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Raising Pro Athletes
It takes a village to raise a professional athlete ...
For the first time ever, this podcast talks to the people that normally get very little mention, but are the ones who are responsible for the underlying success of an athlete.
Marina pulls back the curtain and dives deep into what it really takes to raise an athlete.
What to expect when you listen:
* The real, raw truth
* Laughter, and maybe some tears
* The struggles and the successes
In this podcast, you will find the support you’ve been searching for to RAISE PRO ATHLETES with confidence, and so much more …
Raising Pro Athletes
Parents Should Treat Youth Sports Like Serious Learning, Not A Hobby
What if the same energy we pour into college tuition went into a child’s proven passion? That question pushed us to make a bold move: relocate to Spain so our two young climbers could train where the facilities, coaching, and community would stretch them. Along the way, we ran straight into a cultural double standard—applauding academic uncertainty while labeling youth sports “just a hobby”—and we decided to challenge it.
We break down what genuine support looks like when a kid shows real drive: not just praise, but logistics, budget choices, and the humility to let growth take time. From coaching and structured training to sleep, nutrition, and smart recovery, we share the daily systems that matter more than shiny expenses. Climbing became our classroom for resilience, risk assessment, and disciplined practice. Gravity keeps you honest, and the wall teaches what a syllabus can’t: how to fail forward, manage fear, and build patience rep by rep.
This conversation isn’t about raising the next superstar. It’s about honoring a path that shapes character. Whether your kid codes, paints, or climbs, the principles hold: align resources with genuine effort, invest in learning over optics, and accept pivots without panic. By treating youth sport as serious education, we saw screens shrink, sleep stabilize, and family routine center on health and purpose. If you’ve ever wondered whether it’s “too much” to back a young athlete, consider what’s at stake when you don’t: missed chances for identity, mastery, and joy. Hit play, reflect on your own family values, and if this resonates, subscribe, share this episode with a friend, and leave a review telling us what passion you’re ready to fund.
• redefining support for passionate kids
• comparing academic spend with sports investment
• moving to access better coaching and facilities
• making intentional budget choices that teach
• building discipline, focus and body literacy
• embracing pivots without regret
• shifting family routines toward health and rest
• treating effort and curiosity as worthy
About This Podcast
It takes a village to raise a pro athlete.
For the first time ever this channel takes you behind the athlete’s ‘unspoken’ road what it really takes to raise athletes.
What to expect when you listen:
Real, Raw Truth
Laughter
The Struggles & Successes
ABOUT YOUR HOST:
Marina Kuperman Villatoro, a mama who is on a mission to help her sons reach their athletic (rock climbing) goals and dreams.
Connect and be Part of the Strategic Village
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Welcome to Raising Rock Climbers. I'm Marina, your host, mother of two rock climbers, and a wife to an extreme athlete. Today I want to talk about wow, you are so great to support your kids like that. And a little bit other stuff that you wonder why isn't everybody doing it? So let's get in. What exactly does that mean when people tell me, wow, good for you for supporting your sons like that who want to be climbers? Why is it okay when your kids want to be, I don't know, scientists or mathematicians or coders, and we get on board, oh yeah, let's go there, like get them workshops and stuff like that. But when kids are into sports, and in our specific case, obviously, it's rock climbing. We have moved to Spain so that our kids can be in the proper facilities, so that they have a much better chance of rock climbing. And if they want to be pro-climbers, we are completely on board to the point where I believe putting in a bigger investment into their climbing career is necessary, just as I would for them to say they want a college, a college, I don't know, education. Even it's amazing to me that in the states or even other countries, I shouldn't say the states, other countries, you know, go to university, but I don't really know what I want to do. Don't worry about it, you'll figure it out. People are okay with paying 20, 30, 40,000 a year for your child not to know what they're fucking gonna learn. Yet, if they want to, if they actually have not even a passion, but like you could see that they have a real skill, that they have a real knack to go with the sport that they're really into. Why not support them? People forget that you don't have to become like the next greatest athlete in the world, the next delinquency bullet matter. The journey alone, what these kids are taught, what your family goes as a whole, the connection, the learning, the journey. Why wouldn't everyone want to support them? But so many people are like, oh no, it's just a hobby. Oh, just ignore it. It's not, it's not a hobby, and even if it is, why not see it through? See where it goes. And if they change their mind, who cares? In the meantime, they have learned discipline, they have learned training, they are doing physical activity, they're not sitting in front of their screen, scrolling through their phones. Why is the paradigm still wrongly shifted? It's time to change the paradigm. I'm Marina, you're a host of Raising Rock Climbers, and this is something that should be talked about on any athletic field, any athletic level, and any type of an athlete's determination and interest, right? So let's talk about it.