Podcasts about sports studies

Sometimes it Rains is back! On this episode we interview Seth Tannenbaum, professor of Sports Studies at Manhattanville University about his new book, “Bleacher Seats and Luxury Suites: Democracy and Division at the 20th Century Ballparks.” Give it a listen and, if you haven't already, please like and subscribe!

1 Timothy 4:8 NIV “For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.”   *Transcription Below*   Brian Smith, author of The Christian Athlete: Glorifying God in Sports, is a staff member with Athletes in Action and a cross-country coach at Lowell High School. A former collegiate runner at Wake Forest University, he earned a BA in Communications and Journalism before completing his MA in Theology and Sports Studies at Baylor University's Truett Theological Seminary. Brian lives in Lowell, MI with his wife and three children. You can find him on Twitter @BrianSmithAIA.   Ed Uszynski is an author, speaker, and sports minister with over three decades' experience discipling college and professional athletes. With a heart for reconciliation and justice, he also works as a racial literacy consultant and marriage conference speaker, blending Biblical wisdom with practical living in the midst of complex cultural realities. He has two theological degrees from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and a PhD in American Culture Studies from Bowling Green State University. He and his wife Amy have four children and live in Xenia, Ohio.   The Christian Athlete Website   Thank You to Our Sponsor:  Sam Leman Eureka   Questions and Topics We Cover: What is one of kids' greatest game day complaints?  Is it true that young athletic success is a predictor of adult athletic success? What are a few tips for instilling a heart of gratitude in our young athlete, rather than entitlement?   Related Savvy Sauce Episode: 230 Intentional Parenting in All The Stages with Dr. Rob Rienow   Connect with The Savvy Sauce on Facebook or Instagram or Our Website   Gospel Scripture: (all NIV) Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”   Romans 3:24 “and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”   Romans 3:25 (a) “God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood.”    Hebrews 9:22 (b) “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.”    Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”    Romans 5:11 “Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”    John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”   Romans 10:9 “That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”    Luke 15:10 says “In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”   Romans 8:1 “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”   Ephesians 1:13–14 “And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession- to the praise of his glory.”   Ephesians 1:15–23 “For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.”   Ephesians 2:8–10 “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God‘s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.“   Ephesians 2:13 “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.“   Philippians 1:6 “being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”   *Transcription*   Music: (0:00 – 0:11)   Laura Dugger: (0:12 - 1:51) Welcome to The Savvy Sauce, where we have practical chats for intentional living. I'm your host, Laura Dugger, and I'm so glad you're here.   The principles of honesty and integrity that Sam Leman founded his business on continue today, over 55 years later, at Sam Leman Chevrolet Eureka.   Owned and operated by the Bertschi family, Sam Leman and Eureka appreciates the support they've received from their customers all over Central Illinois and beyond. Visit them today at lemangm.com.   Brian Smith and Ed Uszynski are my guests for today.   They are co-authors of this recent amazing book entitled, A Way Game, A Christian Parents Guide to Navigating Youth Sports. And from the very beginning, I was captivated, even with one of the endorsements from Matt Martens, who's the president and CEO of Awana, and he summed it up this way, A Way Game provides a much needed perspective shift on one of the most sacred idols in our culture, youth sports. So, Brian and Ed are all for youth sports, and yet you're going to hear there's a different way to approach it than what we've been trained in culture.   And they're going to share some wonderful and very practical insights. I can't wait to share this with you. Here's our chat. Welcome to The Savvy Sauce, Ed and Brian.   Ed Uszynski & Brian Smith: (1:51 - 1:54) Thanks for having us, Laura. Yeah, good to be here, Laura.   Laura Dugger: (1:54 - 2:04) So, excited about this chat. And will the two of you just start us off by sharing your family's stage of life and your involvement in sports?   Brian Smith: (2:05 - 3:29) Yeah, there could be a lot on the back end of that question. I'll start with sports, then get into family. I've been involved in sports my entire life, played every sport imaginable growing up, got cut from just about every single sport my freshman year of high school, ended up running track and cross country because it was the only sports that you could not get cut from at my high school.   And I ended up being pretty good at it by the time I was a senior, won some state championships, ended up getting a scholarship to run at Wake Forest University. So, I did that for four years right out of college. I coached a little bit collegiately.   Soon after that, I joined staff with a sports ministry called Athletes in Action that Ed and I have a combined 50 years with Athletes in Action. And really, that's been my life ever since. I've been ministering to college and pro athletes, discipling them, helping them figure out what does that actually look like to integrate faith in sport.   Even today, I live in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I coach high school cross country while I'm still on staff with Athletes in Action. I have a middle school Bible study that I run on Wednesday mornings.   Been married to my wife, who I actually met in high school. She was a distance runner too, and she ran at Wisconsin. So, we've been married for 20 years.   We have three kids, a high schooler, a middle schooler, and an elementary schooler who are all involved in sport at some level, some way, shape, or form.   Laura Dugger: (3:30 - 3:34) Wow, that's incredible. Thank you, Brian. And Ed, what about you?   Ed Uszynski: (3:34 - 5:04) Well, my story is very parallel to Brian's, just different sports and some different numbers. Just tack on 15 years. Yeah, I was a basketball player.   Grew up on the west side of Cleveland with a high school football coach. My dad was, but I was a basketball player. I played at high levels all the way through my 20s, got to play overseas.   I mean, this was a long time ago, but I got everything I could out of that sport. And as soon as I graduated from college, though, I started to work with that Athletes in Action ministry that Brian mentioned. So, I've been working with college and professional athletes for 34 years now.   And same, coached at different levels, have four kids. Amy and I have been married for 26 years. We have four kids, three are in college, and one's in ninth grade, who has a game this afternoon, actually.   So, we've just been going to games and have been involved in going to sports stuff for the last 20 years with our kids. And really what happened with Brian, and I is that we looked up a decade ago and realized this youth sports thing was a fast train that was moving in directions that we weren't used to ourselves, even though we've been around sports our whole life. It's like, there's something different happening now.   And then thinking about it as Christians, like, how do we do this well as Christ followers? We don't want to separate from it. We don't want to just go for the ride. How do we do this as Christian people? And that's what got us talking about it and eventually led to this book.   Laura Dugger: (5:05 - 5:23) Well, the book was easy to read and incredible. And I'd like to start there where you begin, even where you go back before going forward. So, when you're looking back, what are the factors at play that changed youth sports over time?   Ed Uszynski: (5:26 - 6:17) Well, I'll say this and then Brian, maybe you jump in and throw a couple of them out there. I mean, youth sports is a $40 billion industry today, which is wild to think about. It's four times how much money gets spent on the NFL, which is just staggering.   I can't even hardly believe that that's true, but it is. And it's really just in the last 20 years that that's happened. I mean, 50 years ago, you couldn't have had the youth sport industrial complex, as we refer to it.   You couldn't have had it. There were a bunch of things that had to happen culturally, as is true with any new movement or any paradigm shift that happens in culture. You've got to have certain things be true all at the same time that make it possible.   So, Brian, what were a couple of those? Again, I'll throw it over to you. There's six of them that we talk about in the book. And I think it's really fascinating because I'm a history guy.   Brian Smith: (6:18 - 8:40) Yeah. And we can obviously double click on any of these, Laura, that you want to, but we talk about how the college admissions process became an avenue where youth sports parents saw, man, if we can get our kids involved in some extracurriculars and kind of tag on high level athlete to their resume, it actually helps with the college admissions process. And so even the idea of college scholarships became an opportunity for youth sports parents to get their kids involved.   And then, yeah, maybe sports can actually get them into college. We talk about the economic shifts that happen, the rise of safetyism and helicopter parenting. ESPN was a massive one in 1979.   This thing called ESPN starts, and we get 24-7 coverage of sports, which they started exploring even early on. What does it look like to give coverage to something like Little League World Series and saw that it didn't really matter how young the sport was, it's going to draw a national audience. And so, we've almost been discipled by ESPN really over the last 50 years with this consistent coverage.   We talk about the rise of the sports complex. This one to me is like the most fascinating out of all of them. In 1997, Disney decided to try to get more people to come to their parks.   They built a sports complex, just a massive sports complex. The idea was, are the older kids getting sick of the Buzz Lightyear ride and the Disney princesses? So, let's build a sports complex and maybe it'll be something else that will draw this older crowd too.   And what happened was, I mean, a lot of people started coming to it, but kind of the stake in the ground game changer was when 9-11 hit. In the months and years after that, they saw a lot less people go to their parks, but population actually doubled going to the sports complex, which is wild to think that people were afraid to go to theme parks for a vacation, but they were willing to travel across state lines to play sports at the Disney complex. So other cities and municipalities took notice of that.   Today, there's over 30,000 sports complexes like Disney's, which again, this is all adding to the system of the youth sports industrial complex. Did I miss any, Ed?   Ed Uszynski: (8:41 - 10:47) Well, no, and that's good. And the reason why we even put all that on the table, again, everybody kind of intuitively knows if you're involved, you know, something's not right. But I think it's important to say this is not normal what's happening.   It's a new normal that's been manufactured by a bunch of cultural trends, by a bunch of entrepreneurs that are doing what entrepreneurs do, and they're taking advantage of the moment, and they are generating lots of money around it. So, it should be encouraging. If it's not normal, that means actually there's a counter way of going about this.   There really can be reformation. But when all this money gets involved, the two biggest consequences that come out of that is our kids start getting treated like commodities, which they are, and we could talk the whole time even just about what that means. But maybe even more importantly, or what comes out of that is that beyond their physical development, most coaches and clubs are not paying any attention to their emotional development, their psychological development, their spiritual development, all the different aspects of what it means to be human that, frankly, used to be paid quite a bit more attention to in youth leagues when I was growing up.   I'm 58 now, so I was playing in the 70s and the 80s. And it used to be expected, at least at some level, even among non-Christian people, that you would take those aspects of a kid's life seriously. And now those just aren't prioritized.   And so, what do we do about that? Again, that's kind of our whole point is, well, as Christian people, we're really supposed to be our kid's first discipler anyways. And part of that role and part of taking on that identity is that we would be asking, what is God trying to do in the wholeness of their life, the entirety of their life, even in the context of sports?   So again, I don't want to get ahead of myself here, but that's why we're trying to poke into that to say, oh, we could actually make change. We may not change the whole system. In fact, we won't. Most of us won't be expected to do that, but we can make significant change in our corner of the bleachers and what happens with our kids.   Laura Dugger: (10:48 - 11:05) That's good. And just like you said, to double-click on a few places, first of all, real quick, the 30,000 number, I remember that shocking me in the book, but I'm forgetting now, is that worldwide, the amount of sports complexes or is that just in America?   Brian Smith: (11:05 - 11:06) That's domestically in the US.   Laura Dugger: (11:07 - 11:52) Yeah. That is staggering. And then one other piece, all of this history was new to me as you brought it all together, but it was also fascinated.   This is from page 32. I'll just read your quote. The American youth sports ball began rolling when a British movement fusing spiritual development with physical activity made its way across the Atlantic Ocean at the turn of the last century.   And Ed, that's kind of what you were touching on, that they were mixing, I'm sure, spiritual, psychological discipleship, physical. Can you elaborate more on what was happening and where it originated? Because we've come very far from our origins.   Ed Uszynski: (11:53 - 13:18) Yeah. And there's been a bunch of really great books written about this topic called muscular Christianity. This idea, like you just said, Laura, of wedding physical activity through sports with our spiritual development and expecting and anticipating that somebody that was taking care of their body and that was engaging in sport activity, that was the closest thing to godliness.   That opened up the door for you to also be developing spiritually. And there was an expectation that both of those are going on at the same time. A bunch of criticism about that movement, but it was taken seriously.   The YMCA is actually a huge byproduct of the muscular Christianity movement. The Young Men's Christian Association created space for sports and for athletic activity to take place under the banner of you're also going to grow spiritually as you're doing this. So again, that was a hundred years ago.   And that's not really what AAU stands for today. The different clubs and leagues that we get involved in just don't talk that way anymore. Of course, culture just in general has shifted away from sort of a Judeo-Christian ethic guiding a North Star for us.   Even if we're not Christian people, that used to be more of a North Star. That's gone now. And so, it really is not expected in sports anymore.   Brian Smith: (13:18 - 13:55) And what we're saying is we cannot expect organizations to own that process for our kids. We can't outsource the discipleship of our kids to the youth sports industrial complex or the YMCA or the AAU. It really does start with us as Christian parents to be the primary discipler of our kids.   And there is a way to take what's happening on the field or the court or the pool and turn it into really amazing discipleship opportunities. But it means, and Ed is starting to tease this out, it means we need to change our perspective as parents when we sit in the bleachers or on the sidelines of what we're looking for and even the conversations we have with our kids on the back end.   Laura Dugger: (13:57 - 15:29) And now a brief message from our sponsor.   Sam Leman Chevrolet Eureka has been owned and operated by the Bertschi family for over 25 years. A lot has changed in the car business since Sam and Stephen's grandfather, Sam Leman, opened his first Chevrolet dealership over 55 years ago.   If you visit their dealership today though, you'll find that not everything has changed. They still operate their dealership like their grandfather did, with honesty and integrity. Sam and Stephen understand that you have many different choices in where you buy or service your vehicle.   This is why they do everything they can to make the car buying process as easy and hassle-free as possible. They are thankful for the many lasting friendships that began with a simple welcome to Sam Leman's. Their customers keep coming back because they experience something different.   I've known Sam and Stephen and their wives my entire life and I can vouch for their character and integrity, which makes it easy to highly recommend you check them out today. Your car buying process doesn't have to be something you dread, so come see for yourself at Sam Leman Chevrolet in Eureka. Sam and Stephen would love to see you and they appreciate your business.   Learn more at their website, LemanEureka.com or visit them on Facebook by searching for Sam Leman Eureka. You can also call them on 309-467-2351. Thanks for your sponsorship.   Laura Dugger: (15:30 - 15:31) And I want to continue getting into more of those practicals. Do you want to give us just a taste or an example or story of what that might look like?   Brian Smith: (15:32 - 16:54) We keep saying, we keep talking about the importance of the car ride home that it's tempting for us and not us broadly in the U.S., tempting for us, Ed and I, as people who have done this for 50 plus years and who should know better, it's tempting for us as discipled by an ESPN over analyzing everything culture and want to talk about sports to get in the car ride home with our kids and all we want to talk about is how game went, what they did right, what they did wrong, what they could fix next time.   Maybe instead of passing to Tim, they should take the shot next time because they're wide open. They just hit three in a row. So, and what our kids need from us in those moments is less coaching, less criticizing, less critiquing, and they just need us to connect with them.   The stats on kids quitting youth sports is crazy right now. Its 70 percent are quitting before the age of 13, in large part because it's not fun, and a lot of kids are attaching this idea of it not being fun to the car ride home with their parents who, let's say this too, most of us are well-intentioned parents. We're not trying to screw our kids up.   We want what's best for our kids, but the data and the research and the lived experience continues to tell us what our kids need from us is just to take a deep breath, connect with them, less coaching. Ed keeps saying less coaching, more slurpees.   Laura Dugger: (16:55 - 17:07) I like that. And that ties in. Is it called the peak-end principle that you discovered why kids are resisting that critique on the way home?   Brian Smith: (17:07 - 18:17) Yeah, absolutely. The peak-end rule in psychology is known as this: we, just as humans in general, not just kids, we largely remember things in our lives based on the peak moment of that event, but also how the event ends. And so, the peak moment in sport can be anything from something that goes really well, like they scored a goal or made a basket or something that did not go well, just like a massive event that took place that they're going to remember.   But then it's also married to how that event ends. So, if you think for kids, how does every youth sport experience end? It ends with the car ride home.   So, if they're experiencing the car ride home as I did not live up to mom and dad's standards, or there's fear getting into the car because they don't know what their parents are going to say, how are they remembering the totality of their youth sport experience? It is, I didn't, I didn't measure up. I wasn't enough.   It felt like sports was a place that I needed to perform for my parents or my coach. And I always feel a little bit short. We want to help parents see like there's a different path forward that can be more joyful for you, but hopefully more joyful for your kid as well.   Ed Uszynski: (18:17 - 21:37) Well, and, and I'll just, let me keep going with that, Brian. I thought you really articulated all that so well. I can just imagine a parent maybe thinking, was there never a time to correct?   Is there never a time to give input? And we would say, well, of course there, there is, they need far less of it from us than we think they need when it comes to their sport. And again, we can talk about that.   They need far less of that from us. They need us to be their parents, not to be their coaches. Even if we are their coach, they need us to be more their parents.   But there is a time to do it. We're just saying the car ride home is the worst time to do it. And that's usually the time that most of us, you know, we've got two hours of stuff to download with them.   And that's just, it's not a good time. But the other thing that Brian and I keep talking about is how about, what if we had some different metrics that we were even trying to measure? So, most of the time our metrics have to do with their performance.   Like what, what are we grading them on? Again, depending on what the sport is, there's these different things that we're looking for to say, how you did today is based on whether you did this or you didn't do that and whatnot. And we're saying as parents, and again, starting with us, we needed some other metrics that were actually more concerned about what was going on in their soul.   So again, I'm sure we'll talk more about this, but the virtues, how did love show up in the way they competed today? Where that usually is tied to them noticing somebody else. Do I, am I even asking them any questions about that?   Are they experiencing peace in the midst of all this chaos and anxiety that shows up at every game? How do we teach them to experience peace? How do they become other-centered instead of just self-centered all the time in a culture, a sport culture that's teaching them to always be the center of attention and try to be?   So, we just have needed to exchange some of what we had on that performance list, like tamper that down a little bit and maybe expand the list of categories that we're looking for that actually will matter when they're 25. And we keep saying this, our goal is that they'd come home for Thanksgiving when they're 25. And so, we need to stay relationally connected to them and how we act on the car ride home day after day after day after day, year after year is doing something to our relationship.   But we also are recognizing that it's really not going to matter whether Trey finishes with his left hand at the game today when he's 25, it's not going to matter. It's not going to matter probably a year from now, but how he goes through the handshake line after the game and the way he addresses other people, and whether or not he's learning to submit to authority, whether or not he's learning to embrace other people's humanity. Yes, even in the context of sports, that's really going to matter when he's 25.   It's going to matter when he's married. Those are the things that will matter. And we say that as people who are older and have been involved in ministry and have worked with college athletes and see what happens in their lives even after they're finished, and they have no idea who they are anymore.   And this thing that's dominated their life has not actually prepared them well to do life. And that's a problem that we say, let's start changing that when they're six and not hope they're figuring it out when they're 22.   Laura Dugger: (21:38 - 22:11) I love that because that's such a theme throughout those virtues that you talked about, but discipleship and sports are a tool or a way that we can disciple our kids. I also love that you give various questions throughout the book and even quick phrases. So to close that conversation on the car ride home, if we say, okay, that's what I've been coaching the whole way home, what is a question we could ask our child afterwards and a statement we could say and leave it at that and do it a better way?   Brian Smith: (22:12 - 23:56) The question I have consistently asked my kids after learning that I've been doing this the wrong way for a long time, I tweet my question to they get in the car and I say, is there anything that happened today from the game that you want to talk about? And it's frustrating to me because 99% of the time they say, no, can we listen to the radio? And we listen to the radio, or they play a on my phone, but I'm respecting their desire that they're done with what just happened and they're ready to move on to the next thing, even though I really want to talk about what just happened.   And then the statement that I want to make sure that I'm consistently saying that they're hearing is I love you and I'm proud of you. So, game didn't go well. Yeah, you did play well today.   That's okay. Hey, I love you and I'm proud of you. Game went well today.   Awesome. Great job. Hey, I love you and I'm proud of you.   So I want that to be the consistent theme that they're hearing for me, which is hopefully going to help them better understand the gospel later in life, that as they get older and older, hopefully they'll begin to realize it seemed like the way that my mom and dad interacted with me when I was performing in sport, but their love was not attached to my performance. That seems really similar to what I'm learning more and more that Jesus does for me, that I'm trying to do all these things that are good. But from what I'm understanding about the gospel, it seems like Jesus loves me in spite of what I do.   He loves me just because He's connected to me, that God loves me because I'm a son or daughter, not because I'm performing as a son or a daughter. So, in a very real way, I really am hoping that I'm giving a good teaser for my kids now for when they fully experience the gospel as they go through the life.   Ed Uszynski: (23:56 - 24:47) Another really good connecting question. I love how you said all that, Brian, is if they don't want to talk about the game, is it okay, did you have fun today? And they can only go in one of two directions.   No. Well, tell me about that. Why not?   And it opens up the door to talk about, well, because I didn't get to play or because something bad happened. And again, tell me more about that. Tell me more about that.   Or they say, yes, great. What happened that was fun? And it creates a very different conversation in the car.   And it opens up, again, relational possibilities that go way beyond, why do you keep passing it when you should be shooting it? Wow. And just all the different ways that that comes out of us, depending on sport, depending on their age.   But those are great questions. Go ahead, Brian.   Brian Smith: (24:47 - 25:41) I just asked my son this morning. He's a freshman. His wrestling season is almost done.   And I just asked, like, what has been most fun for you in wrestling this year? And his first thing was, I feel like I'm learning a lot. And that's really fun for me, which he's on a really good team.   He's had a lot of success. He's made a lot of good friends. But even that gave me a window into his characters.   My son enjoys and I knew this is true about him. But my son enjoys learning, which means he enjoys the process of getting better and better and better, which can happen in school, it can happen doing stuff in the yard, it can it can also happen in sport. But for me to remember moving forward, yeah, he he's probably going to have a different metric for what's fun in sport than I often do for him.   Yeah, like I wanted to learn. I want him to win though, too. He's happy with learning right now.   So, I need to be happy with that for him.   Ed Uszynski: (25:41 - 26:34) If I can say this, too, again, I don't want to be vulnerable on your behalf. But then knowing this, he's lost a lot this year to really good kids. Yeah.   And so much of the learning has been in the context of losing. So, you as a dad, actually, you could be crushing him because of those losses and what he needs to do to fix that and what he needs to do so that that doesn't happen again. And it's like he's already committed to learning.   How do you just how do you celebrate the loss? Like he took the risk to try something new in this movie. He tried to survive an extra period.   That's a process when and it's we just need to get better at that. Like you genuinely can celebrate that. That's not just a that's not like a participation trophy.   It's acknowledging now, do you're taking you're taking the right steps that are actually making you a winner, even if you don't have more points at the end of the game right now.   Laura Dugger: (26:34 - 26:54) Yeah. Yeah. And that long term win that you're talking about, even with character and you've talked about fun and asking them about fun.   Is it true that that's the main reason kids are dropping out of sports at such a rapid rate before age 13 is that it's just not fun anymore?   Ed Uszynski: (26:55 - 28:58) Yeah. Yeah. And why is it not fun?   And again, this is where Brian and I are always getting in each other's business. And we know that this conversation gets in all of our business as adults. But why is it not fun?   It's not fun because of the coaches and it's not fun because of the parents. We are creating stress. We are creating again collectively because we're all in different places on the on the spectrum on this in terms of what we're actually doing when we show up at games.   But if you even just go to any soccer game and you be quiet and just listen to what's happening and everybody's shouting and screaming things and there's contradictory messages being sent and there's angst at every turn and there's an incredible celebration because this eight year old was able to get the ball to go across the line for another goal. And what that's doing inside the kids is it is creating a not fun atmosphere. Let's just say it like that.   That's a not fun atmosphere when you're eight, when you're 10, when you're trying to figure out how to make your body work. You're trying to learn the game that you're unfamiliar with and you're trying to do what this coach is telling you to do. And you're also trying to do what all the parents are telling you what to do.   