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Parents of Young Athletes, Take Note of Alum's New Book

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, Richard D. Ginsburg, PhD '98 (psychology; MS '95), and Stephen Durant, EdD, team up with a former Olympic rower and expert on performance excellence, Amy Baltzell, EdD, to share knowledge gained in more than forty years of combined experience.

Released by Houghton Mifflin this summer, the book has been hailed by Library Journal as comprehensive, well-developed, and an "essential" read for parents of young athletes. 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.

Ginsburg and Durant are faculty members at Harvard Medical School and directors of the Massachusetts General Hospital Sports Psychology Program; Baltzell teaches at in the School of Education at Boston University. Ginsburg's research and work experience spans 15 years with children, adolescents, and young adult populations in the context of sports, as a coach, teacher, and clinical psychologist. A sports psychology consultant for the Harvard men’s lacrosse team, he has given talks and provided consultations to high school teams in the Boston, Baltimore, and Washington, DC areas. An experienced athlete at the high school and college levels, he played lacrosse and soccer at Kenyon College, where he won all conference and all midwest honors. Ginsburg previously taught at the Williston Northampton School, where he coached soccer, diving, and lacrosse. To ask the authors a question regarding your child or sport psychology, listen to an NPR interview and read a CNN article, click here.

September 1, 2006