Rick Wolff was drafted by the Detroit Tigers in 1972 during his junior year at Harvard, spent a couple of seasons in the minor leagues, completed his studies in psychology and joined the coaching staff of the Cleveland Indians. He later was head baseball coach at Mercy College and has worked with dozens of athletes from Major League Baseball, the NFL and the NHL.
A prominent and respected voice in the field of sports parenting and youth sports, Wolff is chairman of the Center for Sports Parenting and longtime host of the weekly radio show “The Sports Edge.” He is the author of 19 books (his latest, “Parenting Young Athletes the Ripken Way,” will be published in April by Gotham Books) and has written for Sports Illustrated, The New York Times, GQ, Psychology Today, the Harvard Business Review, Child, Scholastic and USA Today.
Wolff spoke with SportsBusiness Journal New York bureau chief Jerry Kavanagh.
Education: B.A., psychology, Harvard (1974); M.A., psychology, Long Island University (1986)
Favorite piece of music: My tastes go from Mozart to the Beatles.
Favorite vacation spot: Nantucket
Favorite sport: Baseball
Last book read: Geno Auriemma’s autobiography, “Geno: In Pursuit of Perfection”
Best professional advice you received: My dad, Bob Wolff — one of the great sportscasters of all time — has been a tremendous influence on me and my business career. Dad has always stressed to me to treat people the way you want to be treated. He gave me that advice many, many years ago, and I still try to adhere to it as best I can.
Biggest challenge: Sports parenting is an ongoing concern. We like to think we’re making progress in getting the word out to parents everywhere that it’s not about the parents, it’s about the kids, but there’s still a long way to go.
How do you define youth sports?
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Early participation in sports can lead to lifelong
interests and a healthier body, but parents should be
aware of issues they will need to address, Wolff says. |
Wolff: For me, youth sports goes from 5 years old all the way to college. At the Center for Sports Parenting, and even with my radio show, we always tackle issues that encompass that span because clearly the issues of kids who are just starting out are much different from those of the kids who are in high school or college.
How did you first become associated with youth sports and acquire such a prominent voice in this field?
Wolff: Back in the early ’90s, I worked for five years as the roving performance-enhancement coach, the psychology coach, if you will, for the Cleveland Indians. My wife and I have three kids, and at that time they were very young. I had heard all the horror stories about crazy sports parents and was curious. One day in spring training I went around and asked a number of the ballplayers if they wanted their own kids to follow them and use sports as they had. And regardless of where the players had grown up, most of them said that they had pushy coaches and saw crazy parents on the sidelines and said they weren’t sure that they wanted their kids to go through that. I did some research and ended up writing a book called “Good Sports.” And all of a sudden, I was very much in demand. Sports Illustrated came to me and asked if I would write a series of articles on youth sports. That led to the radio show and eventually to the [Center for Sports Parenting].
What are the benefits of athletic participation for children?
Wolff: The most important benefit, of course, is having a healthy body. In our society today, where obesity is a real concern, it’s just good for the kids to go out and exercise and get in shape. In addition, all the other psychological elements of playing sports still continue to have a major impact, just as when we were kids: things like overcoming adversity, learning how to be a team player and to set and achieve goals, learning sportsmanship — all these things are still vitally important to kids who play sports.
Dr. Bruce Svare, director of the National Institute for Sports Reform, said that sports at the youngest level is about making better people, not better athletes. He said that the basic conflict or imbalance between the parents’ needs (victories, scholarships) vs. the kids’ needs (fun) has to change or we will continue to see kids leave sports by age 13.
Wolff: That’s a pretty fair statement. The continuing problem we have is with the parents. It’s never about the kids having issues. It’s the parents who, quite frankly, lose their way, lose their perspective, lose their cool or don’t have a real sense of reality about their kids. And that, unfortunately, is where a lot of the conflict ends up.
With all the concerns and problems, do you still consider youth sports a wholesome activity?
Wolff: Don’t get me wrong: Sports are wonderful. I’m very bullish on youth sports. It’s good for the kids’ well-being physically. It’s a great outlet for their competitive drives. It’s great for them to enjoy the excitement and spontaneity of being a teammate. These are wonderful times for kids who play sports. We just want to make sure that the other concerns about youth sports are taken care of and addressed.
Youth sports have spawned an entire subindustry of products and services geared to the young athletes and their parents: self-help tools, books, videos, camps, equipment and apparel. You have children now who specialize in one sport at a young age.
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Despite some concerns, “These are wonderful
times for kids who play sports,” Wolff says. |
Wolff: That’s correct. The best way to draw perspective on this is [to remember that] 20 years ago, if there were sports camps in the summertime, they were probably few and far between. Nowadays, it’s pretty common [to find] sports camps where you can go and play just one sport or play a couple of sports all day. There are private tutors to coach kids. You know, you pay so much an hour to have your kid work on his batting stroke or his free-throw shooting, or whatever it may be. Twenty years ago, most of private instruction was limited to people who were tennis pros or guys who gave golf lessons at the country club. But nowadays, you name any sport, and chances are there is somebody who will come and work with your kids for a fee.
You have said that parental approval is the first model for children.
Wolff: When kids are 4 or 5 years old and go out to learn a sport … the kids clearly are looking for parental approval. The parent is usually the one who encourages them and gives them a pat on the back. That’s when kids are first involved with sports. As they get a little older, then things begin to get toward not only the parental approval but also toward the coach, to try to make the coach happy. That’s very normal. And that happens in school as well. The kid wants to do well to please mom and dad.
You wrote “What Every Parent Should Know About Kids in Sports.” What is the most important thing a parent should know?
Wolff: From my perspective, it’s that their child is not put on the field or the court or the ice to fulfill the parents’ own failed dreams in sports: the old expression about living vicariously through one’s son or daughter. Parents have to understand that, yes, that is your flesh and blood out there — and they take great pride in what their kids do — but it’s not you. And just because you always dreamed of one day playing center field for the Yankees, doesn’t mean that your child has the same dream. Parents unfortunately sometimes subconsciously forget that, and they see themselves in their youngsters, and that’s not fair to them.