And if it's a team sport, you're trying to interact and play with other kids who are all in that same state of disarray, which is very stressful and frustrating. And we're just adding to it. So instead of removing it, instead of playing a role that says, we're going to keep diffusing that stress.   And again, I'll speak for myself. Too often, I have been the one that's actually adding to it. And so, kids are just like, why would I do this?   Why would I want to get in that car again with you? It's not fun. This is a game.   And so, there's a million other things that I can do with my time where I don't have everybody yelling at me and I don't have to listen to you correct me for two hours.   Laura Dugger: (29:00 - 29:21) Well, and one other thing that surprised me, maybe why kids are dropping out, you share on page 47, a quote that research reveals a strange correlation. The more we spend, the less our kids actually enjoy their sport. So, did you have any more insight into that?   Brian Smith: (29:21 - 30:50) Yeah, this was a real study that was done at Utah State. Researchers found that the more money parents are spending, again, let's say well-intentioned parents, the more we're spending in sports, the less our kids are enjoying. And the more they have dug into it, they're finding, and intuitively it makes sense.   If you buy your kid a $600 baseball bat, what's the expectation that they're supposed to do with this really expensive bat? When they swing, they better hit the ball, and they better get on base. If we're going to buy you this expensive of a bat, you can't just have process goals with it.   You better swing and hit it. And that's causing stress for kids. If you travel across state lines and you go to Disney to play at their sports complex, you're not there for vacation.   You're there to perform. So even if parents are saying we're trying to have fun, kids know when you're traveling and you're getting all this good equipment and you're on the elite team and you're receiving the best of the best stuff, they know it comes with some sort of an expectation. College athletes can barely handle that type of pressure and expectations, but we've placed this professional on youth sports from fifth five-year-olds to 15-year-olds, and it's just crushing them.   It's crushing them. Again, college athletes and professional athletes can barely handle it. They need mental health coaches for sports, but we're expecting that our five-year-olds can handle it, and they can't.   Ed Uszynski: (30:51 - 31:19) And they may not even be able to articulate it. So that's the other thing. They may not be able to identify what's actually going on inside and put it into words.   So again, that's why we're trying to sound the alarm for ourselves and for others who are listening, because we can do it different. Again, just to even keep spinning it back in an encouraging direction, we can do this different. We can change this this week in our corner of the bleachers.   We can start over again.   Laura Dugger: (31:21 - 31:48) Absolutely and make a difference. And before we talk about even more of the pros with sports, I think it's also necessary to reflect and maybe even grieve a few things. So, what would you say are some things families are missing out on when they choose youth sports to overfill their calendar, that that's all that they make time for?   What do you think they're missing out on?   Brian Smith: (31:51 - 33:16) Yeah, I think a couple that come to mind are family dinners are a big one. That's big for us in the Smith house, is just having the ability after a long day to sit at the dinner table together, to eat food together, and to process the day and be with one another. But when my kids' practice goes late, it means we're either eating almost towards bedtime or we're eating in different shifts.   And so that's something that we grieve. I think for me, when my schedule is full, I'm tempted to adopt the mindset that what's happening on the wrestling mat or on the track matters more than it actually does. And it robs me of the ability to just take a deep breath and smile and enjoy watching my kids play sports.   That without an intervention or a pregame devotional in the car for myself, I risk sitting in the stands or being on the sidelines, being stressed out and putting pressure on myself and pressure on my kids and gossiping about why the coach didn't put this kid into the people next to me, instead of just enjoying the gift that is sports and watching my kid try and succeed and try and fail. That is a gift available to me as a dad to watch my kid do that. But the busyness often robs me of that perspective.   Ed Uszynski: (33:17 - 36:06) Well, and the busyness robs, again, if you're married, that busyness eventually wears away at your relationship. And it's not just sports. I mean, busyness, we can fill our schedule, overfill our schedules with any number of things.   We can overfill our schedules with church stuff to a point where it becomes detrimental to our relationship. If we don't set boundaries so that we're making sure we're doing what we need to do to be face-to-face and to be going to areas beneath the surface with each other in our relationship and being able to do that with our kids as well, eventually there's negative consequences to that. It may not happen right away, but I've definitely experienced that.   We've experienced that in our home where it's easy to maybe chase one kid around for a while, but what happens when you add three into the mix and you haven't really done a time budget or paid attention to the fact that when we sign up for all these things, you get a month into it and you realize, oh, we have to be in different places at the same time. So, we're not even watching stuff together anymore. We're just running.   I can endure anything for a season, but what youth sports wants now in every sport from the youngest ages is that it becomes a year-round commitment. So, you're not even signing up to play a season anymore. You're signing up for a year in most cases because after the games, then they're going to have training.   They're going to have this other thing going on. And so again, can we say, well, we'll play the actual season, but then we're not going to do the additional training over these next three months. Again, we want to give parents' permission that you can say no to that.   Well, we paid for it. Well, it's okay. If you want your kid to be on that team and you like this club or whatever, then you pay the money and you just say, we're going to sit those three months out and we're going to use those three months actually to have people over our house for dinner.   Again, whatever's on the list, Laura, that you said about being more holistic and not letting sport operate like an idol in our life where it's taken on, it's washed out everything else in our life. We can get back in control of that by just saying no a little bit. You can go to church on Sunday.   Even if there's tournament games going on on Sunday, you can go to the coach early and say, hey, we just, in our family, we just don't want to be available before 12. Are you okay with that? And most of the time coaches will be.   The kid might have to sit extra maybe for not being, whatever. Okay. That's not going to be the end of the world that they had to sit out an extra game or had to sit out a half because they weren't available on Sunday morning.   It might actually make a huge difference that they weren't at church for two and a half years in the most formative time of their life.   Laura Dugger: (36:07 - 37:36) And a lot of times the way of wisdom includes reflection, getting alone with the Lord and asking, have we overstuffed our schedule this conversation today? Let's talk specifically with youth sports. Is that trumping everything else?   Because what if we're putting it in a place it was never intended to be as an idol where we sacrifice hospitality or discipleship or community or even just a more biblical way of life? I think we have to bring wisdom into the conversation for what you've mentioned. Whether it's worth it, if they're even enjoying it, how much we're spending on it, and do we have the budget to allocate our finances that way and evaluating the time just to see and make sure that it's rightly ordered.   Did you know you could receive a free email with monthly encouragement, practical tips, and plenty of questions to ask to take your conversation a level deeper, whether that's in parenting or on date nights? Make sure you access all of this at thesavvysauce.com by clicking the button that says join our email list so that you can follow the prompts and begin receiving these emails at the beginning of each month. Enjoy!   But if we flip that to if youth sports are rightly ordered, then what are some things that we can celebrate or reasons that you would want families to give this a try?   Brian Smith: (37:37 - 40:09) The massive positive that we keep coming back to is we have a front row seat to see our kids go through every possible emotion in sport, the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. And then if we have the right perspective, we are armed with awesome opportunities and awesome information that we're seeing. We get to see what our kids are really good at.   We get to see their character gaps. And then we get to be the ones who, again, who are their primary response, primary disciplers. It really goes back to like, are we trusting youth sports for too little in our kids' lives?   Like many of us are trusting that our investment is going to get them a spot on a team, or maybe they get an opportunity in high school, maybe in college. And what we're saying is, yeah, that maybe. And that's not a bad end goal.   But if that's everything that you're investing into youth sports, it's not enough. Like what you have available to you every single day is to ask your kid if they showed somebody else's dignity on the field. You don't know if your kid's going to hit a home run today.   That may not be available to them their entire life. What's available to them every single day is to ask a question to their teammate, to see somebody and show dignity to them. And that's really, it's like, it's almost the opportunity of a lifetime for us as parents who, when our kids get home from school, we really don't know what happened most of the day.   We asked them how it went and we get the one-word answer. In sports, we don't have to guess. We get to see everything that happens.   And again, if we are actually trusting youth sports for discipleship investment, that's a good ROI. That's a good return on our investment. But we need a consistent intervention almost daily to say, no, this is why they're in sports.   Yes, I want to see them get better. I want to see them have fun, but Holy Spirit, would you help me see things today that I normally don't see? Holy Spirit, would you put them in circumstances and relationships today and in the season that's going to help them look more and more like Jesus by the time the season's done?   Holy Spirit, would you convict me in the moment when I am being a little too mouthy and saying things that I shouldn't? Would you help me to repent? And God, in those moments where I'm actually doing wrong on behalf of my kid, would you help me to humble myself and apologize to them?   And God, would you repair our relationship that way? So again, all of these options are available just because our kid's shooting a ball or they're on the field with somebody else tackling other people. We're trusting youth sports for too little.   Ed Uszynski: (40:10 - 41:10) That's all big boy and big girl stuff. It just is. I don't normally naturally do any of that.   I have to be coached into that. I have to be discipled myself. I have to work through my own issues, my own baggage, my own fears about the future, my own idolatrous holding onto this imagined future that I have for my kid, irrespective of what God may or may not want.   I've got my own resentment. I've got my own regrets from the past. I wish things had gone differently for me, so I'm going to make sure they go different for you when it comes to sports.   And it's hard to look in the mirror and admit that I have anger issues. I mean, youth sports create a great opportunity for me to get up all my pent-up frustration from the day. We've given ourselves permission to do that, in most cases, to just yell and yell at refs and gripe about coaches and yell at kids.   Brian Smith: (41:10 - 41:31) Because that's what we do at the TV, right? When our favorite team is playing, we've conditioned ourselves to say, awful call, that was terrible. Then we get on social media and we complain about it.   We are discipling ourselves to this is how it's normative to respond within the context of sports. Then we carry all that baggage to our six-year-old soccer game.   Laura Dugger: (41:33 - 42:02) Well, I love how you keep pointing it back toward character and discipleship. You clearly state throughout the book, sports don't develop character, people do. But could you maybe elaborate on that a little bit more and share more now that we've listed pros and cons, you still list a completely different way that we can meaningfully participate while also pushing back?   Brian Smith: (42:04 - 43:49) I'll start with the first part, and then you can answer the second. We use the handshake line as a great example of why character needs to be taught to our kids. If you just watch a normal handshake line left without coaching, the kids are going through it, especially the ones who lose with their head down, they have limp hands, there's no eye contact, and they're mumbling good game, good game.   Sometimes they don't even say it, they'll say GG stands for good game. They don't just learn character by going through the handshake line. If anything, that's going through it like that without any sort of intervention or coaching, that's malforming their character.   That's teaching them when things don't go well, that it's okay for them not to be a big boy or a big girl and look somebody in the eye and congratulate them. What needs to happen? An adult needs to step in and say, hey, as we go through the handshake line, whether you win or lose, here's how we do it with class.   We shake somebody's hand, we look them in the eye, and we say good game. Even if in those moments we don't actually mean it, we still show them dignity and honor. And then when we're done going through the handshake line, guess what we're going to do?   We're going to run down the refs who are trying to get in their car and get out of here, and we're going to give them a high five and say, thank you so much for reffing today. That stuff needs to be taught. Our kids don't just come out of the womb knowing how to do that.   We have to teach them how to do it. Sometimes good coaches will do that, but the more and more we get sucked up into the sports industrial complex, we're getting well-intentioned coaches, but we're getting coaches who care more about the big W, the win, than the character formation stuff that happens.   Ed Uszynski: (43:49 - 45:27) They need to keep hearing it over and over again. I have a ninth grade Bible study in my house the other day with athletes and a whole bunch of my son's basketball team. Exactly what Brian just said, I actually was like, wow, I've got them here.   There was a big blow up at a game the other day, and we wound up talking about it. I said, I'm going to take this opportunity actually to say what Brian just said. When you go through a handshake line, this is how you go through it.   I watched what happened in the game a couple days later. Basically, they did the exact opposite of what I told them to do, and they lost. It was just what Brian said.   They went through limp handed. They didn't look anybody in the face, and they weren't even saying anything. I just chuckled to myself, and you know how this is as a parent.   They may or may not do it. Of course, those aren't my kids. I have more stewardship over my child, who actually, he is doing what I've asked him to do because I've re-emphasized it across time now.   It's not a failure because they didn't do what I said. Again, the pouty side of me wants to be like, forget it. I'm just not even going to try anymore.   It's like, no, they're kids. That was the first time they've heard that. They're going to do what their patterns have, the muscle memory that's been created by their patterns, just like we do as adults.   The next time I have a chance to bring that up again, I'm not going to shame them. I'm just going to go over it again with them. Here's how we do it.   It's super hard to do this, guys, when you just want to be violent with people or you want to cry. You got to pull yourself together. That's what big men do.   That's what big women do in life. They pull themselves together in those moments and do the right thing.   Brian Smith: (45:28 - 46:01) You don't know whether the fifth time you say it is going to stick or the 50th time. Your responsibility as the Christ-following parent is to do it the sixth time and the seventh time and the seventh time and trust that God is going to take those moments and do what he does. We're ultimately not responsible for our kids' behavior.   We're responsible for pointing them in the right direction, and then hopefully, yeah, the Holy Spirit steps in and transforms and changes and convicts in those moments, but it might take some time.   Ed Uszynski: (46:02 - 47:47) Tom Bilyeu So that's how you push back, Laura. You were asking that. How do we push back without being just completely involved in it or going for the same ride that everybody else is going for?   There's just little moments like that scattered throughout. Literally, every day that my kids are involved in youth sports, the car ride over, what happens on the way home, how we talk about it, what happens during the game and what we wind up talking about out of that, the side conversations that happen that just get brought up apart from games of how we interact with people and so-and-so looks like they're struggling. What do you know about that?   That's how we push back, that in our corner of the bleachers, oh, how we interact with other parents. We haven't even talked about that yet, that I can take an interest in more than just my own kid in the bleachers and spend way more energy actually in cheering for other kids and just trying to give them confidence and spend way less time trying to direct that at my own child who knows that I'm there. In fact, my side kid has said he doesn't want to hear my voice during the game.   It distracts him. He's like, I'd much rather that you cheer for other people. It's like, okay.   Having questions ready for other parents during timeouts and as you sit there for hours together, what do you talk about? Well, I could be the one that actually initiates substantive conversations over time with them and asks them about what's going on in different parts of their life. And in having done that, people want to talk.   They want a safe place actually to share what's going on in their So let me be the sports minister. Let me take on that identity and actually care about other people.   Laura Dugger: (47:49 - 49:47) I love that. Even that practical idea of just coming to each game, maybe with a different question, ready to open up those conversations. And I'll share a quick story as well.   Our two oldest daughters recently just gave cheerleading a try at a local Christian school that allows homeschool kids to participate. And this is an overt way that somebody chooses the different way. So, it's the coach of the basketball team.   His name is Cole. And at the end of every game, we saw him consistently throughout this season when it was a home game, whether their team won or lost, he would ask them, okay, shut off the scoreboard. It's all blank.   He gathers both teams. As soon as the game is over teams, cheerleaders, the stands stay filled with all the parents. And he says, this is not our identity.   The world and Satan, our enemy, who's very real. He wants us to put our identity here, but it's not here. You made us better tonight by the way that you played and you were able to shine Jesus.   And we're going to go a step further and we're going to do what we call attaways. So, he's like, all right, boys, you open it up. And his team is trained.   They say to the other team, Hey, number 23, what's your name? I loved how you pushed me so much harder tonight and says, my name's Ben. And so, their Attaway is, Hey, Ben.   And everybody goes, Hey, Ben. Yeah, Ben. Yeah, Ben Attaway.   And everybody just erupts in clapping. And the other team is always blown away and they are just grinning, whether they just lost. So, the boys go through that for a while and then they open it up to the other team and they start sharing Attaways.   And then they open it up to the crowd and the parents are able to say, I see the way you modeled Jesus by being selfless with the ball or whatever it is. So, Cole said that his college coach did that many years ago and he's passed that on. And I love that's one way to redeem the game.   Ed Uszynski: (49:47 - 51:39) Wow. Beautiful. Beautiful.   Yeah. That's amazing. And, you know, I, so Brian and I talk about this too.   And I coached at a Christian school. So, we, we think that it's really important if you're going to play sports and you're going to be a Christian coach that you actually take the game seriously. And that we actually are here to compete and we are here to try to win.   There's nothing wrong with that. And we're going to pursue excellence when we show up with our bodies, and we train for this sport and we're going to try to win. Cause I think sometimes we end up kind of going all or nothing, especially within our Christian circles.   We're uncomfortable with that. And it's like, yes, do that. And on the backside of that to do what that coach did is amazing.   It's that, that is, that is exactly what we're saying. We're also going to try to form our souls in the midst of this. We're going to try to win on the scoreboard.   Okay. The game's over, we lost, we won, whatever. There's more going on here than just that. And can we access that together? And again, that's so rare. Probably everybody listening has never even heard of anything like what you just said.   It would be amazing if a bunch of people did, but that's what we're saying. Let's do more of that. Let's find ways to have more of those conversations in our sphere of influence.   Maybe we're not the coach, but we can do that in our car. We can do that when we're at dinners with the other, with other players and other team, you know, we, we can do that. We can take that kind of initiative.   If we have those categories in our mind, instead of just being frustrated that my kid didn't get to play as much tonight. And I'm that bugs me. It's like, okay, it can bug you.   And now I gotta, I gotta be a big boy and get more out of this than just being frustrated that he or she didn't get to play as much. It's hard.   Laura Dugger: (51:40 - 52:11) Absolutely. Well, and like you guys are doing having Bible studies outside of the, the team that you can instill values in that way and share scripture that they're memorizing to go out there with excellence for the Lord. So, I love all of that.   And I've got just a few quick questions, just kind of for perspective. I want to draw out something from the book. Is it true that young athletic success predicts adult athletic success?   Brian Smith: (52:13 - 53:51) It is not true. This is, this is not a hot take. This is researched back more and more research they're doing on this.   And they're finding that there's not a direct correlation between a young elite athlete and them continuing that up into the right trajectory and being an elite athlete later in life in large part, because when puberty hits, like everything is a game changer. So, this is, I found this fascinating and this is probably going to be new to you too. This just came out today.   At the time we're doing this podcast, the winter Olympics is going on in Norway. It's just like, they're killing it. Nor Norway's youth sports system.   This is wild. They give participation trophies for all the kids. They don't keep score until 13 years old.   They don't do any national travel competitions, no posting youth sports results online. So, there's no online presence of youth sport results. And their country motto is joy of sport for all.   And they're, they're killing it right now in the Olympics. So, like, that's not to say, like you got to follow their model and then you're going to win all these gold medals, but it is, there is something to just let the kids have fun. And the longer they play sport, because it's fun, the better opportunity you're actually going to have to see them blossom and develop some of these God-given gifts that they might have.   Don't expect it to come out before they're 13. Even if it does, there's no guarantee that it's going to continue on until they're 23. Just let them have fun.   Ed Uszynski: (53:52 - 55:55) Brian, we, Brian and I got to speak at a church the other day about this topic. And there was a couple that came up afterwards and they asked the question of what, so when do you think we should let our kids play organized sports or structured sports? And so again, Brian and I are careful.   Like I, there's no, there's no one size fits all answer to that. We would suggest as late as possible, wait as long as possible. Because once you start doing structured sport where there's a coach and you have to be at practices and the games are structured and there's reps, it just cuts away all the possibility they have to just play and just to go up to the YMCA and just play for three hours at whatever it is that they like to do.   And they said, well, it's encouraging to hear that they said, because we, we actually are way more into just developing their bodies physically. And so, we do dance with them, and we do rock climbing and they were kind of outdoorsy people, and they just started listing off all these things they do because we want them to become strong in their bodies, and learn to love activity like that. And I just thought, again, that's, that probably would cause a lot of people to freak out to hear that, that they have eight, nine-year-olds that aren't on teams yet.   They're just, they're training their bodies to appreciate physicality and to become coordinated and to, you know, to get better at movement. And it's like, what sport is that not going to be super helpful in five years from now, even when they're 12, 13 years old. And now they really do want to play one sport, and they do want to be on a team.   They're going to be way ahead of the kids actually that just sat on benches or stood in the outfield, you know, day after day after day at practices. Again, that's maybe hard to hear, but maybe there's some adjustments that need to be made again; to give ourselves permission to say, we don't have to get on that train right now. You don't have to, your kid's not going to be behind.   They actually could be ahead. If you do the kinds of things we just talked about.   Laura Dugger: (55:56 - 56:11) I love that. And even that example with what it looks like played out with Norway and also, do you have any other quick tips just for instilling and cultivating a heart of gratitude and youth sports rather than entitlement?   Brian Smith: (56:13 - 57:33) I'm a high school cross country and track coach, and I have kids on my team who want to get faster at running, but instead of running, they want to lift weights and they want to do plier metrics. So, there's, yes, there's a spot for that. But the way you get better at running is to run.   You got to run more miles and more miles. And I think gratitude is similar. That gratitude, part of it is a, it's a feeling, but it's also a muscle that we can flex even if we don't feel it.   And so, I would encourage parents who are trying to instill gratitude into their kids to give them practical things like, hey, after practice, just go shake your coach's hand or give them a fist bump and tell them, thanks for practice today, coach. That that's a disciplined way to practice gratitude that will hopefully build the muscle where they're, they're using it later in life. After a game, I taught my kids this when they were young and they still do it today.   Go shake a ref's hand. I mentioned this earlier, just a really, really practical way to show thankfulness and gratitude to somebody who really doesn't get a whole lot of gratitude pointed at them during a game or after a game. If anything, they have people chasing them through the parking lot for other reasons.   I want my kids to be chasing them down to give them a fist bump or a high five. And so, gratitude is something that we can just practice practically. And hopefully the discipline practice will lead to a delight and actually doing it.   Ed Uszynski: (57:34 - 59:39) And how do we cultivate an inner posture? Cause I tend to be a cup half empty type person. I'm a, I'm a whiner by nature and a continuous improvement.   There's always something wrong. And I'm, it's easy for me to find those things just as a person. I'm not even saying that as a dad or a coach or anything.   And it's been super helpful to me in the last decade, even to just like, I can choose to shift that. There, there is, there's a list of things that are broke, but there is always a list of things that are good. There's always something good here to be found.   And even as I've tried to like, again, tip the scales more in that direction, I can keep pushing that out of my kids. So, so this, you know, my ninth-grade son tends to just like, he doesn't like a whole bunch of what's going on in basketball right now. So, I keep asking him if he's having fun.   He says, no, like, why not? Or like, who did, why did you not have fun today? So, it's just the same thing every day.   I'm like, okay, who did you enjoy even being with today? Nobody. And I'm like, dude, I don't believe that actually.   I just, I don't believe that. There was somebody that you had some moment with today that you enjoyed, or you wouldn't want to keep going back up there because, and he does. So, give me a name.   Okay. Lenny. What happened with Lenny that was fun? And I make him name it. Like I'm, I'm, I'm trying to coach him through it. And sure enough, he does have some sentences of what was fun today.   And it's like, good, let's, let's at least hold onto that in the midst of all the other stuff that's not right. Let's choose to see the thing that was good and that you enjoyed and that we could be thankful for. Not everybody got to have that today.   Again, I have to have my, I have to be the parent. I have to be the discipler. I have to be in, you know, in charge of my own soul that wants to be negative all the time and say, nope, we're going to, we're going to choose gratitude today because the Bible tells us to do that.   There's something about that posture that opens the door for the gospel to be expressed through us. So, let's practice.   Laura Dugger: (59:40 - 59:50) Well said, and there's so much we could continue learning from both of you. Where can we go after this chat to learn more from each one of you?   Brian Smith: (59:52 - 1:00:14) Yeah, we do a lot of our writing online at thechristianathlete.com. And so, if you go there, you can see articles that are specifically written for parents, for coaches, for athletes, all around this idea of what does it look like to integrate faith and sport together? So, the

