Joan Ryan

Coaches who lack sufficient knowledge about their sports or who place too great an emphasis on winning can be detrimental to young athletes, Joan Ryan maintains in the following viewpoint. For example, Ryan contends that many coaches are not schooled in physiology and therefore ignorantly encourage excessive training that may lead to physical problems for the young athletes in their care. Furthermore, she claims, coaches are hired to develop successful athletes, which frequently means placing winning above concern for the children’s well-being. Ryan is a sportswriter for the San Francisco Chronicle and the author of Little Girls in Pretty Boxes: The Making and Breaking of Elite Gymnasts and Figure Skaters, from which this viewpoint is taken.

As you read, consider the following questions:

1. According to the study by Anders Ericsson, cited by the author...