Re-Designing Youth Sport: Change the Game

John McCarthy · Lou Bergholz · Megan Bartlett

Feb 2016 · Psychology Press

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Many observers have pointed out what is wrong with youth sport: an emphasis on winning at all costs; parental over-involvement; high participation costs that exclude many families; lack of vigorous physical activity; lack of player engagement; and no focus on development. Currently, most attempts at righting the wrongs of youth sport have focused on coach education and curriculum, but in this book, the authors offer a different approach—one that involves changing the game itself.

Re-Designing Youth Sport combines vivid examples and case studies of innovative sport programs who are re-designing their sport with a comprehensive toolkit for practitioners on how to change their game for bigger and better outcomes. It offers a fresh and exciting perspective on the seemingly intractable issues in sport. It presents a practical and empowering pathway for readers to apply the examples and tools to the outcomes that they aspire to achieve in their sport, such as increased fun and excitement, life-skills building, gender inclusion, increased sportspersonship, greater parity and avoidance of one-sided competition, and positive parental roles. The book also reveals how community leagues as well as national and international sport governing bodies are using re-design to accelerate player skill development, tactical awareness, and physical fitness.

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John McCarthy, clinical faculty in Boston University’s School of Education, is the founder and Director of the BU Institute for Athletic Coach Education. He works with coaches and youth sport organizations to reclaim the purpose of sport for youth development.

Lou Bergholz is the founder of Edgework Consulting, a Boston-based firm that helps support the development of innovative interventions for some of the world’s most challenged children and youth. Lou has helped design and implement programs across four continents, working on issues of mental health and trauma, violence reduction, HIV prevention and gender-based violence.

Megan Bartlett is Chief Program Officer at Up2Us, a national coalition of more than 1000 organizations that use sport to promote positive youth development. She oversees training, research and dissemination of evaluation tools that enable organizations to provide high quality programs for youth across the country.