Games Girls Play: Understanding and Guiding Young Female Athletes [Paperback]

Caroline Silby Ph.D. (Author), Shelley Smith (Author)

Book Description

A Reviving Ophelia for soccer moms: Games Girls Play gives parents advice for encouraging their daughters to participate in sports and making sure their experiences as athletes are empowering. Sports psychologist and former nationally ranked figure skater Caroline Silby teaches parents how to find the right sport for their young daughters and helps them tackle hurdles that affect older atletes. Using real-life examples, Silby prepares parents for the obstacles that female athletes face and offers solutions for handling everything from the stresses of competition, to motivation problems, to self-esteem issues, to difficult coaches, to eating disorders, to sexual harassment.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

For the 2 million parents of girls who play intramural sports, the comment, "you play like a girl," is considered a compliment. Games Girls Play, written by sports psychologist and former figure skater Caroline Silby with ESPN reporter Shelley Smith, moves beyond the widely reported benefits of sports for young women--offering both parents and coaches a fresh, smart guide for responding to the needs of the young female athlete. Whether they are writing about choosing a sport, building confidence, staying calm during a competition, or debriefing after the game, the authors have created a powerful primer on the inner work of sports psychology. As they explain, "teaching athletes to use their thoughts, perceptions, images and body language, focus and effort to move ahead are the life lessons of sports."

Drawing examples from case studies, the approach is highly practical and each chapter has bulleted strategies, checklists, summaries, and quick pointed questions (What if the coach plays favorites? Should I watch practice? How can I help her balance school and sports?) Yet the most probing questions are directed to parents, asking, for example: Can you accept that your daughter will disappoint you? Can you settle for personal improvement rather than winning? Other insightful chapters focus on a variety of subjects including coaching the coach, bad sport parents, and coping with crunch times, as well as the darker side of female sports---eating disorders, harassment, and steroid use. Each chapter offers rich resources for guiding a young woman to strengthen her body and mind and to transfer the lessons of sports to the rest of her life. --Barbara Mackoff --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Practicing sports psychologist Silby, who serves on the United States Olympic Committee, and ESPN journalist Smith direct this book toward the parents of teenage girls who, although sharing many sports issues with boys, also have specific concerns, such as decreasing assertiveness and ambivalence over physical maturation. Silby discusses many topics (e.g., What if a coach plays favorites? ) and portrays many of her case studies, complete with dialog. The authors devote much attention to helping the young female athlete differentiate between what can and can!t be controlled and provide mental exercises (e.g., self-talk, reframing, and imagery) to help her performance. Though somewhat academic in tone, the book provides advice that will help parents and girls benefit from sports in the ways espoused by Jean Zimmerman and Gil Reavill!s Raising Our Athletic Daughters (LJ 11/1/98). A good addition for large public libraries."Kathy Ruffle, Coll. of New Caledonia Lib., Prince George, BC
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin; 1st edition (October 5, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312271263
• ISBN-13: 978-0312271268
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #694,753 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #93 in Books > Sports & Outdoors > Coaching > Children's Sports

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must read for parents of young female athletes, August 17, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Games Girls Play: Understanding and Guiding Young Female Athletes (Hardcover)

This book is a must read for parents of young girls. Through her experience as a competitive figure skater and sports psychologist, she clearly has the knowledge necessary to aid parents of girls interested in sports. I found this book to be extremely helpful as our family began to navigate the road to competitive sport for our 7 year old daughter. This is a must read for all families with daughters who are playing sports either competitively or recreationally!

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Title is deceiving..., November 13, 2000

By 

"elehmann" (Waukesha, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Games Girls Play: Understanding and Guiding Young Female Athletes (Hardcover)

Be aware, this book is more like Sports Psychology 101 than it is understanding and guiding female athletes. If you are a coach working with female athletes and you are looking at better ways to coach, read some of the UNC Womens National Team Soccer books. If you are looking for an intermediate book on Sports Psychology with examples using female athletes, this is what you get. It deals with individual issues for specific athletes with little applications to team sports. Parents who are looking to help their daughters with some psychology issues will find this book helpful. However, the remedy is usually seek professional help. This is an unique and rare sports psychology book geared towards female athletes.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book for Coaches and Parents of Female athletes, October 7, 2000

By 

P. Wung "Engineering is my vocation, volleyba... (Tipp City, OH USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Games Girls Play: Understanding and Guiding Young Female Athletes (Hardcover)

I have coached club volleyball for six years and have been a club director for three years, a lot of the lessons that Dr. Silby presents are pretty lessons that I have learned over the years through sheer hard lessons. I wish that I had this book to reference when I first started to coach young women.

Dr. Silby's book has been less a revelation but a reinforcement of what I had learned these last few years. This is not to say that I learned nothing from the book, on the contrary, I feel like I have gained important nuanceson communicating with young women and allowing them to tell me how I can help them get better and stronger both physically and mentally. An invaluable book indeed.

The only slight problem is that the book is geared toward the coaches of both individual sports and team sports, so not all the lessons are applicable completely.

I would recommend this book for anyone who coach, or are looking to coach. The lessons embodied in the book will make the road to success in coaching much smoother.