Tracy Tanguay – Time to Rethink Youth Sports

In this episode of the Journey of My Mother’s Son podcast, I sit down and talk with Tracy Tanguay. Tracy is a mobility expert also known as “MobilityChick” and has worked with players and coaches from 27 of the 30 MLB organizations, from A-ball to All-Star as well as high school and college teams. Tracy is also passionate about changing the current culture that has developed throughout youth sports.  This is something that really resonates with me because I saw firsthand how the approach to youth sports has changed over the 30 years that I had been involved.  Sadly, that culture shift has not been for the better.  We have shifted from a team mentality to an individual focus.  Sport specialization at a young age is becoming more and more prevalent, which is leading to more injuries at younger ages.  The increase in injuries early the current MLB season could arguably be attributed to early sport specialization, too many pitches on too little rest at a younger age, and max-effort performance. Tracy is an expert in her field, so she is speaking from a professional perspective as well as a concerned mom.  Our shared opinion is that we need to focus more on teaching the fundamentals, letting the kids have fun playing the game, and falling in love the sport as opposed to chasing weekend trophies, and a win at all cost approach.  We also agree on the fact that kids should multiple sports for as long as they possibly can. Sports have a wonderful way of teaching us life lessons, the key is that we have let the game teach those lessons. Tracy regularly consults with big league coaches for her expertise in training quality movement patterns, the space and transitions between positions, and mobility specifically as it relates to athletic performance and staying healthy. Tracy’s Offseason Mobility program helped to keep every single Angelo State University player injury-free all season long contributing to their clinching the D2 National Championship this year. That same program has resulted in lower ERAs, increased velo, reduced injury, doubled Home Run rates, over a dozen big league call ups and benefits multi-sport athletes, too. Tracy has been featured on MLB.com for her movement and mobility work with the Orioles and she’s got a book coming out in 2024 called “Shit About Movement You Should Know”. Tracy has a degree in neuroscience + cognitive science from Northwestern University, previously had a corporate career in research at McKinsey & Company and now has over 1,000 hours in Yoga training, is a published Master Pilates Instructor, has a boatload of education, certifications and experience. All this while raising 4 young kiddos, a dog, and a bearded dragon that regularly goes missing in her house. To find out more about Tracy, check out her website at https://www.mobilitychick.com/.