Malhotra is the Head Coach of the Vancouver Canucks and a central piece in a family that has an incredible amount of perspective and opinion on youth sports. Drafted seventh overall in 1998, Manny played nearly 1,000 NHL games across seven organizations, and built a reputation as one of the league's most respected leaders. His coaching career has seen him move from an NHL assistant to a Calder Cup winner as head coach of the AHL's Abbotsford Canucks to the bench boss of the NHL franchise he helped lead to the 2011 Stanley Cup Final as a player. He's also a father of four, including son Caleb, who was drafted by the Canucks this past summer, putting Manny on the verge of coaching his own son in the NHL.

Manny and Scott dig into the youth sports household that shaped him, and how that same philosophy now guides how he and his wife Joann, the younger sister of Steve and Martin Nash, raise their own four kids. They talk through the real challenges of coaching your own child, why he and Joann deliberately keep their kids multi-sport despite living in a city with ice available year-round, and why they believe producing good people through sport matters more than producing great players. Manny also shares the story that changed how he thinks about pressure in youth sports today, and closes with a simple truth every sports parent should hear: most of what your kid remembers won't be the score.

If you've ever wondered how a former first-round pick and now NHL head coach actually parents through youth sports, this conversation is full of practical perspective.

Chapters:

0:00 Opening

2:05 Introducing Manny Malhotra

3:45 Growing Up in a Competitive Household

6:52 Why His Parents Made Sports Central to Family Life

8:53 Never a Forced Issue

10:36 Passing These Lessons to His Own Four Kids

13:59 The Challenges of Coaching His Own Children

16:17 The Conversation That Changed His Coaching Approach

18:33 Stepping Back From Coaching Caleb

21:36 Coach Hat vs. Dad Hat

24:20 Why "He Was So Polite" Means More Than Stats

27:41 Growing Up the Youngest of Four

29:47 Married Into an Even More Competitive Family

32:08 How Monetization Changed Youth Sports

33:01 Intentionally Raising Multi-Sport Kids

37:25 "Don't Be That Parent"

41:29 The Foundational Lessons: Don't Be Late, Work Hard

43:21 Why Kids Specialize So Early Today

44:59 Steve Nash's Warning About Individual Training

45:57 Skill Level Is Up, Hockey IQ Is Down

48:00 The Lost Art of Pickup Shinny Hockey

50:28 What Should a Youth Coach's #1 Priority Be?

54:47 Chasing Plastic Trophies

57:17 Becoming a Role Player at the NHL Level

59:38 What Coaches Should Actually Praise

1:02:31 The Matheny Manifesto

1:04:38 Why Youth Sports Pressure Is Heavier Today

1:07:31 The Number One Issue in Youth Sports Today

1:07:43 "We're Just Buying Memories"

Resources

Manny Malhotra

Better Sports Parents

Duff Gibson won a World Championship and Olympic gold in skeleton, a remarkable achievement at the end of a winding athletic path that took him through wrestling, speed skating, and rowing before he ever touched a sled. He also spent 25 years as a Calgary firefighter, and since retiring from competition has built the Community Coach Program (contact [email protected]) and the multi-sport kids' program Dark Horse Athletic.

Duff unpacks the phrase that shaped his entire relationship with sport — "it's just sport" — and how his parents held that belief alongside a genuine passion for competition. They talk through the real difference between a growth mindset and a fixed mindset, why youth sport is quietly manufacturing the wrong one, and the story of a coach yanking a child by the jersey that led directly to the founding of Dark Horse Athletic. Duff also shares what a landmark German study of Olympic athletes actually proves about early specialization, why the cost of youth sport is a bigger barrier than most people realize, and why he believes the ultimate measure of a youth sport program isn't pro athletes or Olympic medals.

If you've ever wondered whether taking sport "too seriously" actually helps kids perform better, this conversation offers a rare, research-backed answer from someone who's lived it at the very top.

