Healthy Sports Parents

Kids need time to figure out what they love. But in a youth sports culture that pushes kids toward travel teams, year-round training, and specialization earlier and earlier, it can feel like there’s no time to wait. Natasha Watley became one of the best softball players in the world, winning an NCAA National Championship at UCLA, an Olympic gold medal, and an Olympic silver medal. But her journey...

What happens when helping your kid reach their potential starts hurting your relationship with them? Craig Young is the father of Carolina Panthers quarterback Bryce Young, but he’s also spent more than 25 years working in mental health and family systems. Even with all that training, Craig admits he got it wrong with Bryce. At times, he became so focused on helping his son reach his potential tha...

What if the way we’ve been trying to build toughness in young athletes is actually making it harder for them to grow? Megan Bartlett, Founder of the Center for Healing and Justice Through Sport, joins Jonathan Carone to talk about what kids actually need to handle pressure, take risks, recover from mistakes, and become more resilient. They talk about why feeling safe doesn’t mean lowering standard...

Two-time MLB All-Star Carlos Quentin joins Healthy Sports Parents for a conversation about youth sports parenting, athlete development and why kids don’t need to be great at sports right now. After nine seasons in Major League Baseball, Carlos is now experiencing youth sports as a parent and coach. He shares how being an elite athlete affected the way he initially approached coaching his own kids,...

Youth sports are getting more expensive, more competitive, and more structured at younger ages. So what happens to the kids and families who simply want a chance to play? In this episode, Healthy Sports Parents founder Jonathan Carone talks with retired professional hockey player and Swift Hockey founder Zechariah Thomas about the growing barriers to youth sports. They discuss kids entering travel...

In this episode of Healthy Sports Parents, Jonathan Carone sits down with psychiatrist and author Dr. Curt Thompson to explore why sports parenting can feel so personal and why a child’s performance can bring out emotions parents never expected. Dr. Thompson explains how parents carry their own family history, insecurities, shame, and unfinished business into their children’s sports experiences, o...

Youth sports have become increasingly all-or-nothing. Make the team. Commit more time. Play at a higher level. Keep up, or eventually there may not be a place for you anymore. Amanda Carey believes there’s another way. Amanda is the President of the National Interscholastic Cycling Association (NICA) and a multi-time professional mountain biking champion. In this conversation, she talks with Jonat...

Coach Travis Hudson has spent 32 years building Western Kentucky volleyball into one of the best mid-major programs in the country. Along the way, he’s learned a lot about what actually matters in developing athletes and raising kids through sports. In this episode, Coach Hudson and Jonathan Carone talk about why parents feel so much pressure to rush their kids to the next team or level, why devel...

Every kid develops on their own timeline. The challenge for parents is believing that when it feels like everyone else's kid is getting ahead. Former NFL quarterback and longtime quarterback coach Jordan Palmer has worked with some of the best quarterbacks in football, including Josh Allen, Joe Burrow, and Trevor Lawrence. But as a dad of four, he's also navigating the same questions the rest of u...

David Epstein has spent years making the case for range, exploration, and giving kids time to discover what fits. His new book,  Inside the Box , makes what initially sounds like the opposite argument: sometimes we need more constraints, not more options. David joins Jonathan Carone to explore what happens when you put those two ideas together in youth sports and parenting. They wrestle with...

What does it actually take for a kid to love sports for the long haul? World Cup champion and two-time Olympic gold medalist Abby Wambach joins Jonathan Carone for a conversation about what happens when adults stop trying to manufacture motivation and give kids the space to discover what they actually love. They talk about the pressure inside modern youth sports, why a kid's desire has to come fro...

Youth sports is one of the most influential institutions in childhood. It teaches teamwork, resilience, leadership, confidence, and community. Millions of families invest thousands of dollars and countless hours into it every year. Yet unlike schools, parks, or public health, no one is really in charge. In this episode, Jonathan sits down with Renata Simril, president and CEO of LA84 Foundation an...

