Youth Sports - Finding Confidence, Joy and Resilience with Garry Linton
Meet Your Body with Jessica Valant, MSPTShow Notes
In the midst of trying to help our kids succeed and find something they love, are we unintentionally pushing them toward burnout and injury in youth sports?
In this eye-opening episode, Jessica talks with youth sports reform advocate Garry Linton. He shares how today’s win-at-all-costs culture, early specialization, and adult-driven incentives are contributing to rising burnout, ACL injuries, back pain, and mental health struggles — and why most kids quit sports by age 14.
Garry explains his powerful “Reform” blueprint to help parents and coaches reveal hidden incentives, fix feedback, improve the playing field environments, and measure what truly matters. They also discuss the importance of multisport participation, delaying specialization, and prioritizing mental health alongside performance.
If you want to raise resilient, confident kids who love sports for life — not just for trophies — this conversation will shift your perspective and give you practical tools to create a healthier, more balanced athletic experience.
About our guest:
Garry Linton is a father of three, speaker, mentor, and one of the most uncompromising voices in youth sports reform. Over two decades, he's held every role that matters: coach, trainer, AAU program director, and parent of a Division I full-scholarship athlete. He's guided dozens of young athletes to college programs at every level and built championship athletes along the way. He was winning by every measure the system values. Then he realized the system was broken. Now, Garry is dismantling the incentive structures that exploit children and rebuilding youth sports around what it was always meant to be: a place for growth, joy, resilience, and becoming...not just performing. He's not here to fix the game. He's here to reform it.
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Resources mentioned in this episode:
⚫︎ Garry Linton: http://www.garrylinton.com
⚫︎ Garry on Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/takeflightcoach
⚫︎ Part One - Kids and Exercise podcast with Jessica: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/meet-your-body-with-jessica-valant-mspt/id1649561552?i=1000751737988
⚫︎ Jessica’s website, resources, services & more: http://www.jessicavalantpilates.com
⚫︎ Jessica’s UNLIMITED community and app with daily workouts for muscle strength: http://www.jessicavalantpilates.com/unlimited
⚫︎Watch our podcast episodes on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/@meetyourbodypodcast
⚫︎ YouTube workouts: https://www.youtube.com/c/JessicaValantPilates
⚫︎ Follow Jessica on Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/jessicavalantpilatesJessica Valant Pilates app:Apple IOS - https://tinyurl.com/mry5ya8rGoogle - https://tinyurl.com/yh3ty5fp
Jessica Valant and Jessica Valant Pilates, LLC, recommend you consult with a physician before starting any new exercise program. The information given here is not meant to treat or diagnose any medical condition. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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