Parenting Freak Ability

Mark Dobson is a performance adviser to elite athletes and coaches, and in Parenting Freak Ability, he looks at how parents and coaches have handled the amazing natural talent of some top athletes.

It provides amazing behind-the-scenes insights and anecdotes about the development of talented young athletes. For example, it delves into how swimming sensation Grant Hackett got his start, including how he used to swim 20 laps of an Olympic pool at age six.

Prior to the Beijing Olympics, Dobson spent one year as a direct resource for the Australian Olympic Swimming Coach Ian Pope. He now coaches USA pipe and slope skier Colby West at the Winter X Games and was a founding member of New York City’s first University for exceptionally talented teenagers, which was recently acknowledged by Barack Obama for its educational innovation.

In this book he taps into the wisdom of some of Australia’s great parents and explains the strategies he also uses to unleash ability.

Some of the parents and coaches he covers includes Lindsey Gaze, parent of Andrew Gaze, five-time Olympian; Allison Siddle, parent of Peter Siddle, Australian Test Bowler; Ray and Karen Buckley, parents of Nathan Buckley, AFL Brownlow Medallist; David Carney, parent of Emma Carney, three-time World Triathlon Champion, Denis Ginn, parent of Drew Ginn, triple Olympic Gold Medallist; Dot and Alec McGory, parents of Scott McGory, Olympic Gold and Bronze Medallist; Susan Davis, parent of Anna Segal, Winter Games Gold Medallist, Meredith and Manfred Guehrer, parents of Marieke Guehrer, World Champion Gold Medallist; and Esther Thompson, parent of Archie Thompson, Socceroo.

SPLASH! had a copy of Parenting Freak Ability to give away - the book was won by John Hamilton of NSW.