Youth Sport Web Sites

The Educated Sports Parent
This site provides information on important youth sports issues for parents, coaches and administrators. Some of the issues included are readiness for participation, specialization, overuse injuries, female athlete triad, creating a mastery environment, and being a parent-coach. It also provides links to some coaching education programs.
Tips for Soccer Moms and Dads
If you are looking for teaching or coaching ideas related to soccer, this is a great site to visit. The site strives to "....promote a child centered approach to instruction and organization of youth sports. Emphasis is on promotion of soccer as a life long, family oriented activity." There is an extensive section on skills assessment. The fundamental skills used in soccer (dribbling, passing, trapping) are described in detail including specific objectives for each skill, a list of what to observe when evaluating each skill, focus points for the skill as well as an objective test to use when evaluating a child's skill level. Under "Spotlights" section you can click on an image of a soccer player and see a great animation of the specific skill in action. The site also contains sections on coaching philosophy, sport parenting, team dynamics, and player development. For more helpful tips on teaching or coaching soccer, be sure to check out the sections "Fundamentals", "Getting Ready", "Ideas for Practice" and "Lead Up Games".
National Alliance for Youth Sports
The National Alliance for Youth Sports is America's leading advocate for healthy, positive and safe sports for children involved in out-of-school youth sports activities. The Alliance is a non-profit association dedicated to its mission: "Better Sports for Kids... Better Kids for Life." Make sure to check out the National Standards for Youth Sports while you are there.
American Sport Education Program (ASEP)
The American Sport Education Program (ASEP) is the leading provider of youth, high school, and elite-level sport education programs in the United States. ASEP was founded in 1981 by renowned sport psychologist Rainer Martens and, for more than 25 years, local, state, and national sport organizations have partnered with ASEP to lead the way in making sport a safe, successful, and enjoyable experience for all involved. Accessible through the ASEP Web site at www.ASEP.com are Coaching Youth [Sport] online courses and books, specifically designed for coaches of athletes ages 14 and under, as well as ASEP’s flagship Coaching Principles and Sport First Aid courses and texts, which are applicable to high school coaches, club-level coaches, and college and university student-coaches. In addition, ASEP offers courses and resources for sport administrators, officials, and parents and provides a variety of free downloads from its Web site designed to assist coaches and sport administrators in their respective roles.
Youth Sports Network
The Youth Sports Network site offers headline news stories related to youth sports, a featured sport of the week, a directory of sports camps, an section featuring a brief story on nominated players of the week, and an excellent instructional area. To date the instruction page covers the sports of baseball, softball, soccer and basketball. Players can get tips on many different aspects of their sport while the coaches section presents ideas for practice plans, player development, and game related suggestions. For those looking for health and fitness information the Youth Sports Network features sections on nutrition, exercise and first aid. If you are interested in sports, looking for instructional tips as a player or coach, or want to learn about a specific sport, be sure to visit the Youth Sports Network.
The Institute for the Study of Youth Sports
The mission of the ISYS is to provide leadership, conduct scientific research and engage in service or outreach that transforms the face of youth sports in ways that maximize the beneficial physical, psychological and social effects of participation for children and youth while minimizing detrimental effects. Major mission objectives that guide our efforts include:

Facilitating a paradigmatic shift in the way America judges success in youth sports, placing youth development objectives ahead of winning
Eliminating myths and enhancing positive health behaviors in youth sports
Leading the nation in ways to develop and advance coaches and youth sports leaders
Being Americaąs source of unbiased scientific and best practice evidence on critical youth sports issues

North American Youth Sports Institute
This excellent site provides information and resources for anyone involved in fitness, education, recreation and sports that will enhance programs and improve children's learning in sports related activities. Besides a resource section that lists available books for sports and coaching, there are two sections which invite interaction with the editor Dr Hustlar. Ask Jack and Frequently Asked Questions give individuals an opportunity to write in/submit questions they have related to fitness, recreation, and sport as well as very specific sports related questions. The responses to questions are readily available in each section. Sport Scene is the web site's newsletter which focuses on youth programs. The articles and information in the newsletter are designed to help teachers, coaches, parents and other youth leaders become more effective in their interaction with children in sports. Four out of six yearly editions are available online.

Science of Soccer
Jay Williams, a professor at Virginia Tech, does a great job of taking soccer articles and making them understandable in concise ways. The findings are very understandable and helpful to those who are teaching and coaching soccer.

The Athletic Project
The Athlete Project is a web site devoted to providing athletes, coaches, parents, school and recreational administrators, and medical teams with up to date and cutting edge information on how to increase performance, how to maintain performance, and most of all how to safely compete. One of the goals of this web site is to get the information out to the appropriate people on how to make sports safer. The majority of injuries can be prevented and some can even be eliminated.
Mom's Team
MomsTeam.com provides the 36 million mothers with children in youth sports the practical tools and information they seek about every aspect of the youth sports experience. By providing valuable content from a team of experts, professionals, writers, sponsors and "veteran" sports parents, MomsTeam is a parent's complete knowledge resource site for youth sports, from the first day of T-ball to the day of their child's last high school game. The MomsTeam mission is to provide a one-stop resource for all the questions that come up about youth sports parenting. MomsTeam™ is a mother's (fathers, coaches etc) trusted advisor, sounding board and comprehensive resource center on youth sports and provides parents the information and tools they need to feel confident and competent in managing their youth sports experience and those of their children.
Teams Of Angels.org
Teams Of Angels' mission is to work "For A Safer Youth Sports Experience" and to promote the important work being done at the grassroots level throughout the United States by private charities set up in memory of children who have lost their lives while participating in youth sports activities. Teams of Angels will support such charities (numbering more than 50 at last count) by providing information, financial support, and public relations assistance, as well as by providing them visibility in various media and on the Teams of Angels' Internet site as part of a coordinated effort to promote youth sports safety.

PE Central
P.O. Box 10262
Blacksburg, VA 24062
FAX: 540-301-0112

http://www.pecentral.org