By Linda Leong
November 28, 2021
Rancho Santa Fe Covenant residents and R. Roger Rowe School alumni, Michael and Gerry Chang, recently published their first book, Watching Your Back: Injury Prevention for Junior Athletes. They are now starting a local book tour to raise awareness on the importance of preventing back injuries among young athletes. The insightful and well researched book is a basic guide to injury prevention for junior athletes. The book shares practical and simple exercise techniques which are effective to strengthen the back and can easily be applied by young athletes in any non-contact sport.
The inspiration for this book came when Michael suffered a back injury while playing golf. He realized that it was critical to share what he learned during his recovery while undergoing physical therapy to other junior athletes and their parents. Based on the old adage that “an ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of cure,” both Michael and Gerry sought out the advice of Dr. