Customer Reviews

Until It Hurts: America's Obsession with Youth Sports and How It Harms Our Kids

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
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Having no children of my own, I recently attended a friend's child's Little League game, and was taken aback at the intensity and unhappiness of the whole experience: Coaches yelling at players constantly, parents yelling and agonizing about their kids, kids outright bawling following a strikeout. Wow. I thought sports was supposed to be fun.

My experiences with youth sports were largely similar. I can say that pickup games, backyard basketball, endless wiffleball games with other kids on my street, these are the best sports memories from my youth. Not organized games with annoying coaches and cloying parents.

This is an outstanding book that all parents, umpires, and coaches of young kids need to read and think about. Sports are supposed to be fun. Ask yourself this question: does my son or daughter actually enjoy and look forward to playing basketball, baseball, soccer, etc? If not, maybe they, and you, should look to put their energies in another direction.

Highly recommended.

Hyman pulls no punches, using himself and his son as an example of the way a parent's good intentions and a child's desire to play can go horribly wrong. Every parent who thinks their child is the next Michael Jordan, Mia Hamm, Tim Teebow, or A-Rod should be required to read this book before their child gets back on the field or court. Hyman convincingly lays out the case that youth sports have gone professional and frequently have more to do with the adults footing the bills than the children playing them. Touching on irresponsible coaches and parents, over-acheiving kids, doctors whose voices are ingnored by parents who "shop for a doc" until they get the answer they want, and blowing apart the myth that your child is going to get an athletic shcolarship or that having one actually pays for college, Hyman argues that we're out of control and then gives examples of youth sports the way they should be played...for FUN and character. The lowering of age in surgery statistics and the number of life-affecting overuse injuries will frighten you, the parents and coaches will make you ill. If you see yourself in these pages, it's not too late to change things. Highly recommended.

This book was suggested to me and a room full of board members of AYSO by our former Regional Commissioner. I ordered it the next day
was awakened to the myth that has been propagated by parents across America about why and how kids should participate in team sports.
My older son is a 14 year old athlete that has participated in variety of sports and has been yelled at by coaches and parents since he was
7 years old. I am not a sideline parent that coaches my kid, but have volunteered for many years in the programs. I asked him if he wanted
to keep playing and he said no. I told him he didn't have to any more and he looked more relieved than I have ever seen him. He ran a triathlon
at 13, played club soccer at 14 and has been on a competitive swim team and played football, basketball and soccer for his school.
This book reveals the underlying pressure that kids feel and what kids sports have become. I am so grateful I read it and so is my son.
Not sure what we're going to do on weekends any more, but it won't be at the expense of our son!!

Youth sports has become a complete distortion of what it should be in the past 20 years. Parental involvement is turning it into something devoid of life lessons. Both of my sons play club sports. I've quoted this book a hundred times since reading it. My husband and I have also removed ourselves as heavily involved parents to the silent observers section of the stands who do the jobs out of the spotlight like reserving fields and organizing team get togethers. Truth be known, your kid is either genetically predisposed to be an elite athlete or they are not. You want to increase your kid's chances of a college scholarship? Get them a tutor, not a hitting coach.

This book is shocking, yet an essential read for the sports parent, coach, health care provider or anyone involved in youth sports. Hyman makes it all too clear the problem with our culture, and how our obsession with sports pushes our kids to the point where it's' not fun anymore', becomes not a game but a business, and parents that all too often view team sports as a surefire ticket to a scholarship.

Sobering, unbelievable and at times funny, any sports parent will see themselves in these pages, including the author, Hyman, who humbly shares his own (previous) obsession with his son's baseball playing days. Hyman meticulously researched his topic, and shares his notes on interviews with surgeons, sports parents and Olympic athletes. Brutally honest, the results will surprise the reader - including: "65% of athletes on Division I and III teams say specializing in one sport was not necessary to play in college", and that sports scholarships if lucky, cover only 15% of college tuition and living expenses, and specializing in one sport at an early age does not improve chances of sports success in high school years.

Hyman concludes on a positive note, calling all parents to re-consider their role in their child's sport, and with a plug for a "return to fundamentals". The reader is left with a thought from the director of a soccer league that prohibits parents from coaching from the sidelines or yelling at the athletes, because after all "the game is for the kids". Yes, it is for the kids after all.

this is a great introductory book detailing some of the most salient problems with youth sports. it should be read by a wide audience. the writing is superb and the subject matter is very prescient. enjoy!

This book is fairly short and a pretty easy read. I am very interested in the topic as I have played sports all my life and now coach a boys basketball team. The author has a lot of valid and useful statistics as well as opinions/stories from all kinds of people involved in youth sports, ranging from doctors and therapists to parents and coaches, including his own experiences. I really liked that he mentioned several times that he is not flawless and he is at fault also. I thought however, that the subject is too broad for only 160 pages. He talked mostly about baseball (understandable in that this seems to be where most of his experience lies) and only touched a bit on other sports. I think it would have been nice to see a little more variety and depth to the book. Overall, I really enjoyed the information he did provide and his writing style.

Great book - Should be required reading for parents and potential coaches. We are hurting our young athletes by pushing too hard.

Great read. Hyman combines his extensive sports history knowledge with the current shocking issues surrounding youth sports. Must read for any parent or coach.

Reading Hyman's "Until it hurts" I felt like i was reading the "b side" to my own memoir, Chalked Up. It was the he said - or in my case "mom said" - to my she said soliloquy on the pressures inside elite level childhood athletics. Hyman's book raises a rarely discussed notion in the Olympics-are-everything fantasy world of parents obsessed with Tiger Woods and Shawn Johnson : it's all fine until it isn't. We're all too willing to go along while things are too good to be true. When kids are winning, parents are deemed supportive. Only when the foundation crumbles - child athletes injured - are the formerly endorsed strategies somehow seemingly discovered to be tragically flawed.

I'd recommend this book to any and all parents. He reveals very personal insight into why parents can cross the line and push their kids too hard, risking health and happiness. A great cautionary tale.