"There's No Crying in Baseball"

Submitted by Craig Morton on Wed, 07/30/2008 - 19:21. | comments

I can watch just about any baseball movie there is. In fact, it doesn't even have to really be about baseball for me to enjoy it. One of my favorite baseball movies is "A League of their Own" in which a crotchety coach played by Tom Hanks bellows, "there's no crying in baseball."

Brawling For Dollars, The Evolution of Women's Sports?

Submitted by Debbie Lantz on Sat, 07/26/2008 - 18:51. | comments

Look out parents, a new cultural phenomenon is coming after your girls. It is called "brawling for dollars" and it is coming to a field near you! Here is how it works.

Brawling: Good For Business?

Professional sports association's are businesses and have an insatiable need and greed for making money. I'm a business person myself so I don't begrudge a business needing to make money but exploiting people to do it is another thing all together.

Arthur Kimmel

New Gymnastics Scoring System: A move forward or an irrelevant change?

Submitted by Anonymous on Sun, 07/20/2008 - 12:50. | comments

In 2006, the IGF (International Gymnastics Federation) changed to a new scoring system for gymnastics, one that does not use 10 as the “perfect” score. For those that might not be familiar with either system, gymnastics used to be scored from 0 – 10 points with 10 being considered perfect. In order to simplify how this worked, let’s just say that there were requirements, including difficulty of skill, which had to be met for a routine to be worth a 10.0 mark. This was considered the start value of the routine.

Arthur Kimmel

A Deeper Meaning Behind Youth Sports Participation

Submitted by Anonymous on Fri, 07/18/2008 - 22:40. | comments

Principles of Greatness: A Visual Demonstration by Profiles International

To aspire to be something more, whether in sports, music, art, school, the workplace, or life in general, is a goal that few could argue with. The difficulty comes when contemplating the depth and breadth of what this actually means.

The Millennials-Products of "Me" Centered Youth Sports?

Submitted by Debbie Lantz on Fri, 07/18/2008 - 19:01. | comments

I work for a large company in Dallas as an Organizational Development Specialist. Basically, my focus is to help businesses create high performance cultures. I want to share a topic that has the company I work for and many others taking notice. What does this topic have to do with youth sports you might ask? The topic of "Motivating the Next Generation" is of keen interest and has prompted many a conversation in company board rooms across the US. The newest group of young people coming into the work force are labeled "The Millenials" and their expectations of work environments are very high. They expect lots of praise and they do not appreciate being told they failed.

This Just In: Our Kids Are Really Not That Fit!

Submitted by Gwenn OKeeffe on Tue, 07/15/2008 - 22:43. | comments

If you ask parents if their kids are fit, most will say “yes”. If you ask kids if they are fit, most think they are. A new study out tomorrow in JAMA rocks those perceptions to the core with quite a reality check. (JAMA. 2008;300[3]:295-305.)

LL President: The Pros and Why I Said "Yes!"

Submitted by Carrie Matsuo on Tue, 07/15/2008 - 17:02. | comments

It's mid-July and I have been at a ballpark just about every night for the last few weeks. I have watched 9-10 year-old baseball and softball, Little League Majors (11-12 year-olds) All-Stars and Honors teams, 13-14 year-old baseball on 80 foot and 90 foot diamonds, a college exposure fastpitch softball tournament, and joined my dad for an evening of USA Softball vs. Portland All-Stars on their pre-Olympic "Bound for Beijing" tour.

Lucy Ferriss

Elite Sports Abroad

Submitted by Lucy Ferriss on Tue, 07/15/2008 - 16:47. | comments

I spent some time during my sabbatical this past spring visiting friends and relatives in Belgium and France, where I also conducted interviews with several administrators at the national centers for elite sports in those countries. I’ll be reporting on differences between the American and European systems in a later essay for MomsTeam, but here I will simply note some of my personal reactions to the conversation with Paul Rowe, who is in charge of elite sports at Bloso, the Flemish sport federation.

Preventing ACL Injuries In Kids: Really a Matter of Child's Play

Submitted by Gwenn OKeeffe on Sat, 07/12/2008 - 16:03. | comments

Do you remember Dr. Spock's motto, "Live long and prosper"? Great words to live by and a dream all parents have for their kids. However, today's kids may not get to adulthood without some sort of long-term problem created by the sports they love. A recent article in the The Boston Globe with some of the country's leading pediatric orthopedists drives that point home.

Arthur Kimmel

Personal Ownership and Responsibility for Creating Athletic Success: Part 2

Submitted by Anonymous on Fri, 07/11/2008 - 01:07. | comments

In an effort to further demonstrate this idea of Personal Ownership and Responsibility in Creating Athletic Success let me also relay to you a true event that occurred while watching my own kid play soccer on their high school team. It is customary for me to sit fairly quietly during games and just watch, giving only positive support when good shots, passes, or plays take place.