Dimensions
152 x 235 x 18mm
What is it like to be the parent of an elite athlete? How do those normal-looking people in the stands create champions in the Olympic arena, and what insight or advice might they have to offer the rest of us? Much is written about our sports stars outside what they do on the field and we basically know the trajectory of their careers once they've been taken into full-time coaching care. But what about before that, when they were little? What clues did they give their parents as to their future greatness?
How is talent identified and what should parents do with it? How young is too young to start junior sport? How much should kids take on, and whose decision should it be - parent or child? What is genetic, a gift, and what is learned?
In twenty-three chapters, each dedicated to a different sport, 'Raising Champions' explores these questions in interviews with the mums and dads of over 50 of today's great Australian sporting stars, including Grant Hackett, Jana Pittman, Layne Beachley, Ricky Ponting, Stuart Appleby, Shane Crawford, Brad Fittler and Lauren Jackson. The result is an insightful and often humorous portrait of what makes champions and the journey they take from the ordinary to the extraordinary.
