Whose Game Is It, Anyway?: A Guide to Helping Your Child Get the Most from Sports, Organized by Age and Stage

By Stephen Durant and Richard D. Ginsburg

Book Overview

In an era when parents and kids are overwhelmed by a sports-crazed, win-at-all-costs culture, here is a comprehensive guide that helps parents ensure a positive sports experience for their children. In Whose Game Is It, Anyway? two of the country's leading youth sports psychologists team up with a former Olympic athlete and expert on performance enhancement to share what they have gleaned in more than forty years of combined experience.

The result is a book unique in its message, format, and scope.
Through moving case studies and thoughtful analyses, Ginsburg, Durant, and Baltzell advocate a preventive approach through a simple three-step program: know yourself, know your child, know the environment.
They look at children in age groups, identifying the physical, psychological, and emotional issues unique to each group and clarifying what parents can expect from and desire for their kids at every stage.
They also explore myriad relevant topics, including parental pressure, losing teams, steroid use, the overscheduled child, and much more.
Illuminating, impassioned, and inspiring, Whose Game Is It, Anyway?
is required reading for anyone raising--or educating--a child who participates in sports.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0618474609
• ISBN13: 9780618474608
• Release Date: March 2006
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

A superb resource for any parent with children who play sports

As a clinical psychologist, sports fan and father of 3 young children, I found this book to be an extraordinary resource for any parent who wants their children to get the most out of sports, at any age. It is an extremely well written and organized book by a leading expert in the field of sports psychology and child development. I highly recommend it.

An essential guide for caring parents

Parents, parent Teacher groups, recreation departments, and schools will welcome the expertise of the authors of this guide. Kids of all ages will benefit from their careful analyses and advice.

On Target

As the coach of a 5th grade basketball team, I find the book to be immensely helpful. "Whose Game Is It Anyway" provides unique and practical insight into handling the complex challenges of coaching and parenting youngsters in today's intensely competitive society. Sports provide a wonderful opportunity for children to develop skills that can help them navigate life, yet too often, we as parents, coaches, and teachers, obstruct their development rather than facilitate it. If you're interested in helping children reach their potential as athletes, and most importantly, as healthy, happy, and productive members of society, you MUST read the book.

Whose Game is it, Anyway?

Well done - finally a book that helps parents help their children get the most out of what should be fun and growing experiences on the playing field.

Insightful look at both parents and kids

This is a great book for all parents. It is both intelligent and compelling. Any parent who intends to be an active participant in their children's forays into sport owes it to themself as well as their children to read this fine book.