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Yahoo Finance Presents: Christie Pearce Rampone & Dr. Kristine Keane

On this episode of Yahoo Finance Presents, 3x Olympic Gold Medalist and World Cup Champion Christie Pearce Rampone, along with sports neuoropsychologist Dr. Kristine Keane, sit down with Yahoo Finance's Jen Rogers for a discussion centered around their new book titled "Be All In." They discuss the impact coronavirus has had on sports in school, raising children during the unprecented COVID pandemic, strategies on how to approach different children's aptitude to sports, and how they are staying fit at home, among many other topics.

Video Transcript

[MUSIC PLAYING]

JEN ROGERS: Welcome to Yahoo Finance Presents. I'm Jen Rogers. My guests are soccer star and Olympic gold medalist Christie Pearce Rampone and sports neuropsychologist Dr. Kristine Keane. They are the authors of the new book Be All In: Raising Kids for Success in Sports and Life.

And I got to start with you, Christie, here. I am a mom. I got kids that play sports, and they just had their whole seasons go out the door. I think the spring was really tough for a lot of families. And now summer, kids are missing their camps. They feel like they're falling behind. What are you saying to young athletes and parents right now?

CHRISTIE PEARCE RAMPONE: Just basically reassuring them that no one's ever been in this position before, and life has changed. Your routines have changed. That structure that kids are used to is really nonexistent right now. So just taking a deep breath and preparing themselves for when sports does open up. And not to be so anxious, and don't look at other states. And don't look at other teams that may be gathering up and playing.

It's like think about what you can control, and that's just being prepared for when it does open up. If you can go on runs and stay fit, and work in small groups and until you can get to that point where you can have contact and compete. But if you don't prepare yourself, it's going to be ugly when it does open up, because then it's just a rush. Because like we say in the book, everything's such a process, and you can't just snap your fingers and then expect to be the way you're playing four months ago prior to when all this stuff shut us down.

So just being mindful of where you are and to realize you're not going to be the same athlete. For parents to realize your kid's not going to be playing at the same level when they stopped, and just enjoy it and enjoy that adjustment. And slowly get back into things. That's the key here.

JEN ROGERS: So as you mentioned in the book, there's a lot about process. There's even routine, like what to do during game day, got me really excited thinking about games again. But, Kristine, we keep hearing about kids possibly not going back to school, and the repercussions of that from an educational standpoint or just socialization. What do you think it would mean if sports don't come back in the fall for kids? Because how important is that holistically, which is, I feel like, the approach you guys are really getting at in the book. How important is that for students?

KRISTINE KEANE: So we've been talking about that, and the thing that we've really focused on is a shift away. And I think people are talking about this like, let's shift away from what we're missing to what's our new normal. You know, all the kids are going back to college, they're not going back to college like the kids did last year. The requirements, the guidelines are different. They're going to be wearing masks on campus. Some of them aren't even going. There's online classes.

So we really talk a lot about instead of looking at other teams or other states and what they're doing, looking at what you can do now. So in terms of the athletes, they can still train. Now obviously they're missing the social aspect of it, but they can still train together. There are things that we can do. We can be outside right now. So we're really trying to shift the focus there.

CHRISTIE PEARCE RAMPONE: We also look at it as try to envision this as an opportunity versus a threat, and try not to let that inner voice get so negative like, "I am missing out on this. I'm missing out on that." Take it as an opportunity to self-reflect and see, "Do I really love this sport? Am I really training on my own? Am I an athlete that wants to be around people, and love to compete?"

So it's like figuring out who you are as a person and as a parent and having just the understanding of what sports is to your family, what that relationship is to your family. And then just have those hard conversations, and just realize we're all in this together. And it's going to slowly come out, and just try to enjoy the opportunity that you have with your families right now.

Because once it opens up, it's going to be, again, another transition of running around and exhaustion and kids, the mental side of it. These kids, when they get back into it, it's going to be tough. Their confidence is going to be altered a little bit.

JEN ROGERS: Just like working from home, we're all going to be in transition.

KRISTINE KEANE: Yeah, transition. I keep telling parents what a great way to teach mental resilience and mental toughness. This isn't what the kids want, but it's certainly a time to learn something new and roll with it.

JEN ROGERS: So, Christie, you've played at an elite level. We are now watching professional sports try to open up here as well, and National Women's Soccer League really out there, first one. But people are playing to empty stadiums. You guys write a lot about being mentally tough. Can you imagine what that's like to be in an empty stadium or arena? How do you think that changes the game?

