Healthy Sports Parents

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, often without realizing it. They discuss why parents can deeply love their kids and still respond in unhealthy ways, how generational patterns show up on the sidelines, why praising effort matters, and how curiosity can help parents stay connected to their children regardless of what happens on the scoreboard.

This conversation goes deeper than sideline behavior and serves as an invitation for sports parents to understand their own stories, recognize the patterns they’ve inherited, and consider who they are becoming while helping their kids grow through sports.

In this episode:

Why a child’s sports performance can feel so personal to a parent
How family-of-origin patterns influence sports parenting
Why parents sometimes repeat behaviors they experienced as kids
Breaking generational cycles without simply blaming previous generations
The difference between praising effort and praising results
Why curiosity can be more valuable than evaluation after a game
How shame and performance can become connected
Why connection with a child matters more than the scoreboard
What parents can learn about themselves through youth sports

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HEALTHY SPORTS PARENTING COURSE

Get access at HealthySportsParenting.com.

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MORE FROM DR. THOMPSON:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/curtthompsonmd/
Website: https://curtthompsonmd.com/
Podcast: https://www.thebeingknownpodcast.com/

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New episodes every Wednesday.

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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 Jonathan Carone about what happens when youth sports make belonging the starting point instead of something kids have to earn.

They get into why kids need safe chances to make bad decisions, how sports can build independence, the value of letting kids choose their own level of competition, why teenagers need opportunities to play just for fun, and how competitive kids can learn to use that drive to make the people around them better.

They also talk about exercise and ADHD, the unique benefits of repetitive sports like mountain biking, swimming and running, and why giving kids ownership over their sports experience can help them build a relationship with movement that lasts long after their competitive years are over.

This episode uses mountain biking as the example, but the bigger question applies to every sport:

How do we create more places where kids of different abilities, interests and goals can play, grow and belong?

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HEALTHY SPORTS PARENTING COURSE

Get access at HealthySportsParenting.com.

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More from NICA:

Website: https://nationalmtb.org/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nationalmtb/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NationalMTB/

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FROM OUR SPONSORS:

Sportball Franchising
https://sportballfranchise.com/

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Get your Weekend Playbook:
https://www.healthysportsparents.com/playbook

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New episodes every Wednesday.

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Get your Healthy Sports Parents gear:
https://www.healthysportsparents.com/shop

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Get your Weekend Playbook:
https://www.healthysportsparents.com/playbook

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Follow us on social:

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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 development matters more than tournaments, how to know when to push your kid and when to back off, and why every child needs a different path. Coach Hudson also shares what he learned while watching his own son go from never playing a high school volleyball match to becoming the starting libero at Ohio State.

More than anything, this conversation is a reminder that your kid’s sports journey doesn’t need to end with a college roster spot to be successful. There’s a lot of good happening right now if we’re willing to stop chasing what’s next long enough to see it.

--------

HEALTHY SPORTS PARENTING COURSE

Get access at HealthySportsParenting.com.

--------

FROM OUR SPONSORS:

Interested in sponsoring an episode?
Hello@HealthySportsParents.com

--------

Get your Healthy Sports Parents shirts:
https://www.healthysportsparents.com/shop

---------

Get your Weekend Playbook:
https://www.healthysportsparents.com/playbook

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Follow us on social:

https://www.instagram.com/healthysportsparents
https://www.tiktok.com/@healthysportsparents
https://www.facebook.com/healthysportsparents
https://www.threads.net/healthysportsparents
New episodes every Wednesday.

---------

Get your Healthy Sports Parents gear:
https://www.healthysportsparents.com/shop

---------

Get your Weekend Playbook:
https://www.healthysportsparents.com/playbook

-----------

Follow us on social:

https://www.instagram.com/healthysportsparents
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https://www.threads.net/healthysportsparents
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 us are: When should we push? When should we back off? How do we help our kids build real confidence? And what happens when they just aren't ready to take that next step yet?

In this episode, Jordan and Jonathan Carone talk about why kids have to decide for themselves when they're ready to level up, how parents can support that process without pressing the button for them, and why failure and adversity are an important part of becoming a confident athlete.

They also talk about building confidence without making kids dependent on praise, celebrating the things kids can control, why winning isn't the only way to measure progress, the value of playing multiple sports, and why parents may be trying too hard to create the perfect sports journey for their kids.

Whether your kid dreams of playing in the NFL or just wants to have fun with their friends, their path belongs to them.

In this episode:

Why every young athlete develops on a different timeline
When parents should push and when they should wait
Why it's your kid's "button to press"
How to build confidence that doesn't depend on praise
What parents and coaches should celebrate beyond goals and touchdowns
Why failure and adversity can be good for young athletes
The value of traditional and nontraditional sports
Why the perfect youth sports path doesn't exist

--------

HEALTHY SPORTS PARENTING COURSE

Get access at HealthySportsParenting.com.

Use code SUMMER15 for 15% off before August 19.

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More from Jordan Palmer:

QB Summit: https://qbsummit.com/
Thread Performance: https://threadperformance.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jordanpalmer

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FROM OUR SPONSORS:

Sportball Franchising
https://sportballfranchise.com/

JAX Athletics
Coupon Code: HSP15 for 15% off
https://jaxathletics.com/

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Get your Healthy Sports Parents shirts:
https://www.healthysportsparents.com/shop

---------

Get your Weekend Playbook:
https://www.healthysportsparents.com/playbook

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Follow us on social:

https://www.instagram.com/healthysportsparents
https://www.tiktok.com/@healthysportsparents
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https://www.threads.net/healthysportsparents
New episodes every Wednesday.

---------

Get your Healthy Sports Parents gear:
https://www.healthysportsparents.com/shop

---------

Get your Weekend Playbook:
https://www.healthysportsparents.com/playbook

-----------

Follow us on social:

https://www.instagram.com/healthysportsparents
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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 some of the messier questions parents face:

When does persistence become a sunk cost?
How do you know when it's okay to let your kid quit?
Why can immediate feedback actually make things worse?
How can we give kids enough structure to grow without taking away the curiosity that helps them figure out who they want to become?

It's a conversation about giving kids room to explore, challenges that help them grow, and the freedom to fail while they're figuring it all out.

--------

HEALTHY SPORTS PARENTING COURSE

Get access at HealthySportsParenting.com.

Use code SUMMER15 for 15% off before August 19.

--------

More from David Epstein:

Website: https://davidepstein.com/
Inside The Box: AMAZON
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidepstein

--------

FROM OUR SPONSORS:

Sportball Franchising
https://sportballfranchise.com/

Hour-a-thon
https://www.hour-a-thon.com/

--------

Get your Healthy Sports Parents shirts:
https://www.healthysportsparents.com/shop

---------

Get your Weekend Playbook:
https://www.healthysportsparents.com/playbook

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Follow us on social:

https://www.instagram.com/healthysportsparents
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#youthsports #sportsparent #travelball #raisingathletes
New episodes every Wednesday.

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Get your Healthy Sports Parents gear:
https://www.healthysportsparents.com/shop

---------

Get your Weekend Playbook:
https://www.healthysportsparents.com/playbook

-----------

Follow us on social:

https://www.instagram.com/healthysportsparents
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Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.