Chapters:

0:00 Opening

01:35 Introducing Duff Gibson

03:15 From Wrestling and Rowing to Olympic Gold

04:04 Raised on "It's Just Sport"

08:47 Growth Mindset vs. Fixed Mindset

14:30 Helicopter Parenting and the Physical Literacy Decline

17:52 Building the Community Coach Program

18:46 Purpose: The Missing Piece in Youth Sport

22:59 The Rising Cost of Youth Sport

25:02 Beckie Scott and the Coach Who Didn't Interfere

30:55 Watching His Own Kids Choose Fun Over Obsession

33:03 The Lake Placid Story: Two Mindsets, One Team4

0:04 Why His Son Walked Away From Baseball

40:51 The Moment That Started Dark Horse Athletic

49:59 Personal Challenges Over Competition

50:58 The State of Physical Education Today

54:17 Coaching Kids With ADHD

56:33 From Wrestler to Rower to Skeleton Champion5

7:28 Handling Olympic Pressure

59:37 Kyle Shewfelt on Trusting His Coach

1:01:47 Is a "Failed" Sports Career Really Wasted?

1:02:38 The Common Upbringing of Olympic Medalists

1:07:44 The Number One Issue in Youth Sports Today

1:09:33 What a German Olympic Study Really Proves

1:11:28 Roger Federer, Late Specialization & Genetics

Resources

Duff Gibson

Dark Horse Athletic

Better Sports Parents

Jamie Huscroft played more than 350 NHL games with seven organizations, won a Memorial Cup with the Medicine Hat Tigers, and was drafted in the 9th Round after starting out as, in his own words, the worst player at every level he ever played. Since retiring in 2001 after suffering 13 concussions as a pro, he's spent nearly 25 years building community hockey in the greater Seattle area, where he's now Director of Facilities for Sno King Ice Arenas.

Jamie and Scott dig into what's changed and what hasn't in youth hockey: rising costs, shrinking off-seasons, and the pressure to specialize early despite Jamie's own multi-sport upbringing in tiny Creston, BC. Jamie shares how his parents' hands-off, "how was your day" approach shaped him, why his own kids never played hockey and he never pushed them to, and how Sno King's philosophy puts character development ahead of chasing the NHL. He also opens up about the toll of his concussions, how hockey has evolved on safety, and why cost — not talent or dedication — is the number one barrier keeping kids out of the game today.

Whether your child is just starting out or already deep in the travel-team grind, Jamie's perspective as both a pro-hockey veteran and a rink operator offers a rare, grounded view of youth sports from the inside.

Chapters:

00:00 Opening

02:06 Introducing Jamie Huscroft

03:13 Why He Chose Community Hockey Over the Pros

03:59 Concussion Number 13 Ended His Career

06:12 Watching Former Youth Players Become Coaches

08:32 How the Kraken Changed Seattle Hockey

10:29 Rising Costs and Shrinking Off-Seasons

13:24 The Norway Model vs. Choosing Earlier

14:21 Top Teams, Early Specialization, and "The Outlier"

15:14 Why He Never Pushed His Own Kids

17:35 Character Development Over Chasing the NHL

19:22 Turning Teenagers Into Mentors

20:38 The Worst Player in Camp, Every Step of the Way

24:35 His Parents' Hands-Off, Car-Ride Philosophy

27:12 A Multi-Sport Childhood in Creston, BC

28:17 Is Early Specialization the System's Fault?

29:59 "If I Don't Do It, Someone Else Will"

32:13 Where Win-at-All-Costs Culture Actually Lives

33:34 Pond Hockey: Letting Kids Coach Themselves

35:22 Parents Coaching From the Stands

36:48 Building a Mentorship Pipeline for Referees

39:18 Has Parent Behavior Really Changed?

41:50 Are There Really Only a Few Paths to the Top?

43:41 The Attrition Rate of Elite Hockey

44:58 How He Defines Success Through Sport

48:01 Staying in Hockey after 13 Concussions

49:25 How Hockey Has Changed on Safety

54:55 The Number One Issue in Youth Sports Today

55:54 Keeping Hockey Affordable at Sno King

Resources

⁠Jamie Huscroft⁠

⁠Sno King Arenas⁠

⁠Better Sports Parents⁠

Ilya Orlov almost quit soccer at 13 due to pressure from well-meaning parents, punishing coaches, and a body that developed later than his peers. On the brink of leaving the game he loved, his father gave him one piece of advice that changed everything: drop down a level. That decision, and the years of reflection since, shaped how Ilya now coaches as head coach of the University of Toronto men's soccer program, a role he's held for over seven years after playing at York University and captaining them to a national championship.

