Kirsten Jones, Bleav
354 episodes listed below
Sports parenting with heart and perspective.
Raising Athletes treats youth sports as a family system, not just a performance track. Kirsten Jones speaks with athletes, parents, coaches, and professionals about fear, resilience, identity, and the lessons children carry off the field.
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Raising Athletes sits at the intersection of youth sports, parenting, and identity. Its center of gravity is not the box score. Kirsten Jones speaks with athletes, parents, coaches, authors, and professionals who have lived around competition long enough to know how complicated it can get. The show is warm, but it is not soft on pressure. It takes seriously the fear of failing, the dread of not performing when the stakes feel high, and the family tension that can build around practices, games, feedback, and the ride home. Episodes often begin with sports and end somewhere more personal. A conversation about raising a D1 athlete becomes a look at ambition, patience, and the adult role beside a child’s dream. A discussion with Trevor Ruhland points toward identity and mental health after the jersey comes off. Ivan Lombard-Jackson brings in fatherhood, athletic confidence, and the bond of police work, widening the show’s idea of team beyond the court or field. Patric Young and Coco Vandeweghe add the perspective of athletes who know how much family culture, belief, and balance matter over time. The interviews give guests room to tell the long version. That matters here. The show is less interested in slogans than in the lived details behind resilience, confidence, risk, and recovery. Kirsten Jones regularly returns to the question of how adults can raise competitors who are also steady human beings. She names the scale and intensity of youth sports without treating it as destiny. The tone is supportive and practical, with enough emotional literacy to handle vulnerability without turning every moment into a lesson too quickly. Parents get language for the sidelines. Coaches get a reminder that feedback lands inside a young person’s whole life. Athletes are treated as children growing into themselves, not as projects to optimize. Raising Athletes works best for listeners who want sports to build courage, self-trust, and perspective, even when the season is hard.
Made for: For parents, coaches, and sports families trying to support young athletes without letting competition crowd out character, confidence, or mental health.
What sets it apart: The show pairs sports-parenting guidance with patient, emotionally detailed interviews. It treats performance, family pressure, and identity as one connected conversation.
Sports Parenting podcast. Kirsten Jones interviews coaches, parents, athletes and trainers about everything youth sports. Follow Kirsten at kirstenjonesinc.com, @kirstenjonesinc (Facebook and Twitter), or @kirstenjonescoach (Instagram and LinkedIn). Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/kirsten-jones0/support
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Raising Athletes turns youth-sports pressure into practical conversations about parental restraint, honest communication, confidence, and life beyond competition.
Raising Athletes keeps returning to the difficult space between helping a young competitor and trying to control the outcome. In interviews led by Kirsten Jones, sports become a way to examine confidence, fear, family communication, and the pressure children carry into…
The dreaded car ride home feels less combustible with Kirsten Jones riding shotgun.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A calm, honest conversation about confidence, parenting, and the person behind the athlete.
Kirsten Jones uses Ivan's story to ask a larger question about youth sports: how do adults help kids take risks, handle winning and losing, and grow into steady people?
A patient look at fear, confidence, and the work of helping young athletes grow.
This episode of Raising Athletes stays with the harder edges of youth sports: fear, confidence, parenting, and coaching all collide here. It keeps returning to young athletes who are wrestling with inconsistency and big-game nerves, while asking what the adults around them can…
A clear look at why a narrow identity can make transition harder.
The piece focuses on how tightly identity can cling to a single role, especially in sports, and how that can make life after the role shift feel unsettled.
A steady look at how athletes and families can meet fear without flinching.
The piece takes on a familiar youth-sports worry: a young athlete starts to fear failure, lose confidence, and drift from steady practice. It lands on a simple point that feels earned: doubt is normal, and the task is to answer it instead of pretending it is not there.
A grounded sports-parenting episode that links early discipline to how adults handle young athletes.
Raising Athletes follows a sports-parenting conversation about fear, consistency, and the pressure young competitors carry. Kirsten Jones frames the episode around parents and coaches who have to deal with athletes struggling with fear, inconsistency, and feedback.
A steady listen about pressure, control, and learning to be heard.
