Laurent Duvernay-Tardif contains multitudes. He's a Super Bowl champion with the Kansas City Chiefs, a practicing physician in Quebec, a business owner, and the founder of a foundation dedicated to giving underserved children access to both sport and the arts. He is also one of the most thoughtful voices on youth sport you will find anywhere.In this conversation, Laurent traces the full arc of a remarkable life: from a childhood spent sailing with his family across the Caribbean, to playing badminton and violin alongside football as a teenager, to meeting with the Dean of Medicine before meeting a single NFL team, to sitting out a season to serve on the front lines of COVID relief. At every step, his story challenges the assumptions that dominate youth sports culture today. Laurent argues that sport and physical activity have quietly become two different things: one is an industry of performance, the other is a lifelong health behaviour. He believes the youth sports environment has tilted too far toward the former, narrowing the pipeline of kids who stay active. He talks about what Andy Reid understood about coaching that most coaches never do, describes the Kansas City locker room as a place where Travis Kelce's interest in fashion was treated with the same respect as a surgical reduction of a fracture, and how that culture of permission made the team better. He also opens up about his LDT Foundation, now active in over 60 schools & 400 summer camps across Quebec, which fuses sport and art to serve children who would otherwise have neither. And he makes a case that the goal of youth sport should not be to produce more elite athletes, but to produce more active humans.Chapters00:00 Opening01:36 Introducing Laurent Duvernay-Tardif05:32 Why He Never Gave Up Medicine for the NFL08:26 What Makes Andy Reid a Special Coach09:57 Youth Coaches Who Let Him Stay Multi-Sport11:30 How Martial Arts, Badminton Made Him a Better Lineman12:50 His Parents' Approach13:56 Two Years Away From Organized Sport16:09 Being Left on an Island17:06 Coming Back at 15: Hungry for Sport Again17:58 Playing to Have Fun19:32 What His Parents Asked After Games20:47 The Contract Call: His Mom's Reaction22:22 What Unconditional Love Looks Like in Sport23:38 Why He's Not Ready to Coach Yet24:02 What a Good Youth Coach Should Be25:48 What to Look for in a Team Before You Enroll Your Kids27:33 The Performance Industry vs. The Community29:21 Building a Bigger Funnel31:22 Importance of Elite Sport33:17 Why More Participants Means More Champions34:40 The LDT Foundation37:10 Why Summer Matters Most for Kids Who Need It38:09 How Playing Violin Made Him a Better Athlete40:06 The KC Locker Room: Pokemon Cards, Fashion & Surgery43:44 Why Football Became His Sport46:08 Mahomes, Kelce and the Case for Multi-Sport47:11 Were You Free to Play as a Kid?48:01 Connecting People Through Sport50:06 Why Kids Should Try Every Position51:11 Affordability and Access: The Gap We're Creating53:06 Don't Push Too Hard Too Soon53:51 Where Should Money in Youth Sport Go?55:39 Why Intergenerational Play Matters57:15 The Most Influential Thing a Parent Can Do57:56 Screen Time & Social Media59:01 The Biggest Issue in Youth Sport1:01:02 Jumpstart's Rethink InitiativeResources LDT Foundation JumpstartJumpstart's Rethink Initiative

Ask this episode

“What did the council decide on item 42?” — answered with the speaker and the moment.

Transcript

Related