Ilya holds a master's in developmental psychology and has trained as a coach across Europe, giving him a research-backed, data-driven lens on what's actually broken in youth sports. In this conversation, he and Scott dig into the relative age effect, why year-round training without recovery is quietly injuring kids, the real odds of making it to university or pro sport, and why coach education in North America is dangerously subjective. Ilya also opens up about the traumatic coaching moment from his own youth that he vowed never to repeat, what he actually looks for in recruits and their parents, and his blunt take on social media, private coaching, and the number one issue facing youth sports today.

If you've ever wondered whether your child should specialize, drop down a level, or just be allowed to have fun, this episode offers a coach's rare combination of lived experience and research.

Chapters:

0:00 Opening

01:35 Introducing Ilya Orlov

03:32 From Player to Coach at 24

04:56 His Soviet-Influenced Sporting Roots

06:21 Relative Age Effect and Late Puberty

07:34 On the Brink of Quitting at 12

09:36 When Parental Pressure Really Starts

14:01 Pushed Out of a Team by a Coach

16:28 Free Play and a Multi-Sport Childhood

17:10 Should More Kids Drop Down a Level?

18:29 The "Overload" Theory of Development

20:11 Tiering, Late Bloomers, and False Perceptions

26:02 Year-Round Training and Missing Recovery

26:51 The Real Odds of "Making It"

28:39 Private Academies and the Pressure to Specialize

30:49 Kids as Revenue Tools in a Money-Driven System

32:03 Overuse Injuries and "Any Given Monday"

33:38 Why Coach Education Needs to Be Evidence-Based

35:18 The Volunteer Coaching Problem

37:42 The Foundation of Coaching: "What" vs. "How"

42:36 The Punishment Run That Changed How He Coaches

46:24 Pro Coaches as Role Models for Bad Behavior

48:45 What a Parent's Role Should Really Be

51:11 Support Them, Don't Coach Them

53:49 The Real Odds of Playing University Soccer

57:25 Why Parent Behavior Factors Into Recruiting

1:00:11 The Real Goal: Raising Good Humans

1:04:33 Social Media in Youth Sports

1:06:09 How Private Coaching Leads to FOMO

1:08:20 The Number One Issue in Youth Sports Today

Resources

⁠Ilya Orlov⁠

⁠Any Given Monday ⁠

⁠Better Sports Parents⁠

Terry McKaig built the most successful post-secondary baseball program in Canada's history at UBC, sending players to the MLB draft year after year. As the father of two active teenagers, he's also very familiar with what the current youth sports environment looks like as a parent not just a coach. In this segment, Terry discusses how he and so many other successful athletes have been cut from a team and how that experience can be a positive one if players are empowered to use it as an opportunity to learn.

Listen to the full episode:

⁠Spotify⁠

⁠Apple⁠

Watch on ⁠YouTube⁠

He's spent his career training athletes for the NHL, NFL, Olympics and beyond. And Matt Nichol is telling parents to slow down.

Matt has trained some of the best athletes on the planet, but he's clear on one thing: he'd never train a 10-year-old like a pro. So why do so many youth coaches and parents try to do exactly that? In this conversation, Matt and Scott dig into what's actually broken in youth sports right now: the flood of private academies, the misuse of the "10,000 hour rule," and the difference between kids who are overtrained and kids who are simply under-recovered.

Matt also takes apart one of the most common arguments parents use to justify early specialization: "Well, Connor McDavid did it." (Spoiler: that logic doesn't hold up, and Matt explains exactly why.) They talk about what Norway is doing differently in athlete development, why the old Soviet sports school model can't be copied today, and what parents should really be looking for in a coach at any level.

If you've ever wondered whether your kid is training too much, too early, or in the wrong way, this conversation will change how you think about it.

🎙️ Better Sports Parents is helping parents positively contribute to the youth sports environment. Subscribe for new episodes every week.