This episode stays with sports parenting and the pressure young athletes carry, especially when parents want to solve problems that the athlete mostly wants to be heard through.
Youth sports advice with the mental game centered.
This episode explores how parents and coaches can help young athletes overcome fears and build resilience in competitive youth sports, featuring insights from host Kirsten Jones and guest David Murray.
This episode features an interview with former athlete Trevor Ruhland discussing identity struggles and mental health challenges athletes face after their sports careers end.
Host Kirsten Jones interviews LAPD officer Ivan Lombard-Jackson, a former D-League basketball player who now runs the Watts Skills Academy — a free community basketball program in Watts, Los Angeles, partnered with Nike.
This episode features former Florida Gator Patric Young sharing his inspiring story to help parents and coaches support athletes overcoming fears and performance challenges.
This episode explores how to help athletes overcome fears and build resilience, focusing on raising empowered athletes and better humans through insights from host Kirsten Jones and guest Ivan Lombard-Jackson.
Kirsten Jones introduces her podcast about raising empowered athletes, addressing fears and challenges in youth sports.
Kirsten Jones introduces the Raising Empowered Athletes podcast, addressing parents and coaches of young athletes struggling with fear and performance issues.
Interview with pro tennis player Coco Vandeway about her childhood in a family of athletes and her journey in sports.
Kirsten Jones interviews pro basketball player Tucker Richardson about building confidence in young athletes and supporting them through sports.
Kirsten Jones introduces the Raising Athletes podcast, addressing parents and coaches of young athletes struggling with fear and performance issues.
Kirsten Jones interviews Dr.
This episode discusses helping athletes and coaches overcome performance fears and build consistency, featuring insights from host Kirsten Jones, a former athlete and motivational speaker.
This episode discusses building an unstoppable mindset by focusing on personal goals, modeling behavior for children, and addressing anxiety through action rather than blame.
Kirsten Jones opens with a direct question about athletes who have lost confidence.
Kirsten Jones interviews a mother and coach about staying even-keeled through children's sports challenges.
The speaker reflects on how college sports memories fade over time and why life after sport ends up mattering more than the biggest wins.
Kirsten Jones discusses the importance of gratitude and teamwork in youth sports, drawing parallels from elite volleyball and football programs.
The speaker talks about fear, doubt, and the stories young athletes start telling themselves when pressure piles on.
Kirsten Jones opens with the fear that can shake an athlete's confidence.
This episode features an interview with Opal Bird, discussing athlete struggles with fear and performance, and coaching challenges, as part of a sports parenting podcast.
Kirsten Jones talks with a college athlete about the pressure that can pile up around competitive sports and the emotional strain that can follow.
This episode features an interview with Opal Bird discussing her leadership style as a freshman athlete, emphasizing leading by example and teamwork.
Kirsten Jones introduces the podcast and discusses helping parents and coaches support young athletes struggling with fear and performance issues.
Discussion of a New Mexico bylaw penalizing egregious fan behavior in youth sports and the role of parents and officials in policing it.
Kirsten Jones introduces her podcast about raising empowered athletes, addressing parents and coaches dealing with athletes' fears and performance issues.
Kirsten Jones introduces the podcast and discusses common struggles of parents and coaches dealing with young athletes' fears and performance issues.
Discussion on the importance of allowing mistakes in youth sports and the negative impact of punitive coaching.
Kirsten Jones interviews a former Nike product manager about the parallels between product creation and coaching, emphasizing curiosity and listening, then discusses sports psychology in college athletics.
Kirsten Jones introduces her podcast about helping parents and coaches support young athletes struggling with fear and performance issues.
Kirsten Jones introduces her podcast about sports parenting, addressing parents and coaches dealing with athletes' fears and performance issues.
Discussion about how modern challenges like cell phones and COVID delay kids' maturity and social skills, affecting their sports participation and causing parental stress.
A conversation about coping with grief and loss, sharing personal experiences and advice on how to support someone going through a difficult time.
Kirsten Jones introduces her podcast on sports parenting, addressing parents and coaches of young athletes struggling with fear and performance issues.
Kirsten Jones interviews Susie Walton about parenting and grandparenting in the context of youth sports.