I often wonder how high school sports will operate 20 years from now. Will club sports continue to rise in importance, eroding high school teams? Or will we reinvent offerings so more kids can participate? Prioritizing club sports poses a risk to team, school, and community pride. Playing for two teams at the same time causes issues for both teams, and surely must cause some internal conflict for the kid. What could youth sports look like in the future?

We know more than ever about the importance of unstructured play for children, yet they seem to be getting less of it than ever before. How can you make time for your kids to play?

We’re past summer, it’s midterm time for students, and soon the holidays will be on our mind. It’s a good time for some down time.

We all know the saying “practice makes perfect.” But too much practice can lead to injury.

When we stray so far from where we started that we don’t remember what we set out to do, it’s time to go back to basics.

Just one of life’s lessons reinforced by pandemic cancellations: When we have time to look forward to something, we appreciate it more when it arrives.

Many parents have been led to believe that specialization is the key to their child’s athletic success. But it’s more likely that specialization will lead to burnout or injury. A recent study showed that most Division I athletes did not specialize, even in high school.

There are many reasons kids drop out of sports. Sometimes I wonder if we are missing the obvious.

For some of us, the pandemic pause on full schedules has been a chance to slow down and make different choices—from what we eat and what we wear to how we spend our precious free time. It’s also the perfect time to tune into our kids’ true interests and rethink the activities they’ll return to.