Youth Sports: What Parents Need to Hear To Help Their Kids Develop into Good or Great Athletes 

Oh man.... I've been doing this all wrong... my son is 9 and plays in comp soccer.. I know I am really hard on him. As he always looks over for my approval. I would prefer to see him having fun, then taking the game this seriously. Thank you for posting this video.

Very interesting interview. Thank you. Single sports mum to a 13 year old basketball athlete. He was head-hunted by a big team, and I have many misgivings about the level of stress and competitiveness that these kids live under. He is set on playing with that team, and the level is higher than anything we have locally, but I sometimes do think that there is a lack of general learning and a focus on winning leagues and tournaments. The high scorers are given priority over other well-rounded players and I always feel things are being done with a skewered vision of the future and with a lack of support for the mental health of these young athletes. Some parents on the benches are way too pushy and demanding. Which is understandable to a point, when people are investing time and money, but they are only children, and I can't help think of the damage being done emotionally and psychologically. I sometimes ponder if it wouldn't be better to put him back in a local team, where he can learn all kinds of skills without the ultra competitiveness and individuality that comes with elite sports, but I would then have to live with the "what if"...what if he doesn't go further because I didn't invest the time and effort... Then I tell myself, whoever is going to make it, will probably make it anyway, regardless. But still. Tough to know if you are doing the right thing or not as a parent, when you haven't played the sport or been an athlete at that level or from such a young age. Videos like these are interesting and insightful.

Really great interview! Touched on many aspects of youth sport psychology like introducing fun and not using critical language. Whenever I get the chance to ask sport psychologists who work with children about their biggest challenge, surprisingly the answer was always: 'Parents'.

Great to see you back !

Great interview, so much to take away from this video.

My 11yo recently asked to play soccer-- I immediately started looking up nearby clubs when he said "but I don't want to join a club, I just want to play for fun!" Try and find a "just fun" soccer game in Metro Atlanta, for kids! It's kind-blowing difficult, and immediately I realized the problem here! Great video, thank you.

Thank you guys, I go searching in RU-vid for more videos of PETER MATTSSON

Excellent.Thank you.

I am thrilled to see an interview with an expert on this, especially as we look back on a few years of COVID. Managing youth sports is a big part of my job so I am thoroughly enjoying learning more about what really helps the kids because at the end of the day, youth sports programs are for THEM.

The topic and video shed light on the pressure that youth athletes experience and question why such burdens are placed on kids. In terms of parents, we often try to empathize and imagine how we would handle situations if we were in their place. However, it's crucial to recognize that the child, not the parent, is the one in that position. Especially in sports like soccer/football, split-second decisions are imperative, involving looking, hearing, defending, dribbling, and turning. The last thing they need is someone else shouting instructions on what to do and where to go. Conversely, many clubs and teams prioritize wins, rankings, and trophies for marketing purposes, often sacrificing quality for quantity. This intense pressure to win is imposed on kids, with potential consequences if they don't meet expectations. But why ? Lastly, it's imperative to listen to and understand what the child enjoys, rather than forcing them to pursue a sport solely based on a parent's preference. If a child doesn't find joy in a sport but is pushed into it due to parental wishes, fear, or embarrassment, it's important to reassess. We must reevaluate the essence of youth sports and recognize that not every child will reach the highest professional level. Instead, we should focus on understanding each child's limits and providing a supportive environment that fosters their individual growth

Thank you for making this video. I wish this content was a mandatory watch for all the coaches. My son who is an 11 year old soccer player with big aspirations and dreams, wants to quit because his coach is too hard on him. Burn out is a real thing for young athletes.

I am in Norway and this is not true. Those who suceed in Norway dedicate themselves to training. We Are good at skiing beacause we have a lot of snow. + skiing is all about condition so you can Get that from many sports. + not many countries ski. Thats why we have so many olympic medals. + we are rich so we can afford to train a lot and have access to facilities.

The size of the US makes it a challenge to not have a pay to play system. If you live in a big city, there are opportunities to play teams locally, but if you are in a more rural area, there may not be another team for 50 miles in the sports that are less popular. I listened to an interesting podcast about Belgium's youth soccer program and they cited the small size of the country makes it very easy to have lots of local teams and you never have to travel far even to go to the other end of the country. Also easier to unite a common philosophy.

