What happened to playing catch for fun? Today, the average parent invests $883 on one child's primary sport per season, and in just one year, some families spend up to $20,000 per kid on athletics. Frank, a former soccer and basketball player and coach whose children played sports through high school, uses research, data, and personal experience to push for a healthier, more joyful approach. Parents should play with their young kids, throwing balls with them and loving them unconditionally. Then, when their offspring are older, instead of saying they're proud of them, which puts pressure on them, parents should say they admire their kids' effort. Most offspring will not head to the Olympics, and some parents will grieve and experience a “mourning of expectations.” Frank promotes grace and empathy as she shares helpful-to everyone tips, including the elements of well-being (positive emotions, engagement, relationships, meaning, and accomplishment) and the secrets of inner peace (the ability to accept losses, to avoid undue fixation on transitory pleasures, and to foster a calm and balanced mind). This guide is a winner.

Booklist

As a psychotherapist and parent, I greatly appreciated Frank’s attention to honoring and holding our child athletes’ experiences and feelings as their own. Frank’s call to lovingly attend to our children’s dreams, rather than project our own onto them, instills hope for the development of athletes who feel free, whole, and brave.

Connie North, PhD, MS LMFT, therapist for adolescents, individual adults, couples/partners, and support groups

In For The Team, Meagan Frank takes the reader through a journey of how to productively develop young athletes, using life enhancing examples and research based techniques that will make a difference for adults and their athletic kids. A must read for parents and young athletes!

John E. Anderson, PhD, founder and chairman, Center for Sports Psychology

Coach Frank offers her personal stories as a young, ambitious athlete, an anguished parent of sports-driven children, and a compassionate coach. She bravely untangles the emotional and cutthroat aspects of navigating competitive sports and offers gentle reflections and suggestions to raise balanced, healthy, and active kids.

Jeanne W. Rothaupt, PhD, LMFT, retired director of the University of Wisconsin-Stout Counseling Center