Customer Reviews

Game On: The All-American Race to Make Champions of Our Children

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As a person who reads a great deal about sports and who has a twenty-five year background in High School and College Athletics, I felt Farrey did a great job of providing some fresh information and certainly made me think a bit outside of the box. I would recommend this to parents, coaches, and athletes and give a thumbs up to the author for his insights.

I enjoyed the format of the book and how the information was presented, therefore, making it a pretty east read. Farrey provided me with some key observations that warrant deeper and further investigation. I would have given this a 5 star rating but I was bothered by a number of factors I felt were omitted.

First, I realize that the author works for ESPN and it may not be in his best interest to touch on the role the national sports media plays in youth sports in particular ESPN, but to fail to mention how this effects the youth sports culture took something away from the book personnally. He is correct in placing blame on some organizations such as AAU and in some cases the school systems, but he fails to address the comparitive damage caused by his employer and its representatives. To give ESPN and the culture they have created a pass is an omission by Farrey. Second, most of the information and chapters deal with the upper levels of youth sports and athletics. Farrey, chose to focus most of his attention here, but in doing so neglected to touch on Middle America and the average youth participant. High school sports are much larger than the national power schools, there are hundreds of high schools who have provided great experiences for student-athletes. I also objected to Mr. Farrey's indictment of private schools and recuiting the argrument was much of the same with very little new insight.

Despite these objections I salute the author for his efforts and research.

Game On should be required reading for all parents currently spending their weekends in the stands watching their beloved child grind through a hockey, lacrosse, soccer, basketball, baseball or football game. With hard statistical data (don't be counting on that college athletic scholarship after looking at the tables in the back of the book) and revealing anecdotes (the Canadian golfing star at 6 who is burned out by 12 but still has a website tells you all you need to know about junior golf pressures) that should cause every parent traveling 100 miles to watch 8 year olds play hockey: what are we doing here exactly? (Interestingly, the author's kid is on a travel soccer team) Do the long odds of sports justify the unbelievable sacrifices. In addition, Farrey tackles the thornier question: does this early exposure and specialization really work? Are we producing superstar athletes in the US. Increasingly, the answer seems to be no. Also, it reveals that the club coach who has taken a special interest in your child for his/her team is, at their core, a businessman running a business over what we used to call child's play.

Would be a great book club topic, since increasingly you can't talk about parenting young kids without talking about the sports culture that they are growing up in.

A great job by Tom Farrey to advance the debate of our youth sports model in America. He presents great storylines and compelling evidence, that should be the topics of discussion for any of us involved in sport.

...and I still think this is one of the most important books I've read in a long time. How a society treats its least powerful members--and I would say that kids definitely fall into that category--can tell you so much about what its values are, and what lays in store for its future. So what does it say about us that we pimp our kids (or their athletic abilities) to profit-mad sneaker companies, glory-seeking coaches who've never received training in child development, and NCAA colleges who in turn sell the kids' talents to TV networks in order to fund megastadium complexes? About the only good thing it says, I think, is that parents are genuinely doing these things out of love, and because, in the completely nutso youth sports system of today, there's precious little alternative. A great, alarming, incredibly well-researched book.

Tom does a great job pulling together lots of research, studies and common sense insight on the modern sports culture in America. Nicely done and a good read for those who are interested in youth sports.

I was so surprised at the quality I was mailed. I payed for a used book... the book had never been opened. It was an excellent buy!