I read a superb book on youth sports by Tom Farrey a couple years ago titled Game On (ESPN Books, 2008). I highly recommend this book to parents and anybody concerned with youth sports. An interesting aspect of the book is Farrey's account of sport science in Australia (Chapter 10, p.205-226).

Farrey visited with scientists such as Dr. David Martin at the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS). Martin was a research assistant at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs when I was an intern there in 1989. Several years later, Martin went to work for the AIS because it was an opportunity (and a good paycheck) that did not exist in the U.S. which Farrey mentions in the book (p.211).

Farrey explains how the Australian government allocates considerable resources to the AIS for high-level sport performance work along with grassroots programs which provide opportunities for youth and educate coaches. There is nothing like this in the U.S. Farrey makes suggestions in the book about how to improve youth sports in the U.S. Much of what he says in the book about sport science in Australia coincides with communication I had a couple weeks ago with an individual who has first-hand knowledge.

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