Some of the healthiest things we can do as sports parents feel completely wrong in the moment. We want to correct every mistake. We want to protect our kids from failure. We want to solve their problems, give them feedback after every game, and keep them from feeling disappointed. But what if those instincts are actually getting in the way of what our kids need most? In this episode, sports psycho...

Youth sports are supposed to help kids grow, compete, fail, learn, and have fun. But somewhere along the way, a lot of adults started acting like fun and hard can’t both exist at the same time. In this episode of  Healthy Sports Parents , Jonathan Carone sits down with former player, coach, and creator Jake Savickifor a conversation about what kids actually need from the adults around th...

Congressman Chris Deluzio and Senator Cory Booker join Healthy Sports Parents creator Jonathan Carone for a conversation about the newly introduced Let Kids Play Act and why they believe youth sports in America are becoming inaccessible for too many families. Instead of focusing only on the details of the legislation, this conversation explores the bigger questions underneath it all: Why do youth...

Youth sports can feel like they’re all about the next game, the next season, or the next level. But what if the bigger opportunity has nothing to do with any of that? In this episode of  Healthy Sports Parents , Jonathan Carone sits down with Lisa Willis to talk about what sports are really meant to give our kids. From her journey through UCLA and the WNBA to her work as a coach tod...

Youth sports are not about winning. They’re about helping our kids become the best version of themselves possible. In this episode of Healthy Sports Parents, Jonathan sits down with Dr. Jeremy Alland, team doctor for the Chicago Bulls and White Sox, for a practical and honest conversation about injuries, overuse, and what parents need to understand about their child’s long-term health. T...

A lot of families hit a point where rec league doesn’t feel like enough anymore, and the next step seems obvious: move to club (travel) sports where kids will get more games, more training, and more opportunity. But before making that jump, it’s worth slowing down and understanding what actually changes when you leave rec behind. In this episode, Jonathan is joined by author Karen Scholl – a mom w...

A lot of families start the youth sports journey with the same goal in mind: play at the highest level possible and see where it goes. But what happens when you actually get there… and realize it wasn’t what you thought it would be? In this conversation, Jonathan sat down with Britt Lee, co-founder of Pure Athlete and a dad who’s walked the full path. His son reached Division I tennis. He also had...

Youth sports can quickly take over family life, leaving parents feeling pressure to specialize early, chase opportunities, and keep up with everyone else. But what if taking youth sports back starts with one simple shift at home? In this episode of the Healthy Sports Parents podcast, ESPN college football reporter and sports mom Heather Dinich joins the conversation to talk about balancing youth s...

What happens when we stop trying to control our kids' sports experience and start helping them own it? In this episode, retired USWNT player and current youth coach / pro team owner Leslie Osborne shares why the healthiest sports journeys are the ones driven by kids, not adults. From playing multiple sports growing up to navigating injuries and life after soccer, Leslie reflects on how ownership,...

Youth sports matter. We care because our kids care. But somewhere along the way, it’s easy for that care to turn into pressure, stress, and taking things way more seriously than we ever intended. In this episode, Jonathan sits down with comedian and sports dad  Dustin Nickerson  to talk about the realities of being a sports parent – the long tournaments, the awkward sideline dynamics, th...

Youth sports can feel heavier than it’s supposed to. Not because parents don’t care. But because they care so much. In this episode, Jonathan sits down with former Nike sports marketer Jordan to pull back the curtain on what’s really shaping the youth sports experience today. From the way brands speak to us, to the rise of travel teams, to the pressure to keep up with other families, there’s more...

Youth sports need more trustworthy adults in kids’ lives. In this episode, Jonathan talks with  Dr. Katlin Okamoto of the U.S. Soccer Foundation  about the single biggest thing youth sports needs right now. It’s not better drills, more tournaments, or earlier specialization. It’s adults who understand that their influence goes far beyond the scoreboard. They explore why coaches often bec...

Youth sports development often focuses on skills, reps, and results. But there’s a missing piece that determines whether kids actually grow, last, and enjoy the journey. In this episode, Jonathan sits down with  Dr. Jonathan Jenkins , Team Clinical and Performance Psychologist for the  New England Patriots  and Behavioral Sport Psychologist for the  Boston Red Sox , to talk abo...