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.

New episodes every Wednesday.

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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.

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About the Guest:

Lindsey Nadler is the founder and head mental performance coach at Elite Mental Edge, a company dedicated to changing women's sports by equipping athletes and coaches with mental skills training. Lindsey specializes in helping female athletes develop an elite mental edge to thrive at the next level, while also empowering coaches to seamlessly integrate mental skills into their programs. With a unique blend of experience as a former D1 softball player, high school coach, former police officer with crisis intervention expertise, and a bachelor's degree in psychology, Lindsey creates practical, simple strategies that transform the mental game and drive peak performance.

Want to work with Coach Lindsey?

https://stan.store/elitementaledge/p/the-mental-edge-playbook-for-coaches-

https://stan.store/elitementaledge/p/private-mental-skills-coaching--vqobc

New episodes every Wednesday.

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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.

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About the Guest:

Edose Ibadin is an accomplished track runner having competed in the 2024 Olympic Games representing Nigeria. While in college running for Hampton University, he was a Division I All-American in the 800m and 4x400 relay while earning a bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering. He currently holds the Nigerian record in the 800m and has represented them at multiple world championships. He runs professionally for UA Baltimore 800.

New episodes every Wednesday.

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Jen Greeny has been coaching volleyball at the college level for over 20 years. Over that time she's won over 60% of the games she's competed in, been to the Division I NCAA Tournament eight times, had six Top 25 finishes at the Division I level, and been awarded two Pac 12 Coach of the Year honors.

She's also the mom to a college and high school athlete.

Before all that, she was a collegiate athlete herself.

In this week's episode, we talk to her about how she uses sports to prepare her players for life in general. We also talk about one of the unique parts of her program: how she has her college athletes volunteer their time to coach at the rec league level. We discussed what she hopes they learn from that and the benefits she sees from it both as athletes and as people.

New episodes every Wednesday.

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Today's kids are practicing and playing more than any other generation. But what they're *not* doing is strength and resistance training for their sports.

In our conversation with Coach Brealon Ashworth (B.S. Exercise Science, USA Weightlifting certification) we talk about how kids need to dial back on sport specific skills training while increasing strength training, how old kids need to be to start resistance training, and why simply just "getting strong" isn't the route to go. He also gives you tips on how to find the right gym/trainer, what to do if you don't have access to a gym, and how to fit training into an already overpacked schedule.

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About the Guest:

Brealon Ashworth has been in the strength world since his sophomore year of college where he fell in love with strength sports. He attained a B.S. in Exercise Science from Appalachian State University and a USA Weightlifting certification during his time in college. He has dedicated his career to helping athletes become more powerful and explosive. Brealon currently lifts with the powerlifting and olympic weightlifting team competing regularly.

Coach Brealon owns two gyms - Ignite Performance (IgniteWinston.com) in Winston-Salem, NC and Spark Fitness & Performance (SparkFP.com) in King, NC.

New episodes every Wednesday.

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People think kids today are soft but in reality they haven’t had the chances to build resiliency in the ways past generations did. Dr. Laura Fleetwood has done extension research into developing resliency in adolescent aged (8-12) girls.

In this week’s episode, Dr. Laura talks with us about how we can help kids strengthen their resiliency muscles, develop personal independence in healthy ways, and understand their stress responses.

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About the Guest

Laura Fleetwood offers communication consulting for nonprofits and mission-focused businesses at laurafleetwoodconsulting.com and helps females learn how to holistically manage stress at seekingthestill.com. She founded the non-profit, A Million Messy Miracles in 2024 as part of her doctoral work with the goal of sharing stress resilience tools to one million early adolescent girls and their moms in her lifetime. Learn more at twirlworkshop.com.

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Research articles mentioned:

https://www.dove.com/us/en/campaigns/purpose/confident-sports.html

https://womeninsport.org/news/more-than-1-million-teenage-girls-fall-out-of-love-with-sport/

New episodes every Wednesday.

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Get your Healthy Sports Parents gear:

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Adam Godwin is an assistant women's soccer coach for the Florida Gators. But before that, he was a Division 3 men's head coach. And before *that* he worked for a Division I football team. Seriously.

In this week's episode, Coach Godwin shares all the things he's learned from his crazy ride as an Englishman playing college soccer in America, rising through the coaching ranks, and parenting his two boys as they've begun their youth sports journey.

The one consistent thing?

Unconditional love from his parents, his most influential coaches, and those who have supported him along the journey.

