YOUTH SPORT LOOKED AT HONESTLY

Practical guidance for parents, and a free working standard for clubs.

A clear look at the things that decide whether a child thrives, leaves, or quietly carries the cost. Built around the child.

SOMETHING CHANGED, AND NOTHING OBVIOUS HAPPENED

The Room - What adult-made environments do to children in sport

Your child still goes to training. The drive home is quieter. You keep wondering whether it is them, you, or the room around them.
The Room helps you read the coach's tone, the selection patterns, the touchline, and whether a question is safe to ask.
It helps you tell an ordinary hard week from a room that is doing real damage, and what to do about it.

• Read The Room

You want to help with the long game

The PlayStrong Parent Playbook - How children actually develop.

Fuel, sleep, movement, strength, game sense, confidence and mindset.
The practical handbook for what helps before the results show up. Something you can use this week.

• Get the Parent Playbook

Your club needs a clear line for the adults

The PlayStrong Youth Sport Standard. Free to read, free to adopt.

Most clubs do their best with the children. Few have a clear line for the adults. The Standard names what good practice looks like, what falls below it, and how to handle the behaviour and culture concerns that sit below the safeguarding threshold. Built for committees, welfare leads, coaches and parents who want a clear line and named routes.

• Read the Standard

Why PlayStrong

Built from coaching, and from being a parent in it.

I'm Ewan Smith. I've spent over thirty years around youth sport as a coach and development officer from grassroots to international, and I'm a parent of children in it.
PlayStrong started with the physical side, movement, strength, fuel and recovery. Over time the bigger issue was harder to ignore. Children are shaped by selection, opportunity, communication and adult behaviour, not only by training.
That's the work PlayStrong brings together. I think adults should be able to explain the environments they create, stand over their decisions, and change course when a child is carrying the cost.

Not sure where things stand?

The Pressure Check. A free, quick read.

A short read of how much pressure is landing on your child, and where it is coming from.
A good place to begin if you are not ready to commit to anything yet.

• Start with the Pressure Check

More from PlayStrong

Most days on Instagram, weekly on Substack.

I post most days on Instagram, and write a longer piece each week on Substack.

• Substack
• Instagram

GET IN TOUCH

Clubs, workshops, speaking, or product questions.

For club adoption, workshops, speaking, or questions about anything here, send a message.