65% of Athletes who suffer a torn Anterior Cruciate Ligament in the knee (ACL)never return to the level they were at prior to the injury. If you could reduce your athlete's likelihood of ACL injury by as much as 85%, would you like to know how? Listen in on this conversation I have with Brianna Bren of the Institute of Athletic Medicine. Bri is  an expert on the prevention of Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) injuries and she shares ways to modify what you are doing to protect athletes from this unfortunate injury.

You can reach Bri via email [email protected]

Brianna has created this video to help you protect yourself:
Dynamic warm-up video
https://ptrx.org/en/Fvx3hntzwp

Mark Arjes of Youth First shares his thoughts on setting up the season for success by having a pre-season parent and player meeting. We lay out some ideas for preparing for the meeting and how to give the parents some resources to have their most enjoyable season, and help their youth athlete to achieve their goals.

Youth First Contact
612.968.9192
[email protected]

Lynn Newton was a seven time state champion swimmer and an All-American  at the University of Minnesota, as well as being ranked in the world; not too shabby eh? Rather than rest on her laurels, she went on to become an amazing high school coach and for 26 years she has been helping athletes learn the physical and mental skills necessary to reach their maximum potential. Lynn shares how she learned, used and has evolved with these skills and tools, to become the best she can herself and provide opportunities for her athletes to do the same.

Sports broadcaster and former Minnesota Gopher Basketball player Lea B. Olsen shares wisdom she has earned playing, coaching and broadcasting basketball from youth to professional. Lea shares a wonderful perspective on youth sports and the lessons that she has used to build an amazing career in sports entertainment. Lea has experienced some of the Minnesota Lynx chemistry and culture that has helped to develop our own Minnesota Sports Dynasty. We talk about her experience as a mom and a coach; we hear how her experience helped her as a youth coach as she lead her son's youth basketball team from elementary through high school. She is an amazing role model for young women and men alike!

Coach Matt McDonald is a 3rd generation coach, it's in his family bloodlines and he's really good at building young men into great people and baseball players. Coach shares his story and talks about the importance of building team culture and how he has continued to incorporate new ideas into his program, while keeping true to timeless baseball strategies. 

I love battling with my kid to do the things  they must do to get better is something nobody has ever said. If you can develop the motivation and desire to chase your own dreams it will always be easier to do the tough things that need to be done to master any activity. In this episode we break down Self-Determination Theory. Please don't be scared off. SDT in a scientific research field working with motivation. We take a complex theory and explain it in a way that incorporates much of the information we have shared about parenting and coaching our youth and applies it to teaching them the skills to find what motivates them and why. By understanding this skill, we can help empower our child to find and chase their dreams! 

Every want to know how what we say as parents and coaches has been received? How do the kids see what we are teaching? How do our players and kids want to be coached?

In this episode, I sit down with a young man I have coached and who is an amazing player and young man. Will is a junior in High School and he sits down and talks about what it is like to be on the other side of all this coaching and how he prefers to be coached. He also shares his thoughts on the mental game and how he stays motivated when things seem to be grinding.

Our conversation here is LOADED with great examples of parenting and coaching as well as things to smile at. Coach Bateman shares his story and the influences he has had on his life as well as how he has shared these with his son and the young men he helps to develop in his professional role as the Augsburg head Baseball Coach. We met at the World Headquarters of Augsburg Baseball in Coach Bateman's office on campus.

Watching our children compete can give us butterflies and just plain stress us out. We talk in this episode about some of the things we have learned...the hard way in some cases about how to prepare ourselves and our child for a more enjoyable experience when they are taking on new challenges.

Perspective from someone who has experience at every level of sports. Jason is the athletic director for Hamline University in St. Paul Minnesota. He Pitched at ASU and as a professional baseball player as well with the San Francisco Giants. Jason was a 3 sport star in high school and played baseball and football at Arizona State University, in Tempe AZ. He pitched for the St.Paul Saints pitching in their championship earning a complete game win. Jason was the head coach at Hamline for 11 years winning over 200 games and retiring as the all-time wins leader in baseball prior to being named AD. Jason shares some interesting perspectives as someone who has literally seen the sport at all levels and has experienced success wherever he has been,