CHRISTIE PEARCE RAMPONE: Yeah, I experienced that a lot earlier in my career. We used to play a lot of closed games, so we would always play an international closed game. And then we'd open it up to the fans. And it was tough, but that's where you get that mental toughness to realize it still matters. And you're still getting better, and you're growing.

And you don't necessarily need the fans there. Yes, they're amazing, because of that 12th man. But it really is about internally trying to better yourself without having that extra motivation, and it definitely is a mental game. But if you can learn that you're doing it for yourself-- and say the thing is like right now in this pandemic, it's like how many kids are actually going out and training and getting better? Because no one's watching them. No one's telling them.

So you learn a lot about yourself, so I think it's challenging when there's no fans. But you really need to get past that and find your motivation with your teammates and making sure that you're buying into the game plan and having a game within the game. There's got to be something that you have to do to inspire you, but it's not easy. But again, it's going to challenge that mental side of who you are and why you're really playing that sport.

So, yes, it's challenging. However, can you come together as a unit and a group to overcome the silence and learn that you're going to be able to communicate with your teammates and understand them better?

But just realize how effective those fans are and how much you're going to appreciate those fans when they come back. And make sure that you, as a person, are a good role model. These professional athletes will respect, I think, their fan base a lot more and appreciate the fact that they come out to support them.

JEN ROGERS: Kristine, when I read the book, it really spoke to me. It makes me think about how to be a better cheerleader on the side, zip my mouth, how not to talk in the car right after the game. There were really good things in there, but here's one question for you.

You are sitting next to Christie. She is an amazing athlete. She was-- I mean, she's a team captain. She's a World Cup champion. She's got three Olympic gold medals. She's a mom and a coach. Her dad is like a tough competitor. He comes across in the book, right?

KRISTINE KEANE: Yes.

JEN ROGERS: And I'm thinking, oh yeah, they want me to be really nice, but she had somebody that really pushed her out there. Would she be the same person, the same level athlete, if she followed-- should her parents have followed all the advice in the book. I'm not trying to throw your dad under the bus, but--

[INTERPOSING VOICES]

KRISTINE KEANE: One thing I will say is her father was the coach though, so we had a different role. Because we addressed that, parents coaching from the sideline. He was the actual coach. I think you're referring to the story of how her [INAUDIBLE]. [INAUDIBLE] to shut her down during a championship game.

JEN ROGERS: Exactly. But don't you need, do you need-- that's the thing. Everybody worries like, "Oh well, I could do this, and my kid's going to be happier, but they're not going to end up being Christie Pearce Rampone. They're not going to be that star athlete if I just lay off."

KRISTINE KEANE: So our answer to that is every child is unique. Every family is unique. So the book is not saying there's any one-size-fits-all approach to parenting. It just really gives a lot of different guidelines and suggestions and ways to be more mindful about how you parent youth athletes. We're all not going to beat Christie Pearce Rampone clearly. And then you're going to have some kids that are looking to do that, and some kids that want to just play for fun.

So we address all the different scenarios and really try to shift the focus to the skill development during childhood, which then eventually during high school and college you get to the championships and the wins. And that's when the brain is able to understand that. So it's skipping all over all that. Is that necessary? So for some kids it is. Some kids are born with that. She was born with a lot of that. And then you have other kids that are being pushed, maybe relentlessly, and with the hope that, "Well, there's some talent there. We got to push to get there."

So it's really not saying, "This is how you do this. This is the recipe." But these are all the things to be aware of and consider as you're raising your youth athletes. Between us we have five children. They all have a different path, every single one of them, from 10 years old to-- I have a-- my son's attending Notre Dame next year, and we're watching these kids go through soccer and basketball and track. And they all have a different journey. And she's [INAUDIBLE] her two daughters very differently when it comes to sports.

JEN ROGERS: Can you talk about that? What are you doing that's different would you say?

CHRISTIE PEARCE RAMPONE: I would just say everybody's path to success is very different, and it looks different. Just looking through my experience with the girls that I am competing with at the national team, everybody got there in a different way and different angle.

And I have two girls, one 14, one 10, that have a different relationship with sports. One's very competitive, and one just loves to play for fun at the recreation level. So I can push my oldest when I know she's not playing up to her potential.

We always talk about there's two things that I care about when you go out in that field, and that's your attitude and effort. And that's something that you can control, so I keep reminding them, especially my oldest. She's in a very competitive level, and she wants big-- she has these big aspirations the goals to play in college. But I have to remind her some of the choices she makes will reflect on whether she can get there or not. Like are you training on your own? So I am pushing her, but she has to make that final choice.