Bobby and Meghan talk with Brian Smith and Ed Uszynski about how families can keep faith central in the world of youth sports. They discuss what inspired Away Game, how parents can manage emotions and expectations, and practical ways to support kids without sideline coaching. Hear real stories of transformation as parents shift from performance-driven mindsets to gospel-centered parenting that brings spiritual health and joy, both on and off the field. Get the Book Here.Download a FREE Parenting Athletes Guide at Empoweredhomes.org.About the Authors As two dads who've seen both the challenges and beauty of youth sports, Brian and Ed offer relatable wisdom to help parents guide their children spiritually in every season. Brian Smith is the author of several books, including The Christian Athlete, and has been on staff with Athletes in Action since 2008. A graduate of Wake Forest University, Brian has a master's degree in Theology and Sports Studies through Baylor University. Brian lives in Lowell, Michigan, with his wife and three kids and writes regularly at the christianathlete.com. Ed Uszynski is an author, speaker, and sports minister with over three decades' experience discipling college and professional athletes. He's written articles, essays, and training manuals at the intersection of faith and sport and is the lead strategist for Content Mercenaries. He has two theological degrees from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and a PhD in American Culture Studies from Bowling Green State University. He and his wife Amy have four children and live in Xenia, Ohio.About Empowered Homes Who we are? The primary purpose of Empowered Homes is to connect church and home by equipping families, leaders and ministries to grow in the areas of marriage, parenting, personal growth. discipleship strategy, family ministry, and leadership development. We value the family as the first institution designed by God for spiritual formation, relationships, and reflecting His image. We seek to ensure that every element of church life supports and equips that essential role. What we do? Empowered Homes Ministry provides practical, gospel-based resources to connect church and home. The majority of our resources are offered online through our website empoweredhomes.org. We also partner with churches and ministries to provide conferences, equipping events & ministry coaching.Empowered Homes Podcast Show us some Love! Do you appreciate The Empowered Homes Podcast? Like, subscribe, comment, share. Every bit of your engagement helps us be open-handed in sharing resources to grow strong families, leaders and ministries. Thanks for your help in Empowering Homes for the gospel! FB : https://www.facebook.com/EmpoweredHomesResources Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/empoweredhomesresources/ Youtube: ...

