As a coach, physical education teacher, or adult facilitator of youth athletics, you have a unique opportunity. Through the medium of sport, you can help young people cultivate the leadership skills they'll need to succeed in life, whether they become CEOs, salespeople, construction workers, or stay-at-home parents. Mark Mungal has created a powerful, sport-centric program of character-and-confidence- building learning experiences specifically designed for middle school and high school-aged participants. The proven principles, strategies, and techniques in this invaluable how-to guide will empower teens by: - Enhancing their communication and decision-making skills - Fostering creativity, adaptability, persistence, and resourcefulness - Encouraging openness, honesty, and meaningful relationships - Promoting self-respect, self-value, and social responsibility - And much more Leadership is not a talent restricted to an elite few. There is hidden strength in every young adult. Developing Youth Leadership through Sport will give you the tools to set it free.

This book responds to the needs of urban youth by describing youth development principles in physical activity programs. These programs are built on urban kids' assets and promise rather than their deficits. Included are ways of transferring skills from specific programs to everyday settings.

The first Positive Youth Development title to focus on the role of sport, this book brings together high profile contributors from diverse disciplines to critically examine the ways in which sport can be and has been used to promote youth development. Young people are too frequently looked upon as problems waiting to be solved. From the perspective of Positive Youth Development (PYD), young people are understood to embody potential, awaiting development. Involvement with sport provides a developmental context that has been associated with PYD, but negative outcomes can also arise from sport participation and school PE. Sport itself does not lead to PYD; rather, it is the manner in which sport is structured and delivered to children that influences their development. Positive Youth Development Through Sport fills a void in the literature by bringing together experts from diverse disciplines to critically examine the ways in which sport can be and has been used to promote youth development.

The first Positive Youth Development title to focus on the role of sport, this book brings together high profile contributors from diverse disciplines to critically examine the ways in which sport can be and has been used to promote youth development. Young people are too frequently looked upon as problems waiting to be solved. From the perspective of Positive Youth Development (PYD), young people are understood to embody potential, awaiting development. Involvement with sport provides a developmental context that has been associated with PYD, but negative outcomes can also arise from sport participation and school PE. Sport itself does not lead to PYD; rather, it is the manner in which sport is structured and delivered to children that influences their development. Positive Youth Development Through Sport fills a void in the literature by bringing together experts from diverse disciplines to critically examine the ways in which sport can be and has been used to promote youth development.

This study investigated the effects of family relationships/environment and sport participation on youth leadership development using the 2016 Minnesota Student Survey (MSS) questionnaire. Responses from 9th and 11th graders were used, resulting in 81,885 total participants between the ages of 13 and 19 for this archival, cross-sectional study. This study had two aims: One, to investigate the relationship between family relationships/environment and sport participation, and their impact on youth leadership skills and development; and two, to investigate whether participation in youth sports provides enough scaffolding to foster the development of youth leadership skills despite poor family relationships/environments. Scales were created for this study using questions from the MSS questionnaire. Linear regression was used to test three hypotheses: (1) Both positive family relationships and a positive family environment, as well as greater participation in sports, will each be associated with youth leadership ability; (2) Sport participation will be more strongly related to leadership ability than family relationships and environment; and (3) Adolescents that have non-supportive family relationships/environment and participate in sports will endorse better leadership skills than adolescents that do not participate in sports but have positive family relationships/environments. Results found hypotheses two and three were not supported, while hypothesis one was supported. Implications for findings are discussed including possible clinical application and future research directions.

Cutting through the political rhetoric about the power of sport as a tool for social change and personal improvement, this book offers insight into how and why participating in sport can be good for children and young people. As the first text to focus on the role of sport in positive youth development (PYD), it brings together high-profile contributors from diverse disciplines to examine critically the ways in which sport can be used to promote youth development. Now in a fully updated, revised and expanded new edition, Positive Youth Development through Sport covers a wider range of disciplines including sport psychology, development psychology, physical education, sport development and sport sociology. Its three main sections focus on: the theoretical and historical contexts of PYD quantitative and qualitative methods for assessing PYD in sport the potential of PYD in sport across different ages and abilities. With expanded guidance on how to apply positive youth development in practice, this is essential reading for all students, researchers, educators, practitioners and policy makers with an interest in youth sport.

The modern day youth sports environment has taken the enjoyment out of athletics for our children. Currently, 70% of kids drop out of organized sports by the age of 13, which has given rise to a generation of overweight, unhealthy young adults. There is a solution. John O’Sullivan shares the secrets of the coaches and parents who have not only raised elite athletes, but have done so by creating an environment that promotes positive core values and teaches life lessons instead of focusing on wins and losses, scholarships, and professional aspirations. Changing the Game gives adults a new paradigm and a game plan for raising happy, high performing children, and provides a national call to action to return youth sports to our kids.