Frank Smoll ’63 publishes e-book for youth sport parents

Frank Smoll ’63, Ph.D., recently published an e-book for youth sport parents after enjoying a career as a developmental sport psychologist and professor emeritus of the University of Washington.

Titled “Sports and Your Young Athlete: Developing Champions in Sports and Life,” the e-book provides comprehensive information that assists parents in enhancing the well-being of their children in sports and other areas of life.

“(The e-book) is targeted at parents of youngsters from elementary through high school ages,” Smoll said. “It’s not just for parents who have a strong background in sports, it’s for parents who have a variety of backgrounds – those who had been athletes, those who had never picked up a ball or been in sports.”

The e-book is designed to be a practical “how to” guide for contributing to growth-promoting sport experiences while emphasizing that what young athletes learn in sports carries over into their everyday lives.

“One of my strengths is that I can communicate scientific information in everyday language, and that really served me well as a university professor,” Smoll said. “I’ve translated what’s in the scientific literature into everyday language for parents.”

The e-book emphasises how to avoid psychological and physical pitfalls, while at the same time creating a relationship with the young athlete that fosters personal development in sports and beyond. Questions from the perspectives of child development, sport psychology and sports medicine are examined.

“There are other sport parent books out there,” Smoll said. “Most of them are sort of a mishmash of essays and anecdotes. They’re based on the writer’s personal experiences and their observations, and in contrast, ‘Sports and Your Young Athlete’ focuses on the application of scientific and medical evidence to parenting young athletes. It’s written in a reader-friendly style, but there’s science to back it up.”

Smoll has published over 145 scientific articles, authored or co-authored 23 books on children’s athletics and has led 575 psychologically-oriented coaching clinics and workshops for parents of young athletes. He is a fellow of the American Psychological Association, the National Academy of Kinesiology and the Association for Applied Sport Psychology (AASP).

He received AASP’s Distinguished Professional Practice Award for his innovative sport psychology services and was named a sports ethics fellow by the Institute for International Sports for his pioneering research on improving youth sports.

At Ripon College, Smoll double majored in biology and physical education and participated in athletics, on the championship basketball and baseball teams, and in Sigma Chi/Omega Sigma Chi. He was inducted into Ripon’s Athletic Hall of Fame in 2005 and is a member of Partners in the Legacy. He received his master’s degree and Ph.D. in kinesiology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.