Today's guests are Ed Uszynski and Brian Smith, authors of the book Away Game: A Christian Parent's Guide to Navigating Youth Sports. Their book and today's conversation are designed to help parents transform the complexity of youth sports into a platform for discipleship. The book equips parents with practical, Biblically based solutions for raising athletes in secular sports culture. Topics:How do sports develop character?How do we stand out in youth sports culture?How can we support our kids through their failures?How do we view winning and being the greatest?What can we learn from Uncle Rico?Find out more about the book HEREAbout Brian Smith Brian Smith is the author of several books, including The Christian Athlete: Glorifying God in Sports. He has been on staff with Athletes in Action since 2008. A graduate of Wake Forest University, Brian has a master's degree in Theology and Sports Studies from Baylor University. About Ed Uszynski Ed Uszynski is an author, speaker, and sports minister with over three decades of experience discipling college and professional athletes. He's written articles, essays, and training manuals at the intersection of faith and sport and is the lead strategist for Content Mercenaries. He has two theological degrees from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and a PhD in American Culture Studies from Bowling Green State University.Purchase a copy of The Sports Devotional: Pro Football Edition TODAY.Visit the Fantasy Football Fellowship website to sign up and participate in our exciting and encouraging ministry.Learn more about our sponsor, Upward Sports, to find out how you can reach people for Jesus through sports. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Send us a textCoach Myers is in his first year at Birdville H.S. after 4 seasons as the Strength and Conditioning Coach for the Bixby Spartans. Before arriving at Bixby, Coach Myers spent 4 years as the S & C Coordinator for Edmond Memorial High School. During this time Coach Myers also served as the Defensive Line Coach for the Football team. Prior to Edmond Memorial, Coach Myers worked as a Graduate Assistant for 2 years at East Tennessee State under Master Strength Coach Al Johnson. Prior to entering the coaching profession, Coach Myers was a 4-year starter on the defensive line at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah (2011-2015). Myers served as theteam captain twice during his final two seasons. Myers also received Honorable Mention All-Conference honors during his senior year. Coach Myers earned a Master's of Science in Kinesiology and Sports Studies at East Tennessee State University and holds a Bachelor of Science in Human Performance from Weber State University. Coach Myers is Strength and Conditioning Coach Certified (SCCC) through the Collegiate Strength and Conditioning Coaches Association (CSCCA) as well as a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist through National Strength Coaches Association (NSCA). Coach Myers is also a Level 2 Sports Performance Coach through USA Weightlifting.https://youtube.com/@platesandpancakes4593https://instagram.com/voodoo4power?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=https://voodoo4ranch.com/To possibly be a guest or support the show email Voodoo4ranch@gmail.comhttps://www.paypal.com/paypalme/voodoo4ranch