4:32 - When to push kids vs when to let them just be kids

9:35 - What to do when your kid loves the sport but the local options aren’t great

11:36 - Why it’s so important to foster a love for the game your kid plays

13:42 - What high school parents can do to produce healthy, well-rounded kids

17:07 - How to be a parent college coaches love

18:16 - The importance of being parents who love unconditionally

20:24 - The dangers of having your hopes for your kids wrapped in sports

23:16 - The majority of any scholarship your kid gets will be academic

24:09 - The differences in Division I and D2/D3

26:14 - Do you want to sit the bench at Division I or play at lower levels?

28:06 - What does your kid actually want from sports?

31:50 - We never know what opportunities are next for our kids

37:20 - The difference in coaching boys and girls

40:07 - What motivates most kids under 12-years-old

New episodes every Wednesday.

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Cori McMillan had a breakout softball season for Virginia Tech in 2024 leading the ACC in home runs and slugging percentage, setting an a single-season home run record for VT, and going a perfect 20-20 on stolen base attempts (ranking third in the ACC).

In our conversation, we talk with her about what her journey was like from 8-years-old all the way through going into the transfer portal after her sophomore season and the recruitment process she experienced. She tells us how her mom's support made a huge impact on her, why/when she started specializing, and how the game you played when you were a kid is different than the game your kid is playing today.

3:56 - Letting the kid lead the post-game debrief

6:01 - Playing multiple sports as a young kid

6:56 - One reason to start specializing you might not have thought of

8:09 - Giving your kid ownership of their athletic journey

12:13 - What it actually looks like to chase a college scholarship

16:52 - The key to remaining close to your kid through their journey

19:20 - What to do when a kid has potential but doesn’t want to work at it yet

24:50 - The game you played is not the same game your kid is playing

26:58 - What the recruiting process looks like for current athletes

34:56 - The thank you note you want from your kids when they’re done playing

New episodes every Wednesday.

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Brett Carroll played six seasons in Major League Baseball. After retiring and starting a family, he opened BC Athletics - a baseball clinic dedicated to developing not just baseball players, but well-rounded athletes who are prepared to make an impact as future leaders in their homes, teams, schools, and communities.

In our conversation with Brett, we talk about why it's so important not to coach from the stands, the best thing you can say to your kid after a game, and how the youth sports journey changes as your kids get older. We also discuss how your kid is more than the athlete they're becoming, why losing is an important part of growing up, and how approaching youth sports with the end in mind actually changes your entire outlook of your kid's athletic career.

3:29 - When your kids want to get better on their own

4:18 - Balancing your own competitiveness with not burning out kids

6:06 - Why you shouldn’t coach from the stands

9:20 - Our kids want to see us as mom and dad first

9:52 - The most important thing you can say to your kid after a game

12:40 - Letting our kids lead when it comes to putting in work to get better

14:52 - The journey changes as your kids get older

15:25 - Your kid is more than simply the athlete they’re becoming

17:52 - The way we respond to our kids are often interpreted different than we intent

19:32 - The importance of celebrating the little things

20:48 - Taking the pressure to perform off of kids can lead to better results

22:44 - Before puberty, the kids with more developed kids will most often win

23:27 - The things sports should be teaching you aside from winning

25:01 - Eventually your kids are going to play their last game

26:30 - Approaching youth sports with the end in mind

28:04 - The mental/emotional work it takes to be a healthy sports parent

32:01 - Why losing is an important part of growing up

33:54 - No one tries to be a bad parent, but it takes work to be a good one

35:47 - Encouragement for parents this week

New episodes every Wednesday.

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Get your Healthy Sports Parents gear:

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David Gerson ( @refsneedlovetoo ) has been a soccer referee for over ten years, officiating matches in the top amateur and semi-professional leagues in America.

In our conversation, David shares with us what he feels parents need to know about the level of referees at different playing levels, the training (or lack thereof) youth officials receive, and why 80% of youth referees quit within three years.

David also gives a unique perspective of the power imbalance between parents and youth officials that will likely give you something to think about that you've never considered before.

If you like this conversation and want more of David's content, you can join his nearly 250,000 followers on social at the links below:

Instagram.com/RefsNeedLoveToo

TikTok.com/ @refsneedlovetoo 

8:38 - What level of youth soccer has the worst parents?

10:38 - What you need to know about the level of referees at different playing levels

13:05 - How should parents respond when they disagree with the official?

16:49 - Youth referees don’t get training or mentoring - your games are where they’re learning

17:20 - How should youth coaches question an official?

18:45 - The power imbalance between parents and youth officials

21:50 - 80% of youth referees quit within three years because of parental abuse

23:32 - A new perspective for viewing your kid’s officials

28:27 - The correlation between how players treat refs and their parents

31:04 - An encouragement to parents who are just trying to keep up

35:22 - Every referee will make a mistake in a game

36:38 - Youth sports are not about winning

New episodes every Wednesday.

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Get your Healthy Sports Parents gear:

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