Chapters:

00:00 Opening

02:02 Introducing Matt Nichol

03:32 How Youth Sports Has Changed in 30 Years

04:36 The Rise of Privatized Youth Sports

06:13 Who Gets Left Behind in a Private System

08:18 The "10,000 Hour Rule" Myth

11:06 Why Kids Quit Instead of Dropping Down a Level

13:16 Redesigning the System vs. Educating Parents

15:51 Early vs. Late Specialization Sports

16:53 Why Connor McDavid Is a Weak Argument

19:12 The Mental Health Cost of Overspecializing

20:20 FOMO Training and Busy Work

22:52 What Overtraining Actually Looks Like

25:34 Under-Recovery: The Bigger Hidden Issue

29:27 The Magic of Unstructured Play

34:06 Is There Too Much Commitment Too Young?

36:42 The Decline of School Sport

40:08 Could Public and Private Sport Merge?

42:28 What Norway Gets Right

45:36 You Don't Have to Choose Between Fun and Elite

48:00 The Soviet Sports School System

56:15 Why Long-Term Athlete Development Is Hard to Implement

1:00:31 Supporting Volunteer Coaches

1:04:23 What to Look for in a Youth Coach

1:09:06 Values Matt's Parents Instilled in Him

1:12:08 What a Parent's Role Should Really Be

1:17:15 The Number One Issue in Youth Sports Today

Resources:

Matt Nichol

LTAD Framework

Better Sports Parents

Allison McNeill is one of the most accomplished figures in Canadian basketball. As a player, she won multiple provincial and national titles before finishing her collegiate career in the NCAA. As a coach, she took over Simon Fraser University's women's program in 1988 and spent 13 years turning it into a perennial national championship contender. She then took the reins of Canada's women's national team, ending a 12-year Olympic absence by guiding them back to the 2012 Games and making them competitive on the world stage. She has coached at every level of the game, from grade twos all the way to the national team, and she still gives back at the youth level today. In this segment, Allison discusses the importance of protecting the joy of sport for all young athletes and some of the factors that are contributing to the loss of that joy in far too many kids.

Listen to the full episode:

Spotify

Apple

Watch on YouTube

Jason Strudwick played over 600 NHL games across a 17-year pro career with the Islanders, Canucks, Blackhawks, Rangers, and Oilers. Since retiring, he's become a broadcaster, youth hockey coach, and dad to three kids active in sports, giving him a rare view of the youth sports system from every angle.

In this episode, Jason gets refreshingly honest: why he tells parents the truth even when they don't want to hear it, why "your kids aren't your scorecard," and why no five-day camp has ever turned a player into someone 50% better. He and Scott dig into the rise of private academies, the real financial cost of access in hockey, the pressure of FOMO on parents and kids alike, and explains why physical literacy, not early specialization, is the real long-term advantage. He also opens up about his own physical and mental health routine, and the identity crisis so many athletes face when sport doesn't work out the way they hoped.

If you're navigating minor hockey, private leagues, camps, or just wondering whether you're doing right by your kid, this conversation is full of hard-earned, no-nonsense perspective.

Better Sports Parents is helping parents positively contribute to the youth sports environment. Subscribe for new episodes every week.

Chapters:

00:00 Opening

02:08 Introducing Jason Strudwick

03:34 Pushing Kids Harder Than We Pushed Ourselves

07:04 Overexposure and the Injury Risk

08:44 Reading What Your Kid Actually Wants

11:10 "Kids Aren't Your Scorecard"

3:05 No Kid Improves Dramatically in Five Days

15:06 Shane Doan: "We All End Up Here"

18:48 Why Parents Need to Talk to Each Other

23:35 Tell the Truth as a Coach

26:11 The Rise of Private Academies

30:36 The Accessibility Gap in Hockey

32:01 What Age Should Kids Specialize?

36:07 Letting Family Values Lead the Decisions

38:14 Do Travel Tournaments Actually Help?

40:48 The Problem With Super Teams

42:52 Give Your Coaches a Break

44:53 Free Development Tools Online

49:11 Jason's Own Late-Blooming Journey

50:44 Why Multi-Sport Matters

53:24 Skate, Ski, Swim: Physical Literacy for Life

57:38 Physical Activity and Mental Health

1:00:36 When Sport Becomes Your Identity

1:02:56 The Number One Issue in Youth Sports Today

1:05:39 You're Not Paying for Performance

1:07:39 The Real Cost of Access in Youth Sports

Resources:

Jason Strudwick

Got Yer Back Podcast

Better Sports Parents