On the Opinion Line, Paul Byrne was joined by Damien Sreenan from 96FM News, who reported on an event organised by the 3rd year UCC students in Sports Studies & PE who got together with the Irish Wheelchair Association and the UCC Mardyke Arena to host a Wheelchair Basketball Tournament. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Send us a textCoach Keese is the Director of Strength andConditioning at Guyer High School in Denton, Texas, and has been there since 2007. While at Denton Guyer Coach Keese has helped with teams that won back-to-back State Championships in 2012 and 2013. They have been state finalists in 2010, 2019 and 2021, with state semifinals appearances in 2008,   2009, and 2022. Keese served for the Texas Women's University Basketball team as the strength coach from 2013 to 2017. During that time, TWU advanced to the conference semifinals three times, and earned an at-large bid into the Division II NCAA tournament in 2015-2016 season. Coach Keese was named the NHSSCA Southwest region 2 Strength Coach of the Year in 2019. Keese received his Bachelor's Degree in Exercise and Sports Studies from Tarleton State University. He is a Certified Strength and Conditioning coach (CSCS) through the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) and is also a recognized Sports Performance Coach Level 1 with USA Weightlifting (USAW). https://x.com/kylekeese?s=21https://youtube.com/@platesandpancakes4593https://instagram.com/voodoo4power?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=https://voodoo4ranch.com/To possibly be a guest or support the show email Voodoo4ranch@gmail.comhttps://www.paypal.com/paypalme/voodoo4ranch

