"American youth sports is undergoing a crisis in parental behavior: parents are fighting with refs, coaches, their kids, and each other. Verbal abuse is being thrown at adolescent referees, fist fights are breaking out on the sidelines, and leagues are having to impose new restrictions on parents' involvement. Sports psychologist Jerry Lynch sees this epidemic of bad behavior as a symptom of parents' overinvolvement in their children's sports lives and of parents attaching their egos to their children's athletic performance. The result not only serves as a terrible example of sportsmanship but also leads to kids losing interest in sports because it just isn't fun anymore. In Let Them Play, Dr. Jerry Lynch lays out relevant core principles to help parents achieve equanimity, peace, calm and direction for parenting their kids in what can often be a challenging world of youth sports. He also gives parents strategies, tools, methodologies and ways taken from his work with national champions to help their kids to perform at higher levels, be happy and have more fun. Among the topics addressed are: how to empower your athletic child; understanding gender differences and avoiding stereotypes; how to talk with a coach; how to deal with sports injury; handling sibling rivalry; how to handle when your child is cut or doesn't make a team; the delicate issue of specialization; how to teach and model good sportsmanship; how to detach from results; how to help your child increase good performances; why failure is our kids' best teacher; helping your child to mentally be strong for a sport and life; how to encourage risk-taking; how the child can get past self-imposed limits; how to help a child use affirmation and visualization.
Dr. Lynch has over 35 years of experience as a sports psychologist, coach, author of eleven books, athlete, teacher and parent of four athletic kids. Being intimately involved with 35 National Championship teams at the Professional and Collegiate levels as well as teaching and guiding thousands of athletes and sports parents in the essential absolutes of leadership, athletic performance and the parenting of kids in sports, Jerry has accumulated vast amounts of wisdom and knowledge that help him to make a difference in the lives of all of us connected to the field of athletics. Dr. Lynch currently helps parents nationwide, by guiding them to get past sport parent nightmare scenarios while teaching them how to help their little stars to perform at higher levels, become well-adjusted, be spirited, have more fun and be happy"--"A top sports psychologist and team consultant provides a powerful antidote to sports overparenting, giving parents and coaches tools to let their children succeed and actually enjoy sports"--.