Better Sports Parents

Veteran sports agent and advisor Ross Gurney has helped players like Duncan Keith, Devon Toews, and Zach Benson navigate their way to and through the NHL, but he's also a father who's had to navigate the youth sports environment with his own two children. Though he's seen what it actually takes to make it to the highest levels of sport, Ross doesn't believe that early specialization, "elite" camps, and rushing kids up levels have improved the youth sports environment or experience for kids. In this segment, Ross encourages parents to slow down and enjoy youth sport for what they're meant to be - a joyful experience filled with growth and learning, not one that replicates the demands of professional sports.
Listen to the full episode:
⁠Spotify⁠
⁠Apple⁠
Watch on ⁠YouTube

Chris Pronger's NHL resume reads like a fairy tale: second overall pick, Stanley Cup champion, two Olympic gold medals, Hart Trophy, Norris Trophy, Hockey Hall of Fame. But ask him what the hardest thing he's ever done is, and the answer isn't hockey. It's parenting. In this conversation with Scott Rintoul, Chris draws a direct line between the low-pressure, multi-sport, creativity-driven childhood he had in Dryden, Ontario and the Hall of Fame career that followed. He talks candidly about the two rules he gave his own kids — work hard and have fun — and what happened when one of his sons stopped doing the second one. Chris doesn't mince words on the state of youth sport. He believes we've monetized and commoditized childhood sport to the point where the kids have been forgotten entirely. He's watched joy get extracted from talented players at every level, seen parents chase triple-A status for the wrong reasons, and watched super teams steamroll opponents while teaching kids nothing about adversity. His message is simple: fun comes first. The passion, the work ethic, the resilience... it all comes later. If it isn't fun, the rest of won't matter.
🎙️ Better Sports Parents: helping parents positively impact the youth sports environment. Subscribe for new episodes every week.
Chapters
0:00 Opening
01:35 Introduction: Chris Pronger
03:40 The Hardest Job of His Career: Parenting
04:48 Being a Parent vs. Being a Friend
06:00 How Chris Was Parented in Sport
08:08 Low Pressure, High Support: What His Parents Got Right
09:29 Unstructured Play and Why It Made Him Better
11:01 Multi-Sport: Why Chris Played Everything
12:41 Taking Breaks From Hockey, Even as a Pro
13:49 Are Kids on the Ice Too Long?
16:28 When It Should Be About Fun, Not Wins
19:22 Travel Sports: How Much Is Too Much, Too Soon?
23:31 His Two Rules as a Sports Parent
24:07 The Conversation He Had With His Son Who Wasn't Having Fun
26:12 Pressure to Have Kids in Hockey?
29:04 Studying the Game as a Kid
32:40 Passion vs. Fit: Follow What You Love
39:08 Parents: Who Are You Doing This For?
41:13 Triple-A or Bust: The Stigma That Kills the Joy
42:27 Even NHL Scouts Get It Wrong
48:58 Standards: Where Do They Come From?
49:37 Victimhood, Accountability and When His Game Turned Around
51:39 Blame Culture in Youth Sport and How to Fix It
53:33 The Monetization and Commoditization Problem
56:28 FOMO and the Genie That Won't Go Back in the Bottle
58:34 Super Teams: Why Chris Hates Them in Any Sport
59:01 Adversity as a Gift
01:05:07 What Youth Sport Teaches Future CEOs
01:09:44 Chris's Biggest Issue in Youth Sport Today

Resources
⁠Chris Pronger's Book: Earned⁠
⁠Chris Pronger: Hockey Hall of Fame⁠

Will Loftus played more than a decade in the CFL, won two Grey Cups, and is enshrined in the BC Football Hall of Fame for his excellence on the field. But Will truly found his purpose once his days on the gridiron were over. Through Game Ready Fitness and the Washington Kids Foundation, he and his team are on a mission to ensure that every child has access to quality coaching and mentorship, regardless of background or skill level. In this segment, Will talks about the impact coaches have on people's lives and why that responsibility should not be taken lightly.
Listen to the full episode:
Spotify
Apple
Watch on YouTube

Adam Van Koeverden has paddled over 120,000 kilometres in his lifetime. He's a four-time Olympian, a multiple world champion, and one of the most decorated kayakers Canada has ever produced. He's also Canada's Secretary of State for Sport, and that may be where his biggest race is being run.
In this conversation, Adam traces the full arc of a sporting life that began with a mom who needed somewhere for her kid to go after school. The Oakville canoe club was affordable, it was welcoming, it ran on volunteers, and it changed everything. Adam wants every Canadian kid to have access to that same kind of experience, and he's now in a position to do something about it. He talks candidly about the $755 million federal investment in sport recently announced, and what it's actually designed to do. As Adam puts it, every world champion Canada has ever produced started out splashing around in swimming lessons or kicking a ball at a community center, and the foundation for elite sport is an active society.
He also weighs in on the issues sports parents know too well: early specialization, the pressure to travel at young ages, the cost of living squeezing family budgets, and the gap between what the research says about youth development and what's actually happening on the ground. He shares his honest view on what a good youth coach looks like, what his own parents did right, and why the Norwegian model keeps coming up as the gold standard. And he makes the case that physical activity and play are human rights.
Chapters
0:00 Opening
1:35 Introducing Adam Van Koeverden
5:11 The $755M Announcement: Largest Sport Investment in Canadian History
8:00 How Will the $755M Show Up in Your Community?
8:28 National Sport Organizations & the Alignment Problem
12:37 Hockey Canada and the Trust Deficit in Governance
14:30 Do We Need to Overhaul National Sport Organizations?
15:38 Underfunded at Every Level
16:39 Nation Building Through Sport: Why Adam Put His Name on a Ballot
18:24 What Parents Are Telling Him
21:46 The Case for Coed Sport Until Age 12
23:19 Can Government Incentivize Multi-Sport?
26:18 School-Based Sport vs. Club Sport: The Balance We've Lost
27:31 Not-for-Profit vs. For-Profit Sport
29:20 Sport Saves Kids
30:42 Adam's Youth Sports Journey
32:45 Why Kayaking?
34:12 Physical Literacy for All Canadians
37:12 Screens and the Generation That Stopped Moving
39:44 Competition vs. Participation
41:49 What Adam's Parents Did Right
43:05 The Norwegian Model: Kids Are Not Olympians
45:43 The Foundation for Success in Sport
46:39 What a Positive Sporting Environment Actually Looks Like
49:08 Valuing Coaching
54:48 Cost of Living, Sideline Pressure and Sport on the Chopping Block
56:05 What Does Success Look Like for Canada in 5, 10, 15 Years?
59:48 Adam's Biggest Issue: Declining Participation
1:00:46 Reasons for Optimism

Resources
⁠Canada's $755M Investment⁠
⁠Future of Sport in Canada Commission Report⁠
⁠Canadian Tire Jumpstart Charities

Steve Kindel is a former professional soccer player, the Technical Director of a youth soccer club (North Van FC), and the father of NHL forward, Ben Kindel. Steve not only had a front row seat to watch his son grow in various ways through multisport participation, but he also witnessed how NHL stars Connor Bedard and Macklin Celebrini benefited from playing soccer into their teens. In this segment, Steve describes the reality of year-round opportunities in so many youth sports, but advocates for families to hold firm to their beliefs and values with respect to multisport participation.
Listen to the full episode here:
Spotify
Apple
Watch on YouTube