Show NotesMeet Olivia Atkin, a dynamic force from Arkansas, now a successful entrepreneur based in New Jersey. Armed with a Bachelor's in Business Management and a minor in Sports Studies, she continued to push boundaries, earning an MBA with a specialization in Supply Chain. Olivia's expertise is showcased through diverse certifications, including SHRM CP, CAPM, CPIM, and Green Belt Six Sigma. As the leader of Achieving Success LLC, Olivia empowers others through her book, "Achieving Success in Career Development," and her podcast, "Achieving Success with Olivia Atkin." Beyond her business empire, she engages with others through consulting, speaking, and her groundbreaking webinar series, "Authentically Achieving Your Mix.” Olivia is also a TEDx speaker with a talk titled "Defeating Your Biggest Enemy...You!" Innovation, dedication, and a relentless pursuit of excellence define Olivia's journey. Her passion for success and commitment to uplifting others make her a true inspiration.Quote:  "Give yourself grace in not accomplishing that goal at a certain time. Understand that tomorrow's a new day. You can show up differently tomorrow and achieve what you missed today." - Olivia AtkinFergie's Top 10+ Knowledge Nuggets and Take-Aways:‘Show up' when you need to and how you need to, adapting your voice to different situations. Olivia advocates for building relationships and being an advocate for others to foster growth and change in organizations.She emphasizes the importance of observing, listening, and understanding all the dynamics before making recommendations or changes.Olivia values making a positive impact and challenging people's ways of thinking.As a consultant Olivia stresses the value of communication and asking the right questions to understand goals and objectives. Olivia's life motto revolves around making a positive impact and creating lasting memories.Treasure being present in the moment and appreciate life experiences fully.Olivia values providing cost-effective resources to help individuals achieve their career goals.Olivia emphasizes creating deep relationships, understanding perspectives, and shimmering authenticity in communication.Cementing foundations in kindness, Olivia emboldens framework by bridling intentions, magnanimous grace, and adaptive resilience. Olivia's book, "Achieving Success in Career Development," is a practical resource that empowers individuals at different career stages.Here is a link to this episode on Time To Shine Today Site:  https://timetoshinetoday.com/podcast/oliviaatkin/Recommended Resources:  Visit Achieving Success with Olivia AtkinPick up Olivia's Book Achieving Success in Career DevelopmentOlivia's Linked INOlivia's FacebookOlivia's InstagramOlivia's YouTubeOlivia's Twitter 

In this episode, Dr. Stacey Imagbe discusses her dissertation titled "Culturally Relevant Physcial Education for Optimizing Physical Activity Opportunities." Dr.  Imagbe serves as a first-year assistant professor on a tenure track at Morehouse College, specifically within the Department of Kinesiology, Sports Studies, and Physical Education. Her primary area of focus lies in providing essential professional development for K-12 educators, aiming to enhance physical activity opportunities through culturally tailored physical education. Her work is dedicated to equalizing the access to physical activity and promoting fitness among Black and Brown children and adolescents. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/pwrhpe/support

     Brian Sheehy of the Essex BBC and Seth Tannenbaum, Assistant Professor of Sports Studies at Manhattanville College! Brian and Seth are leading a symposium for the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History this summer about baseball, sports, and the ways they can be taught in the history field. Teachers rejoice! Are you a teacher (give yourself a pat on the back if you are)? Do you use sports in your teaching life? HOT DOGS!!!

Meet Olivia Atkin, a dynamic force from Arkansas, now a successful entrepreneur based in New Jersey. Armed with a Bachelor's in Business Management and a minor in Sports Studies, she continued to push boundaries, earning an MBA with a specialization in Supply Chain. Olivia's expertise is showcased through diverse certifications, including SHRM CP, CAPM, CPIM, and Green Belt Six Sigma. Innovation, dedication, and a relentless pursuit of excellence define Olivia's journey. As the leader of Achieving Success LLC, Olivia empowers others through her book, “Achieving Success in Career Development”; and her podcast, “Achieving Success with Olivia Atkin”.  Beyond her business empire, she engages with others through coaching, speaking, and her groundbreaking webinar series, “Authentically Achieving Your Mix.” Olivia is also a TEDx speaker with a talk titled “Defeating Your Biggest Enemy...You.”  

The Apostle Paul loved sports analogies. He told the Corinthians to run their race to win the prize and that he did not fight as one who "beats the air." The author of Hebrews told his readers to "throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles and to run with perseverance the race set before us." Sports mirror the Christian walk. This week on Honestly, Though, Dr. Paul Putz, the Program Director for the Master of Arts in Theology and Sports Studies and Assistant Director for the Faith & Sports Institute at Truett Theological Seminary sits down with Rebecca Carrell and Nika Spaulding to discuss the intersection of sports and faith and how it points us to Christlikeness.We love hugs! And when you rate, review, and share Honestly, Though on Apple Podcasts (and all podcast platforms), we see it immediately, and it feels just like a big, warm hug. Thank you in advance for taking an extra moment to make sure others find us in the algorithms. And speaking of finding us...Honestly, Though: @honestlythoughthepodcast (FB & IG(Rebecca Carrell: https://www.rebeccacarrell.com/ ; IG - @RebeccaCarrell ; Twitter: @RebeccaACarrell ; FB - Rebecca Ashbrook CarrellLiz Rodriguez: IG: @lizannrodriguez ; FB - Liz Rodriguez - https://www.facebook.com/liz.rodriguez.92775Nika Spaulding: stjudeoakcliff.org ; IG - @NikaAdidas ; Twitter - @NikaAdidasWe have the world's best producer! Are you interested in podcasting? Do you know someone who is? Taylor Standridge can help with audio engineering, production, editing, show mapping, and coaching. Connect with Taylor at taylorstandridge1@gmail.com or on Twitter: @TBStandridge

Welcome to the first episode of 2024! And what a fantastic episode to get us going! Calum Scott, Financial Planner and Director of Libertas Financial Management joins Sam Oakes on this step-by-step journey of an episode.  We were really fortunate to talk to Calum, his story is certainly inspiring. He walks us through the process of setting up his IFA business, Libertas Financial Management, along with his two business partners. Now in the third year of Calum's journey with Libertas, we learn about his thought process behind the decision making, how he planned for a thriving business and how he generates meaningful leads. From his early days as a sports enthusiast and recipient of a Sports Studies and Marketing scholarship at the University of Sterling to now being the owner of his own company, Calum stands as a shining example of a dedicated and passionate financial planning entrepreneur. Hope you enjoy. 00:00:00 | Intro 00:01:48 | Callum's career journey 00:08:36 | The first role you should take in Financial Planning 00:10:41 | The transferable value of sales skills 00:14:02 | Restricted vs IFA 00:17:07 | Year 1 going self employed 00:22:18 | Where to start when going self employed 00:26:16 | Deciding remuneration 00:32:38 | Client acquisition 00:36:33 | The easy approach to financial advice 00:41:54 | Vital questions for vital answers 00:48:15 | Converting first meetings into paying clients 00:52:30 | Fintech 00:59:19 | How to find best practices for your business 01:03:59 | Why build a financial advice business? Begin your financial planning career journey todayWhether you are looking to become a paraplanner, administrator, mortgage and protection adviser or financial planner, the Financial Planner Life Academy is for you. With limited entry-level job roles, giving yourself the best financial planning career education, will not only kick start your financial planning journey with relevant qualifications and skills, but it'll also help you achieve success much faster.&nbsBe sure to follow financial planner life on YouTube for extra content about a career within Financial Planning HIT THAT SUBSCRIBE BUTTON! Below are some excellent links from our sponsor Recruit UK for any aspiring or experienced financial planners looking for new job opportunities or looking to get ahead in their career. If you're looking to start your career in Financial Planning, check out the Financial Planner Life Academy hereExperienced and searching for a new role within the financial planning profession? Click here for a free career consultation.Check out the 2023 Financial planning Salary Guide here. If you would like to discuss partnering with The Financial Planner Life for jobs, advertising, marketing or academies please reach out to sam@financialplannerlife.com or call 07854778712.

Olivia Atkin is a podcaster, author and successful entrepreneur. Her book, Achieving Success in Career Development, has inspired readers with her insightful perspectives and practical advice. As an entrepreneur, she has built her own successful business, inspiring others to follow in her footsteps. Olivia creatively carved a path for herself from athlete to managing sports teams resulting in work with the New York Giants and the "FROZEN FOUR" National Champion Quinnipiac University Hockey Team. Join us as we hear her story of resilience and how she's built an incredible career for herself. Olivia has countless degrees and certifications under her belt including a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Management and a minor in Sports Studies from Quinnipiac University, a Master of Business Administration with a specialization in Supply Chain, certification in Society for Human Resource Management Certified Practitioner and many more! To learn more about Olivia, you can go to her website: https://achieving-success.com or on Linkedin: @oliviaatkin --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/lyndsay-dowd/support

In this episode Dr. Hettie V. Williams is in discussion with Dr. Joseph N. Cooper about his experience as a Black man in academia and his work in sports studies. Williams is the director of the Trotter Institute at University of Massachusetts at Boston and a historian of the African American experience. There are less than 4 percent African American male full professors in the U.S. and Cooper is one of few in the nation who also occupies an endowed professorship at UMass Boston. He is also the inaugural Dr. J. Keith Motley Endowed Chair of Sport Leadership and Administration at the University of Massachusetts at Boston. His research concentrates on the intersection between sport, education, race, and culture with an emphasis on sport involvement as a catalyst for holistic development. Cooper is also the faculty founder of Collective Uplift (CU) which is an organization designed to educate, empower, inspire, and support individuals to maximize their holistic potential both within and beyond athletic contexts. This is a revealing conversation about what it means to be a Black male academic and one who studies sports from an interdisciplinary framework. For more information about Cooper click here Dr. Joseph N. Cooper and to order his books click here Books by Dr. Joseph N. Cooper 

As the UK government announces plans for an independent football regulator, how well governed and regulated is sport internationally? In this episode we look specifically at how Saudi Arabia is extending its global geopolitical reach through football, golf, F1 and esports, despite its well documented human rights abuses. The repressive regime of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman - or MBS - has effectively been guaranteed the right to host the 2034 soccer World Cup after its only rival Australia dropped out. This fits with Saudi Arabia's plan to 'sportswash' its reputation - and exercise political power, too. Adrian Goldberg is joined by Stanis Elsborg who's been investigating the Riyadh government for Play The Game an organisation based at Danish Institute for Sports Studies.Produced in Birmingham by Adrian Goldberg and Harvey White. Funded by subscriptions to the Byline Times. Made by We Bring Audio for Byline Times. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Andrew Sprake joins us to discuss the article Understanding the interpretive paradigm: a guide for sports students learning through qualitative research. The article sought to develop a student-friendly discussion about the complex terms in academia to enhance methodological confidence in qualitative research. Full Cite: Sprake, A., & Palmer, C. (2022). Understanding the interpretive paradigm: a guide for sports students learning through qualitative research. Journal of Qualitative Research in Sports Studies, 16(1), 45-68. https://www.academia.edu/91363321/Andrew_Sprake_and_Clive_Palmer_2022_Understanding_the_interpretive_paradigm_a_guide_for_sports_students_learning_through_qualitative_research_Journal_of_Qualitative_Research_in_Sports_Studies_16_1_45_68 Twitter: @UCLanSportPE @AndySprake  --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/pwrhpe/support

In this episode, Trine Center for Sports Studies Director, Brandon Podgorski, talks with Vice President of Content Development at Nexstar Media Group, Chris Berg. With over three decades in journalism and news television, Chris shares his outlook on rights deals with professional sports leagues, the future of regional sports networks and how local affiliates can compete, and how broadcasters are adjusting in the age of streaming. 

