Mike’s son, Grayson, wrote a book to parents about young athletes, and it challenges how we think about supporting our kids through sport.
Those of us with kids in youth sports know what the experience gives them… teamwork, commitment, the skill of balancing a full week. We have come at that subject often on this podcast, usually through the lens of the coach, the parent, or the research. This one comes from the kid’s angle – from the court, the car ride home, and the receiving end of those parent and child conversations.
Grayson has played competitive club volleyball for six years, four of them as a varsity player and a captain. He wrote the book as a high school senior, in the middle of his last season, while the lessons were still fresh.
It’s called Dear Parent: Sport Isn’t Easy. Here’s How to Have Our Back. Eleven chapters… tough teammates, coaches who get something wrong, and what a club sport actually costs in time and sleep. Each one is a story, what he took from it, and something a parent can try that week.
Mike and Grayson get into the moments Grayson felt supported and the times where he didn’t, how he learned to separate the player from the person when a season went sideways, and the thin line between extra work and burnout.
You also get to watch Mike as a dad and Grayson as a son.
In this conversation, you’ll learn:
- Why he wrote this book, and why he wrote it now
- How to handle the car ride home
- What happens when a coach promises a role and hands it to someone else
- How to tell when your athlete wants to talk, and when they do not
- The line between doing the extra work and burning out on it
- How he learned to separate the player from the person
- What he wants dads to know, and what he wants moms to know
The question the book leaves us with is not whether our kids’ teams won or lost… It is whether we honored the person while we were developing the player.
Enjoy the conversation.
“Make sure that it’s known that you’re there for your child and that love is always present, even in the hard situations.” — Grayson Gervais
Links & Resources
Grayson Gervais’s Book: Dear Parent: Sport Isn’t Easy. Here’s How to Have Our Back.
Book Website: dearparentbook.com and you can purchase a copy here.
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