Publisher's Synopsis
As a real-life portrait of the politics of youth sports, Maya Castro's book delivers an engrossing examination of the hierarchies at the heart of a kid's game. The subtitle of Castro's debut book is an honest summation of her work, a thoroughly detailed account of her experiences in the small-minded, parochial world of youth sports- in her case, high school soccer. Now a college graduate, Castro shares her chaotic soccer experience, and everything it taught her, in the hopes of encouraging parents, coaches, and even school officials to re-evaluate their actions and intentions (to ensure the two align). When 70% of kids are giving up youth sports by age 13 and the most talked about aspect of a kid's game are the "crazy and/or complacent adults" it's time to acknowledge our approach is very off. Castro's solution: The adults need to put more of an emphasis on the learning aspect of the game. This means, mentoring kids and teaching them the correlation between what it takes to succeed as an athlete and what it takes to succeed as a person. Similar to grown-ups, kids want/expect a return on their investment of time and effort they've put into becoming the athlete their parent/coach will be proud of. "We can't all become pro-athletes or even college level athletes. We can, however, all learn something of value from our experiences that will benefit us in other aspects of our lives. If kids understand that, they'll never walk away from their sports feeling as though they've wasted their time. That's what should matter to the adults, not turning their kid or player into a pro-athlete." Castro says. Read The Bubble and learn, from the perspective of one of the athletes, what you can do to enhance the meaning of youth sports...all while reading an eye-opening, thought-provoking, and wildly entertaining story.