A special episode of the Center for Sports Studies Podcast where Associate Professor of Sport Management and Director of the Center for Sports Studies, Brandon Podgorski, breaks down the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament bracket using historical data and other statistical analyses. 

In this episode, Trine Center for Sports Studies Director, Brandon Podgorski, talks with long-time Fremont High School baseball coach, and Assistant Professor of Education at Trine, Justin Bock. In 2022, Professor Bock was honored by the Greater Fort Wayne Business Weekly for his contributions to education and coaching by his peers and students. In this episode, Professors Bock and Podgorski discuss the coaching profession and strategies for effectively leading youth. 

In this episode, Trine Center for Sports Studies Director, Brandon Podgorski, talks with the Performance Center Operations Manager of the South Bend Cubs, Patrick Foust. A Trine Sport Management alumnus, Patrick is in his second season as the full-time operations manager with the Cubs. In his role, Patrick is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the performance center including scheduling both team and non-team events. In this episode, Patrick discusses the life of a Minor League Baseball employee and how his many experiences in college prepared him for his role with the Cubs. 

In this episode, Trine Center for Sports Studies Director, Brandon Podgorski, talks with Major League Baseball scout, Mike Medici. Mike has been an MLB scout for over a dozen years and is currently in his ninth year with the Texas Rangers. As an amateur scout, Mike is responsible for evaluating high school and college baseball players in the Midwest, and he has had two players sign MLB contracts as well as fifteen minor leaguers. In this episode, Mike discusses the two types of scouting in baseball, the responsibilities of a scout, and how to break into scouting.

In this episode, Trine Center for Sports Studies Director, Brandon Podgorski, talks with Visit Fort Wayne Sports Sales Manager, Jazmin Zavala. After a career in sales and customer service, Jazmin uses her skills to help attract large sporting events to Fort Wayne. In this episode, Jazmin discusses her role with Visit Fort Wayne, the bidding process for attracting large events, and the economic impacts of sporting events on northeast Indiana.

In this episode, Trine Center for Sports Studies Director, Brandon Podgorski, speaks with his Principles of Sport and Recreation Management class about sports trends with Generation Z. Professor Podgorski asks a number of questions to get a Gen Z view of the current sports landscape. Topics include how Gen Z consumes sports, their favorite sports media personalities, the popularity of the World Cup, and who they think will win the Super Bowl.

Today's episode is a replay of the November 1st Center for Sports Studies symposium – Sales & Sports. In this episode, Center for Sports Studies director, Professor Brandon Podgorski, moderates a sports sales panel with Zander Atwood, Athletics Ticket Sales and Annual Fund Director with Purdue Fort Wayne Athletics and Brent Harring, Director of Group Sales with the Fort Wayne TinCaps. Both Zander and Brent share about their careers in sports sales and answer student questions regarding the industry.

In this episode, Trine Center for Sports Studies Director, Brandon Podgorski, talks with author of Spies on the Sidelines: The High-Stakes World of NFL Espionage, Kevin Bryant. Kevin is an Army veteran with over twenty years of experience safeguarding and gathering information for the Department of Defense, including thirteen years as a Special Agent during which he conducted national security investigations and instructed federal agents in training. In this episode, Kevin discusses his new book and the sophistication of spying techniques in the NFL.

In this episode, Trine Center for Sports Studies Director, Brandon Podgorski, talks with the Pro Shop Manager, Adult League Coordinator, and Co-Social Media Manager of the Lone Star Brahmas, Jess Friederick. Jess is a 2022 Trine alumna who graduated with an MBA and an undergraduate degree in management. In this episode, Jess discusses her dual roles with the Brahmas and making the transition from full-time student to full-time sport professional.

As a child, Katerina Zarkas dreamed of being a sports announcer – but she never really thought it'd be in the cards for her. The only people she ever saw covering sports on TV were men spotlighting professional athletics. However, emboldened by her own dreams, encouraging mom, and supportive father, Katerina pursued a degree in Broadcast Journalism with a minor in Sports Studies at the University of Southern California. Fast forward after a few years of hard work, Katerina started her career at Fox Sports and then moved on to work at E! Entertainment, the Style Network, myNetworkTV, DirectTV, and the NFL Network. Today, she's an Emmy Award-winning sports producer. Throughout her journey at these different networks, she encountered personal and professional changes: getting married, having two kids, and transitioning from a full-time employee to a freelance producer. Despite all the changes, Katerina always strives to exemplify a confident, professional, and dedicated mother for her kids. In this episode of Money Loves Women, join Dr. Deborah Ekstrom and Katerina Zarkas to learn about women in sports media, balancing work and family, transitioning from full-time employment to freelance status, and the importance of early financial literacy.  Topics Discussed: Women in journalism Sports media Finding your way Immigrant families Work life balance Freelance work Early financial literacy 401K matches Consumer debt Resources:  Katerina's LinkedIn USC's Broadcast Journalism Program For more information on how to achieve financial freedom, personal mastery, and professional success, please visit https://moneyloveswomen.com/. 

In this episode, Trine Center for Sports Studies Director, Brandon Podgorski, talks with the Sales and Hiring Coordinator at Peak Sports Management, Greyson Allen. Peak Sports Management works with mid-major and NCAA Division II colleges all over the country to provide sales and marketing support for their athletic departments. As the Sales and Hiring Coordinator, Greyson is responsible for the recruiting and onboarding of new account representatives for all of the PSM properties. On this episode, Greyson discusses how he was able to leverage an internship with PSM into a full-time job after graduating college.

In this episode, Trine Center for Sports Studies Director, Brandon Podgorski, talks with the host of Crain & Co., Jake Crain. During 2020, Jake was coaching football at a college in Montana when he moved back to his home state of Alabama during the pandemic. Shortly after returning home, he created The JBoy Show podcast which mainly focused on SEC football. In just under two years, his show has grown from a weekly SEC football podcast to a daily show with the Daily Wire. In this episode, Jake discusses how he built his show and offers advice to students on how they can start their own sports podcast.

In this episode, Trine Center for Sports Studies Director, Brandon Podgorski, talks with Dr. Nicholas Zoroya, an Assistant Professor of Sport Management at Madonna University. Before becoming a full-time professor, Dr. Zoroya created and produced a popular lacrosse podcast, Going Offsides, and also broadcasted lacrosse games for the University of Michigan. In this episode, Dr. Zoroya discusses how to begin a career in podcasting and broadcasting as well as provides career advice for aspiring sport professionals.

In this episode, Trine Center for Sports Studies Director, Brandon Podgorski, talks athletic trainer, Andrew Delagrange. After serving in the Army, Andrew earned a degree in Athletic Training and has worked as an ATC for multiple colleges and is now an athletic trainer in the Army. In this episode, Andrew talks about his role as an ATC, the challenges of the profession, and the rewards of helping athletes and soldiers perform at their best.

In this episode, Kimberly and Alicia discuss connective tissue, states of the nervous system, dealing with chronic pain, and more. They discuss the complexities of fascia, differences between genetics and epigenetics, understanding individual dominant nervous system states, and body/mind mapping. Understanding the differences between physiological stress versus emotional stress as well as the importance of consciously and specifically paying attention to pain can help us begin to understand how to manage it better.   Bio Alicia has over 35 years of experience in the fitness industry and holds a B.S. in Exercise Science and Sports Studies. A longtime movement enthusiast, Alicia has studied, practiced, and taught many different types of movement throughout her career. She is the Founder of the Fajardo Method of Holistic Biomechanics which teaches movement education and motor re-patterning in conjunction with nervous system awareness. She teaches various kinds of classes and has an upcoming workshop which can be accessed by the link below. What She Shares: –Composition of Fascia –Ehlers-Danlos syndrome –Genetics versus epigenetics –Place and grid cells –Working with chronic pain –Physiological versus emotional stress   What You'll Hear: –Syndrome longer lasting consequences affect autoimmune system –Ehlers-Danlos syndrome as connective tissue disorder can go through all layers of tissues –Can occur in muscular, joint, organ, vascular system(s) –Attacks in different ways for different people –Different types of testing to determine syndrome –Perceptual experiences of symptoms –Fascia made up of collagen, elastin, glycoproteins and protoglycans –Ground substance in fascia –Dominant state of nervous system determines ground substance –Body weight distribution dependent upon dominant state of nervous system –Nervous system state determines mineral absorption and digestion –Hypermobility and developing support for joints –Getting valve system to move –Creating dominant parasympathetic motor patterns versus sympathetic motor reflex –Genetics versus epigenetics –Genetic has dominant or receptive expression from parents' genes –Genetic expression has to do with mutation of a gene –Epigenetics deals with genetic expression –Epigenetics internal or external environment can potentially change gene expression –EDS can be both genetic or epigenetic –Many mental health issues connected to hyper-sympathetic nervous system –Emotional stress versus physiological stress –Physiological stress is sympathetic nervous system –Emotional stress causing conflict to conscious and unconscious brain firing off sympathetic nervous system –Vagus nerve and adaptability to sympathetic and parasympathetic –Trigeminal nerve largest nerve in body, controls brain and senses –All nerves have roles in either sympathetic or parasympathetic states –Paying attention to bodily sensations doesn't create brain map –Paying attention to external environment to communicate safety to brain –Proprioception and greater movement orientation –Brain map –Sensation and location awareness –More movement and dynamic and parasympathetic –Exercises for mapping –Keeping awareness between two points on body –Different stages of states and conservation of energy –Emotional Anatomy by Stanley Keleman –Observing and being very specific about what's happening in body with EDS –Bodies constantly changing –Avoiding labels when understanding pain –Losing body's adaptability when labeling –Attachment to diagnoses and labeling –Symptoms dependent on nervous system states difficult to diagnose and treat from medical perspective –Adapting sympathetic activation to be appropriate to environment –Brain assessing environment to determine appropriate state –Physiological responding to environment instead of emotional state –Teaches various classes and upcoming workshops   Resources Website: https://fajardomethodmovement.com/

In this episode, Trine Center for Sports Studies Director, Brandon Podgorski, reflects on the 50th anniversary of Title IX and its impact on women's sports. He also explains how Title IX is applied in athletic departments and the outlook of women's sports in the future.

