The World's Greatest Sports Prodigies: & How to Prepare Young Athletes for Success

What I liked about this book was not only tips on training for success and goal attainment, but also how to find the balance. It is possible to push too hard, and as a result lose the gains one fought so hard to achieve. As parents, it's sometimes difficult to see where that line is. This book gives clear strategies on how to push your child, assuming it's something you both want to achieve, without over doing and potentially destroying the love of the game and the potential for it to be more than a game.

I came across this book while looking for some insights into our apparently budding soccer star, and am so glad I found it! I may be the antithesis to many parents whose kids play sports, in that I am a little wary about being too encouraging for my children to be heavily involved in sports. I live in the bay area, which is a real pressure cooker when it comes to competition of all sorts – whether it be scholastic, athletic, or something else. As a result, I don't want to add any more to those pressures on my children--they will get enough of that as time goes on. On the other hand, if my kids show up proficiency and a desire to pursue a particular venue, then I want to afford them every opportunity to do so without overwhelming. This book basically provides me the blueprint for doing just that! It's a very straightforward, a little shorter than I expected, which I actually liked, because I got all the information I needed very quickly and concisely. It's a very healthy approach to incorporating sports into your children's lives, without it overwhelming everybody! I particularly love the focus on proper training, nutrition, and the realities of winning and losing (as I do not hail from the "everybody wins" mentality, either). My child came into playing soccer later in life than most other chidren her age, yet she is really enjoying it, is getting excellent exercise, and shows great promise. Unfortunately one of her major handicaps is her mother, who had never played soccer before in her life! Another excellent point about this book--it gives resources that I can go to get the proper soccer expertise that my daughter will probably need.

As a parent of two young boys who are blessed with natural ability as middle-distance runners, I have been grappling with many of the issues that Anthony Lynch addresses in The World's Greatest Sports Prodigies. Drawing from ten examples of famous athletes who were groomed from a young age to become athletic champions, Anthony Lynch identifies aspects of their training that contributed to success as well as those that may have prevented them from achieving their full potential. In the last quarter of the book, Lynch offers a blueprint for training a youth athlete to be successful in sports and life. His program, which is also informed by experience training his own son, covers overall physical conditioning, sport-specific training, and the mental game. Most of what he recommends fits with my own experiences in training my sons for youth track and basketball, and he includes some specific training tips and pointers that will be useful for parents who are searching for that delicate balance between cultivating their kids' talent and turning the pursuit of athletic greatest into an unhealthy obsession.

This book is definitely recommended for parents of children who have a passion and aptitude for athletics. The author raises the interesting question on whether great athletes are born with natural ability or did they reach greatness by hard work (nature versus nurture).The author provides ten case studies of athletes, who demonstrated tremendous promise as youths and the paths they took to either greatness or notoriety. Some of these great athletes, most readers will know, such as Wayne Gretzky, Kobe Bryant, Mike Tyson, and Tiger Woods; whereas other athletes, such as Greco-Roman wrestling great Alexander Karelin or Mixed Martial Artist BJ Penn are just as great in their sports, but have not reached celebrity-athlete status. Anthony also provides the cautionary tale of Todd Marinovich, who was trained from even before birth to be a world-class NFL quarterback, but crashed and burned as a result of his father single track mind training.The author gives sound advice on developing a through training problem for the young budding athlete in your family without being a helicopter parent. Anthony also emphasizes the critical need for young athletes to develop good eating habits and tough mental mindset.

Lynch is an extremely knowledgeable coach/trainer and brings his insights on how to develop your kid's athletic promise. Whether you think your kid will become a sports superstar or you are encouraging them to enjoy sports, this is a highly recommend read.This book is in two parts. The first part examines the careers of ten different sports prodigies, the successful ones and the busts. Are you pushing your kid too hard to succeed? Then you will benefit from the cautionary tale of Todd Marinovich. The second part of the book is a prescription for raising successful athletes. Should I encourage my kid to specialize in one sport? How do I help my kid prepare mentally? Lynch provides answers to these questions by examining the careers of famous sports prodigies as well as studying the results from the young athletes he has coached.

The title says it all. This book is broken up into two parts. The first half examines some of the greatest sports prodigies of all time: Mike Tyson, Wayne Gretzky, BJ Penn, Todd Marinovich... Their athletic gifts, their rise to success, and in some cases their falls.The latter half of the book gives advice to parents with children in youth sports. There's advice on training, workouts, nutrition, and keys to avoid "sports burnout." It really makes parents aware of the pitfalls of pushing competitive young athletes too hard, and advises them to train them wisely while keeping things fun.After reading this book, you'll definitely be able to get more out of your young athletes.