Did You Win? (And Why We Can't Stop Asking)
About this episode
Chad and Craig discuss the pressures of youth sports and the impact on children and parents.
Episode 35 Presented by Gaimplan This week it's just Chad and Craig — no guest, no filter, a lot of real talk. They kick things off in the middle of their own Struggle Bubble: Chad's packing for a youth soccer tournament in Davis while baseball opening day looms, and Craig's sneaking in a podcast recording while Brittain manages a dance competition across town. Chaotic? Yes. On-brand? Absolutely. From there the conversation goes deep on a question they keep circling back to: why are we doing this? Not "this" as in the podcast — but all of it. The travel tournaments. The pressure. The sideline screaming. The dad who's keeping a mental scorecard of which league his ten-year-old is in. They dig into comparison culture in youth sports, what actually happens to the kids who aren't getting game time, and what it means to reframe a tournament as a mini vacation rather than a must-win. They also get into a wild real-life story: an opposing coach who pulled his entire team off the field mid-game over a physical-but-legal soccer match — and what it says about the state of youth coaching, burnout, and the economic pressures that are quietly running the show. The back half of the episode…
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More episodes of The Struggle Bubble
- Your 8-Year-Old Is Not Being Recruited
- The Long Game with Lisa Mitchell
- The Takeover of Youth Sports
- The Whole Ride: Youth Sports to College Drop-Off
- You Asked, We Answered
- Extend the Timeline, Not the Highlight Reel
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