Books

This highly popular guide for athletes, coaches, and parents is based upon Wolff’s many years of clinical, hands-on work with top professional and amateur athletes in a variety of sports. He provides real insight into what does―and doesn’t―work. Specifically:

Do pre-game visualization techniques really work?
Is it okay to be superstitious, or are those rituals counterproductive?
Does taking a deep breath or two in a tight situation really help?
What’s the best way to learn how to make key adjustments during the game?
The answers are clear, right to the point, and help clear up a lot of the confusion when it comes to how to mentally prepare for games.

A very practical, provocative, and comprehensive guide for all parents who want to ensure that their children get the most out of their sports experiences.

Parents today do not want to be lectured anymore about the problems inherent in youth sports. Rather, they want to learn how to work around the pitfalls regarding bad coaches, setbacks, travel team concerns, and in short, how to make certain that their children enjoy sports and have the opportunity to develop their full athletic potential. A must for parents of kids from kindergarten age through high school, this book also includes a frank discussion of college recruitment issues.

As featured on OPRAH!

What could be easier or more fun than coaching youth sports? How complicated could it be―it’s all fun and games, right? Unfortunately, I think we all recognize that coaching kids these days isn’t that simple.

This book is written specifically for the first-time youth coach who wants to know how to organize practices, get set for games, motivate the kids, deal with the parents, and everything else in between.

Packed with practical advice for coaches and parents, it shows you how to:

Help kids select the best sports for them
Communicate effectively with your young athletes
Deal with losses and wins
Provide encouragement without pushing too hard
Motivate kids and boost performance
Foster good sportsmanship
Prevent sports burnout
Handle angry parents
Evaluate travel teams

The iconic Hall of Famer and long-time Baltimore Orioles baseball superstar shares his own personal concerns about how youth baseball has become more competitive than fun. In this revelatory guide for parents and coaches (written with Rick Wolff), Ripken explains how to avoid the counter-productive coaching practices that have become a major concern to sports parents everywhere.

This is a rare and honest inside look as to how one of the all-time great athletes raised his own kids through their sports endeavors.

Wolff breaks down and analyzes the ten different absolutely crucial rules for today’s coaches and parents.

This is a vital primer for anyone who has a son or daughter who plays competitive youth sports. If you are confused and baffled by what to expect in the ever-changing landscape of sports parenting, this short book will help quell your concerns.

Anybody who has a youngster who plays sports knows full well that – sometimes – we say unfortunate things to our kids that we regret.  Occasionally, sports parents and coaches will chalk up these unwanted comments to “the heat of the athletic battle” or come up with some other excuse when we say something that makes our child wince.

Wouldn’t it be great if there were a roadmap of what the WORST THINGS are, so that parents and coaches could familiarize themselves with them, and then work hard to prevent making these awful comments in the future?

Here, then, for the first time ever is a quick primer for all sports parents and coaches of what NOT to say!