Why am I passionate about this?
We raised three children who loved athletics, but as we parented them through what we came to term the youth sports industry, we gradually realized how dramatically and for the worse, youth sports had changed since we were kids. The present profit-based model treats children as commodities, and we feel strongly that this is the worst way to approach youth sports. So, yes, we feel passionately about this topic, especially about the need for reform.
Jean's book list on understanding the youth sports industry
Why did Jean love this book?
We found Michael Lewis’s new audiobook (Audible Originals, 2020) a hilarious first-person account of the insanity that youth sports has become, in this case focusing on pay-to-play softball. Lewis even describes how he cut short time with President Obama to rush back to one of his daughter’s softball tournaments to demonstrate how youth sports colonized his family’s life.
1 author picked Playing to Win as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.
When New York Times best-selling author and journalist Michael Lewis got involved in his kids’ local softball league, it all seemed so wholesome and simple. Ten years later, his family looked back to find that they had spent thousands of dollars - not to mention hours - and traveled thousands of miles in the service of a single sport.
All over America, families are investing blood, sweat, tears, and retirement savings in their children’s sports careers, all with the ultimate goal of…what exactly? A college scholarship? A professional contract? Simply the taste of victory?
Through the lens of the highly…
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