Insights
Thinking on readiness, participation, and development.
What it takes to help young people thrive in sport – and in life – from the team building R1.
Meeting Girls Where They Are
Girls leave sport at twice the rate of boys by age 14. The dropout isn’t a programming problem – it’s a developmental literacy problem. The window where girls leave is the same window where the female body and brain are undergoing changes that are almost completely unaddressed by the adults around them.
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Ready or Not
The Enhanced Games is the most honest mirror sport has held up to itself in a long time. Most people don’t like what they see – not because of what it is, but because of what it reflects back about the system we’ve built and spent decades pretending was clean.
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Insights · For Coaches & Parents
Sport doesn’t teach life skills. Coaches do.
Participation alone does not guarantee the acquisition of values and life skills. The research is specific: what separates programs that develop young people from programs that just keep them busy is intentional coaching.
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Youth Sport: Rage or Romance
Childhood readiness has declined significantly, and understanding this shift is key to addressing youth development challenges. The industry isn’t going away. The era isn’t coming back. The work is figuring out what readiness looks like in the world we actually live in.
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One ACL in Four Years
ACL injuries shouldn’t be treated as a cost of playing sport. What four international seasons with the Black Ferns Sevens taught me about what real prevention actually requires, and why warm-up protocols alone will never be enough.
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Insights · For Parents
Your Voice Is Part of Their Training.
Coaches shape how young athletes hear feedback, and so do parents. Every car ride, sideline moment, and post-game chat sends a signal.
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Insights · For Coaches
Are you as quick to praise as you are to correct?
Most coaches correct automatically. Specific praise takes conscious effort. That imbalance shapes athletes in ways most coaches don’t intend.
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Body Domain · Part 3
What a child builds in their body by 14, they carry for life.
Movement competency is not a sports concept – it’s a health concept. The foundations built before adolescence become structural. They stay.
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Body Domain · Part 2
Your kid’s body is the gym. Use it first.
Seven fundamental movement patterns govern sport, the playground, and the rest of life. A surprising number of children in organised sport can’t execute most of them.
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Body Domain · Part 1
The myth that won’t die: strength training stunts your kid’s growth.
This idea traces back to a single 1964 study on malnourished children doing manual labour. Here’s what the science actually says.
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Acute injuries in youth athletes.
Acute injuries can happen to any athlete. Knowing when to seek care, how tissue types differ, and how movement quality reduces risk is what every parent and coach needs.
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The science behind R1: 25 years from the field to the framework.
R1’s readiness framework wasn’t built in a lab. It was built across five Olympic Games, 30+ sports, and 60 years of combined experience.
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Sport specialization vs. sampling: the question isn’t either/or.
Should kids specialize in one sport or play many? The answer depends on how demand is structured – not which label you choose.
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Holistic Development · Part 4
Recovery energy: why youth sport breaks down without rest, regulation, and repair.
When youth sport systems extract energy without restoring it, burnout isn’t surprising – it’s predictable.
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Holistic Development · Part 3
Body energy: when youth sport asks more than growing bodies can sustain.
Injury and burnout aren’t individual problems – they’re signals that adult-designed demands have outpaced biological development.
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Holistic Development · Part 2
Motivation energy: how adult systems either ignite or drain youth engagement.
Motivation doesn’t disappear because kids stop caring. It disappears because the system ceases to make sense to their nervous systems.
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Holistic Development · Part 1
Belonging energy: the environments adults create, and why kids decide to stay or leave.
Belonging is not something youth bring with them. It is something adults create around them.
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Who actually owns athlete development in youth sports?
Most governing bodies govern access, not development. Access without development isn’t an opportunity. And participation alone is not a development strategy.
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