Thank you

At 33.10 he talks about books, what books are these?

Great content and conversation. Terrible transition music.

Just take a look at athletes like Tiger Woods, Floyd Mayweather and Serena Williams, just to name a few.. All of their fathers were heavily involved and critical of their development. It’s pretty obvious that the more you train, the more you get out of it.

America is all about competition, so how do you teach your child to have fun but also have the competitive spirit so they dont get left behind their peers

While I mostly agree, I think Norway specifically also has genetics and a landmass conducive to practicing olympic sports, which makes them have a massive advantage. Being 2m tall and having godlike genetics along with a crapton of mountains always nearby probably helps them dominate sports.

Just googled which country has the most Olympic medals. The United States of America is number one and Norway is not in the top 10. We must be doing something, right

❤

Track your progress Consistent Identify problems and fix them

Sadly way too many parents here in the US (especially here!) forget that 99.99999% of their kids will never play professionally. Kids just want to enjoy sports and unfortunately parents make everything a competition. It's ridiculous - they're putting too much pressure on them and they're quitting as a result. Kick the parents out.

Talk is always nice, but Sweden has one of the worst environments in Europe for soccer. They allow "academy" teams do whatever they want pretty much and they do not have any rules to take in account the relative age effect or anything. Other European countries are way ahead when it comes to creating the right environment for kids relative their level. As always in Sweden they love to talk a good game but they do not touch the most idiotic academies like BP, DIF, AIK etc. they can do what they want no matter what.

Wrong philosophy.Most of the famous athletes first coache were their parents/siblings/relatives .

7:03 in the video I hear a huge fart get ripped 😅

These videos are always talking about and giving examples of why parents shouldn't push their kids, and they should just let them have fun. But how about the many examples where parents did push their kids and they became very successful? Cherry picking to support your argument is wrong! Also, making the argument that Parents aren't sitting there in school, cheering them on while they take a test is ridiculous. Sports are entertainment and not a requirement for life. Learning to read and write are absolutely a necessity, and when a child is doing poorly in school, we absolutely do address it as parents. There is a time and place for everything, and saying that pushing your child to do better is wrong is not right either. My father coached me and was at all my games even when he wasn't coaching me, and he was the loudest one there. I loved it and wish he had lived long enough to see how good I became. It was a love for the sport that brought us together and not further apart. My brother and I hated it when our mother would tell us that we played a good game when we knew we didn't. There is a happy median, and as a parent, we must know when to push and when to take a step back.

Sports wouldn’t be as awesome without the cheering tho. That’s part of what makes sports fun.

This is dumb… you make it sound like it’s a modern day problem. Sports is a competition. In fact, before team sports, throughout history, competitive events were deadly!! They slowly changed and Greece honored their olympians who work hard at their skill. This let them have fun is the modern day inclusion, the entitlement of everyone must have the chance…but sports at its core, it’s a competition and a competition cannot be equal. They are always looking for improvement, by increased skill, physical ability, and mental superiority. The better person win. So if Norway wants to hold hands and have fun, that their problem. Plp in different countries have different needs and approach things differently. Here certain parts of this country, if a minority doesn’t bust their behind playing basketball, baseball, football etc, is hard as hell to reach a high level of wealth. Norway doesn’t have that social economic pressure n problem

I think a lot of this stuff is misdiagnosed. Despite the culture of americans to want to win at all levels of play, we still dominate some sports. We dominate sports thay we heavily invest in and that attract the best athletes, it's as simple as that. Soccer is one of those sports where we don't, and instead rely too much on self-funded development and not enough money at the pro level. Economics does filter out promising players in this sport. Its not because parents care too much about their kids performance.

I kinda disagree that having parents act indifferent towards their kids sports is going to turn them into world class athletes.

Swedish sports model: all the women are running constantly away from migrants.

Cool speech an adult wrote for that 9 yr old, totally bought it. What kinda kid has too much stress when they literally hace zero responsibility? Cute