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An interview with Jack Perconte, author of the baseball book Raising an Athlete: How to Instill Confidence, Build Skills and Inspire a Love of Sport
Listeners of Cover the Bases may know the name Jack Perconte as a major 
league second baseman. Over the course of 7 seasons he played with the Dodgers, Indians and Seattle Mariners. Since his retirement he has taken to a life of teaching at his baseball and softball academy, and writing. In each pursuit he has focused on passing along his firsthand knowledge of the game of baseball, combined with life lessons for budding athletes.
Jack is the author of numerous baseball books including The Making of a Hitter: A Proven and Practical Step-by-Step Baseball Guide
(including forward by Mike Socscia), 60,000 Hitting Lessons – A Hands on Baseball Guide for Parents, Coaches and Players
PositiveParentingInSports.com is the companion web site to Raising an Athlete, and begs the question as to whether it was witnessing objectionable behavior by parents on the ball field that motivated Jack to write this book. Of course, this is such a complex topic that there is never one single episode, lesson, or exercise that is applicable to all cases.
Jack is trying to point out that in many cases it is the parent who makes sports more difficult for their kids. The parent’s actions are directly contributing to burnout, fear, anxiety, and pressure for kids on athletic fields across the country.
Jack also points out that the increase in travel teams, scholarships and the simple fact that more girls are participating in sports has increased the number of children being impacted, as well as the overall amount of pressure being heaped on athletes in youth programs today.
Based upon his years of experience, Jack was able to compile a list of common concerns that parents have expressed to him, and used them as a basis for the outline of the book. This approach provides real life application of the positive reinforcements he uses in his own teachings.
Raising an Athlete also deals with the dynamics of athlete, parent and coach as well. What does it take to be a good coach, and what should parents expect from a volunteer on the playing field. In subsequent chapters, Jack gets into specialty situations where a coach creates circumstances that a parent may need to deal with.
We talk about the aspect of winning and losing, and in today’s society we may have swung the pendulum towards an approach where “everyone gets a trophy”. This is a response to a time when winning was too much of an emphasis at an early age, and coaches added too much pressure for coming out on the right side of the final score. However, by not allowing a teaching moment to take place around adversity or dealing with a loss, it does have a long term affect on an athlete’s ability to cope when things don’t go right.
Jack’s methodology and experiences are a combination of the players and 
managers who have inspired him along the way, and we appreciate that he can distill it all and present it in a format for application on an every day basis.
We express our gratitude to Jack Perconte for taking the time to appear on Cover the Bases with us, and look forward to keeping up with his endeavors on his blogs; BaseballHittingLessons.com & PositiveParentinginSports.com
Follow this link to pick up a copy of Raising an Athlete: How to Instill Confidence, Build Skills and Inspire a Love of Sport today. Hopefully it will help you raise a well rounded, star athlete!
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