Darryl Earl Clack is a former American football running back in the National Football League for the Dallas Cowboys. He also was a member of the Toronto Argonauts in the Canadian Football League. He played college football at Arizona State University. After his playing days, Clack went to the University of Texas at El Paso earning a B.A. in Kinesiology and Sports Studies. He moved around the business world for a time and settled into the banking business as vice president at Compass Bank in Tempe, Arizona, not far from the Arizona State University campus. After banking he accumulated over 15 years of extensive experience in management and leadership at various companies including Cox Communications. He then earned an M.A. in Organizational Management from the University of Phoenix and was in his first year of working towards a Ph.D. when he fell ill to Thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP), a rare autoimmune blood disorder. In addition to TTP, in July 2016, he learned of his early-stage dementia diagnose, due to years of trauma to the head from playing football. These traumatic events, three months apart, prompted Darryl to write the book "Hear My Story Before I Forget" and start a foundation to bring awareness to TTP and brain injuries. Although he is no longer playing ball, he keeps his hand in the game as President and co-founder of SportMetric, along with co-founders Josh Jakubczak and Darius Perry, a company emphasizing education, community involvement, and athletics for the youth. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/dadcastco/support

In episode 34 of The Weird Works! Podcast, Dr. Kristy Harvell sits down with Dr. Peter Yu. Dr. Yu is an educator and performance physical therapist in Jacksonville, FL and the founder of Motion RX Health. Growing up as an athlete, Peter always valued an active healthy lifestyle and has a tremendous interest in optimizing human body performance. He received his Bachelor of Science in Exercise Science and Sports Studies with a double minor in Nutrition and Psychology from Rutgers University and obtained his Doctor of Physical Therapy from the Medical University of South Carolina. Unsatisfied with the current traditional healthcare model dictated by corporate insurance companies and other medical practitioners telling us that our bodies are fragile and can only be fixed by pain medications, cortisone shots, or surgeries, he set out on a mission to provide a better alternative option. Peter utilizes an educational, empowerment, and movement-based treatment approach to promote positive long-term adaptations to improve an individual's confidence and ability to manage their injury and return to the activities they love. He believes that everyone should be able to perform basic human maintenance on themselves, and that taking an active role in their rehabilitation process is the key to success and long-term health. You can listen to The Weird Works! Podcast on any of your favorite podcast listening platforms or watch the podcast video on our YouTube Channel. Get the link to both right here https://www.healthbydesignfl.com/the-weird-works-podcast   Links: https://www.motionrxhealth.com/ https://www.instagram.com/motion.rx/ https://www.facebook.com/motionrxhealth https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCumsNZfdZyjQrzh5ErmJHpg   www.9010lifestyle.com www.drkristyharvell.com www.healthbydesignflorida.com

In this episode, Trine Center for Sports Studies Director, Brandon Podgorski, talks with the Sports Information Director at the College of Idaho, Danny Kambel. Danny has over 25 years working in the sports information industry with experience at all three NCAA divisions, the NAIA, and junior college. In this episode, Danny talks about how the role of the SID has changed over the last three decades and why relationships are what drives his passion for his job.

In this episode, Trine Center for Sports Studies Director, Brandon Podgorski, talks with Fort Wayne attorney, James O'Connor, about all things Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL). James is a licensed NBA, FIBA, and WNBA agent and works with colleges around the nation to guide their NIL efforts.

In this episode, Trine Assistant Professor of Communications, Andy Brown, talks with the Digital Reporter of the Detroit Red Wings, Daniella Bruce. Daniella joined Professor Brown's Media and Society class on March 25th to discuss her career in sports media and how she became the first woman to work in the Red Wings' radio booth.

Today's episode is a replay of this year's Center for Sports Studies Featured Speaker on March 24th – Grand Rapids Gold owner, Steve Jbara. In this episode, Steve recounts how a chance meeting with Detroit Pistons great Joe Dumars afforded him the opportunity to build his own NBA G-League team from the ground up.

In this episode, Trine Center for Sports Studies Director, Brandon Podgorski, talks with the Trine University National Collegiate Sports Sales Championship team of seniors Caleb Gonya, Hayden Jones, and Nicole Maroney. The team discusses their stellar performance in the NCSSC and Nicole walks us through her journey to finishing second out of 180 students across the country.

In this episode, Trine Center for Sports Studies Director, Brandon Podgorski, talks with the Purchasing Coordinator for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and Trine University alumna, Breanna Mathews. In this episode, Breanna discusses the important role that purchasing plays for a professional sports team and how she was able to leverage her past experience in retail into a position with the Buccaneers.

Kurt Kirner, Swimming coach and Assistant Professor of Sports Studies at Hillsdale College, specializing in sports psychology and motivation, joins host Scot Bertram to talk about having a growth mindset, how to view competition as a chance to improve, and how to deal with stress and anxiety.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode Emma shares her experience being the tech support for professors who had to switch to an online platform, but how it became so much more.  She partnered with professors to add something from the student's perspective, they worked to develop an strong online curriculum together.  It was so inspiring to hear the courage and vulnerability the teachers took in working with a student.  I hope more institutions embrace such a practice. Emma Trumble is a John Stark graduate and a student at Bishop's University in Quebec in their “Sports Studies” program. Outside of classes she works for her university's OLTC program. In this role she helps professors reimagine 21st century liberal education using technology. A fun fact about her is that she is a competitive jump roper!"

In this episode of “The Journey of My Mother's Son” podcast, I sit down to talk with the secretary and official historian of the AAGPBL Players Association, Merrie Fidler. Merrie is also a published author.  She published the book, The Origins and History of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League in 2006.  The book was originally her master's thesis, and as she became more involved with the players association, several of the former players were so impressed with her work, that they convinced her to get it published.  Merrie donates a large portion of the proceeds from her book to the players association. Her biography, as taken from her author website, merriefidler.com is as follows: Born at the end of October 1943, a month and a half after the All-American Girls Baseball League's first season of play, Merrie Fidler grew up near Redding, California. She was raised in a sports-minded family and participated in interscholastic and intercollegiate volleyball, basketball and softball from junior high through her college under-graduate years. At age 15 she joined the Redding Comets, the city women's softball team. For four summers she played left field, catcher, or third base for the Comets. After completing an undergraduate major in physical education and obtaining a teaching credential from Sacramento State University in Sacramento, California, Merrie was hired, in the fall of 1971, as an Assistant Intramural Sports Director at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. It was in UMass's Sports Studies master's degree program where Merrie discovered, researched, and completed her master's thesis entitled The Development and Decline of the All-American Girls Baseball League, 1943-1954. The thesis was largely based on documents obtained from league owner Arthur E. Meyerhoff and South Bend team president Harold T. Dailey. Before completing her thesis in 1976, Merrie worked as an Assistant Intramural Sports Director at the University of Minnesota, St. Paul, and attended Penn State University as a doctoral candidate in Sport History. After a year at Penn State, Merrie returned to the Redding, California area where she embarked on a 27-year teaching and coaching career for the Anderson Union High School District. Following her retirement at the end of the 2003 school year, Merrie attended her first AAGPBL reunion since the opening of the “Women in Baseball” exhibit at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY in November 1988. It was there that she was encouraged by former players to publish her master's thesis. During 2003-2005, Merrie obtained additional information about the league from numerous player interviews and Players' Association Newsletters and Board Meeting Minutes.

In Episode 12, Mike talks to Vanessa Shannon, Director of Mental Performance for the University of Louisville Athletic Department and Norton Sports Health since October 2015.Prior to moving to Louisville, Dr. Shannon spent two years at IMG Academy in Bradenton, FL. While at IMG, Dr. Shannon served as the Mental Conditioning Coach for the Girls' Soccer and Basketball programs, coordinated Psychological Test Preparation for IMG's NFL Combine Training Program, and served as a Vision Training Coach for the Academy's Major League Baseball Off-Season Training Program. While at IMG, Dr. Shannon also served as the Mental Conditioning Coach for the University of Louisville Women's Lacrosse and Women's Soccer Programs.Dr. Shannon has been invited to speak at camps, clinics, classrooms, and conferences both nationally and internationally. In the Spring and Summers of 2010, 2011, and 2012, Dr. Shannon traveled to Lund and Halmstad Universities in Sweden, Leipzig University in Germany, and Aarhus University in Denmark, where she taught lectures and short courses on the psychology of injury, team dynamics, and careers transitions in sport as part of the European Masters in Sport and Exercise Psychology Erasmus Mundus Programme International Scholar Initiative. Dr. Shannon holds a PhD in Kinesiology, Recreation, and Sports Studies with a specialization in Sport Psychology and concentration in Counseling from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. She holds a MS in Kinesiology with an emphasis in Exercise Psychology from Kansas State University and BAs in Health and Human Performance and Psychology from Rice University. While at Rice University, Dr. Shannon was a member of the Women's Volleyball team.In this episode, Vanessa discusses her experiences as a mental performance coach at one of the most successful Division I athletic programs in the United States. Perhaps most interesting is the shift Vanessa has seen in student-athletes' willingness to ask for help with respect to mental health and training.Schedule a free 30-minute strategy session to learn more about how The Freshman Foundation can help your family nail the transition from HS to college athletics: https://calendly.com/michaelvhuber/the-freshman-foundation-exploratory-discussionThank you again for listening!

Today's guest is Dr. Vanessa Shannon (@cardinalmindset). Vanessa has served as the Director of Mental Performance for the University of Louisville Athletic Department and Norton Sports Health since October 2015.Prior to moving to Louisville, Vanessa spent two years at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, FL, where she served as the Mental Conditioning Coach for several programs, coordinated Psychological Test Preparation for IMG's NFL Combine Training Program. She also has experience as an Assistant Professor of Sport and Exercise Psychology at West Virginia University, and prior to that was the Department Chair of Exercise and Sport Sciences at Tennessee Wesleyan University.She holds a PhD in Kinesiology, Recreation, and Sports Studies with a specialization in Sport Psychology and concentration in Counseling from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and competed as a member of the Women's volleyball team while attending Rice University.This episode, we deep dive into the necessity of emotional agility. Vanessa outlines the consequences of neglecting these important tools, and we spend a ton of time laying out an approach to developing higher levels of emotional intelligence. There is so much packed into this episode - if you're looking for links to any of the books, talks, and concepts we discuss, you can find the show notes at mtl.academy.

On this week's 51%, a sports studies professor discusses Major League Baseball's first female general manager, and more. Artist and Producer Ahri Golden returns to 51% with an audio portrait of Leah, a woman who embraces her life force, change, and community. It's part of Golden's Bending in 2020 series.  You can find out more […]

In this Coach's Road we explore the journey of Shaun Hathaway, Executive Director of Team Colorado Girls AAA Hockey Program. Shaun also serves as the Head Coach of the Colorado Springs Jr. Tigers 14 & Under team and the ADM Coordinator for the state of Colorado. Previously Shaun served as the Executive Director of the Aspen Leafs and has been involved in youth hockey in Colorado since 1997. Shaun has a Masters in Sports Studies from the University of Miami, Ohio and a Masters in Teaching from Colorado College. He received both of his Masters after studying Political Science at Knox College. This is our first episode exploring the road of a youth hockey coach and Shaun had very valuable lessons to share with us! We chat with Shaun about his start in coaching, his current motivation and how he develops players and clubs. Some really great practical ideas about coaching, building relationships with players, establishing your values and philosophy in a club and what an ideal club would look like for Shaun. Don't forget to connect with the show on social media (@thecoachsroad) and feel free to follow what Shaun is doing with Team Colorado on social media as well. As always please reach out to us via email (thecoachsroad@gmail.com) with any feedback or thoughts! Thanks for listening!