Basics

Tips to help families keep the spirit and life lessons their child learned at camp alive long after the campfire embers cool.

Adults involved in youth sports are the ones who are ultimately responsible for the quality of a child's sports experience. To create a positive sports environment for youth athletes to ensure they have fun, parents need to ask six key questions.

Summer is approaching and with it comes sports camps, clinics, and showcases. Preparing for these is important and can be simplified by following a few simple guidelines.

It's unfortunate that so many coaches and parents see each season's won and loss record as the only measure of success, instead of being just a part of having fun and the learning experience. The real journey in youth sports, says youth basketball commissioner and founder of Respect Sports, Frank White, should be that each season's learning builds upon the previous season's fundamentals as athletes strive to achieve enough skills to play at the varsity high school level, or just enough achievement to enjoy playing the game, at even the recreational sports level.

The increasing popularity of at-home sport genetic testing is raising accuracy and ethical concerns among sports medicine professionals.

Whether you are a parent, youth baseball coach, piano teacher or faculty advisor for the chess club, your mantra should be the same:  to create a fertile environment where kids can learn, compete, and have fun, says youth baseball coach and author, Dan Clemens.

The competition for rosters spots on fall sports teams seems to be more ferocious than ever. Tryouts pose a particular challenge to young athletes still playing summer sports. Here are some tips for parents on how they can help their child perform at their best during tryouts from MomsTeam's Brooke de Lench.

The New Kensington (Pennsylvania) Valley High School softball team and umpire Bill Dithrich have been selected the 2011 national recipients of the "National High School Spirit of Sport Award" by the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS): Dithrich for having the courage and intergrity to make a call that ended the softball team's undefeated season and the team for inviting him to be the keynote speaker at its post-season awards banquet to talk about a teachable moment about sports, ethics and life.

Two-time Olympic track cyclist Erin Mirabella advises parents that if their athletic daughter has body image issues, they should drive home the message that she is beautiful just the way she is, and as far as beauty goes, what really matters is on the inside.

Parents want to have close relationships with their children, but many wonder if that's even possible as their child enters adolescence. Suddenly, your son is more interested in peers than spending time with the family, your daughter may be showing more rebellious behavior, and now, instead of being the one they turn to for advice, you don't know a thing! While scary for parents, says parenting expert, Amy McCready, the normal individualization process during the tween and teen years doesn't have to involve power struggles and hard feelings if parents avoid three common parenting mistakes.