Successful Parenting

Wanting to win is understandable. But in Doug Abrams' fourth annual countdown of top youth sports stories, five examples of exceptional sportsmanship involving disabled athletes confronting special challenges serve as a reminder to all of us that the final score is much less important than it seems.

A study presented at the 55th Annual Meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine in May 2008 established that the structuring of children's games has a significant effect on energy expenditure.

Many parents and coaches of gifted child athletes entertain dreams of Olympic gold for their young charges. But prudence needs to be taken with elite child athletes, with parents and coaches continually evaluating what is in the best interest of the child. For parents, this means not only paying attention to what the child wants, but also taking responsibility to protect the child from overtraining.

It is sad but true that our sports culture all too frequently extends extra privileges to athletes because of their presumed special status, a phenomenon commonly called  "the jock culture." While that culture at the nation's middle and high school isn't going to go away any time soon, there are steps parents can take to at least avoid reinforcing its  negative aspects.

It is well-established that playing sports is good for boys.  Indeed, some experts contend that, given  the way they hard-wired, boys need sports and competition because they provide healthy ways to channel their intense physicality and aggression and feel strong.

Like learning a second language, learning sports is best done when you are young. For one mom, growing up in the pre-Title IX era meant that, no matter how hard she tried, she just couldn't seem to follow what was going on - even when her own son was playing.

Advice from the Women's Sports Foundation on how parents can help make youth sports safer for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender athletes.

Visiting college campuses is a great thing for young athletes to do. A recruiting visit is an athlete's one real chance to investigate the school and the team.

For too many girls, the likelihood of their participation and the quality of their playing experience is far from equal. With this in mind, the Women’s Sports Foundation is partnering with the California Women’s Law Center (CLWC), the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington (ACLU) and the Women’s Law Project (WLP) on a national campaign to increase the effectiveness of Title IX by providing education, resources and technical assistance to parents, students, coaches and administrators In three target states (California, Washington and Pennsylvania) to level the playing field in those communities.