For my younger one, I'm dancing. We're swimming. We're playing soccer, basketball. She really hasn't found her love yet through sports, but she wants to play it. So in order to play multiple sports, sometimes you have to play the lower level, and we're just trying to figure out what makes her happy. So it's different.

JEN ROGERS: One thing that's really clear to me in the book is that you love soccer, football in the rest of the world, but you love it. And you worked really hard.

And we still have an equality issue in soccer at the highest levels. We also, as we've been going through this reckoning following the murder of George Floyd, every industry, town, individual is grappling with these issues of race. And I'm curious how you feel that's being manifested in the soccer world right now, and is soccer in the United States doing a better job at both of those issues?

CHRISTIE PEARCE RAMPONE: Yeah, I think everybody needs to do a better job. Just if you reflect back to sports, no one's perfect. Everybody makes mistakes.

And in line with what's going on, it's just respecting each other. What I say as a teammate you want to respect their strengths and acknowledge their weaknesses. And that's how you build a great unit and build a great team. And so we can take those messages from sports and bring it into life and everything going on. It's just having the love for each other and respecting each other's beliefs and space, and then we can move forward.

But it all comes down to it is a process. Some people are going to make mistakes, and how do we help them grow from those mistakes. Because it's just like sports, if you continue to make the same mistakes over and over and you don't learn, what's the point? So that's what we tell our youth athletes. It's like when I'm coaching if you don't ever learn from your mistakes, you're not getting the picture of what you can learn from sports.

And that's just how I feel like in life, and that's why in this current time and everything that's going on just can we just respect each other? And can we understand what's going on and try to help and make this world a better place?

JEN ROGERS: And do you think that soccer is doing a better job of that right now?

CHRISTIE PEARCE RAMPONE: Very nice, because right now it's all about awareness. So it's just being aware and your education. Just like this book, it's educating yourself on what's going on and reading both sides of the equation and just making sure that you are not shutting yourself off to what's really going on, ignoring everything. Don't turn your head to it. It's like, have that voice.

We talk about it in the book. Be confident to use your voice and express your voice, because if you don't communicate, you don't understand each other. So use your voice, but be aware. And I think everybody has been doing a great job of making that awareness be known now. What are the actions that are going to follow that? And that's what we'll have to see down road, and hopefully that journey to becoming one will be what we're leading towards.

JEN ROGERS: So I can tell both of you guys are your sports fans. Your kids are in sports. I know you must have been up to stuff in the quarantine as well. So, Kristine, what have-- I'm just curious, what have you been doing to stay in shape?

KRISTINE KEANE: Oh goodness, well, I think in the beginning I was taking a lot of workouts off of Pinterest and a lot of that. So I was a bit of a basement dweller when it first began. And then as the weather got nicer, that's when I started to go out. We erected a volleyball court in our backyard. We were playing basketball.

We did-- we actually really-- and we talked about this in Be All In, having so much more free time allowed my kids to have so much more free play. Because kids get into so many structured practices and training, so it was really neat to watch our family blossom and play all these different sports. I didn't realize I was so terrible at volleyball.

JEN ROGERS: It's really hard on your hands I find if you're not good at it. What about-- Christie, what about you? Are you a Peloton person? Are you-- what do you do?

CHRISTIE PEARCE RAMPONE: Well I'll admit when this first all started, I was like, "I'm so used to being outdoors and running and doing yoga and going to the gym." And it was like, "OK, now I've got to change my routine."

And I started connecting with some of my old teammates that were struggling, and we ended up doing challenges, where it was like in the beginning the first 50 days of it, we did 100 burpees, 100 sit-ups, 100 pushups. And then we sent a picture to the other one like, "I'm done." So I have a newer track at home that I was using as well, so just-- now that the weather's nice, that mix between doing the biking and running.

And I live in a beach town, so we were able to ride our bikes with the kids and have some fun. But just keeping the mind healthy is part of it too, because the exercise completely helped. And I think my kids learned a lot through this as well. It's like you just can't sit around and feel sorry for yourself. You have to be motivated, and sometimes you just gotta get that extra push. You get out there, but we did a lot of just fun family activities.

JEN ROGERS: Well Be All In is the book, Raising Kids for Success in Sports and Life. There's so much in there for parents, and then hopefully I'll be able to do all of the things you said. And then it will make an impact on the child athlete as well. Thank you so much, Christie Pearce Rampone and Dr. Kristine Keane. Great to get a chance to talk with you.

KRISTINE KEANE: You too.

CHRISTIE PEARCE RAMPONE: Thank you so much for having us.

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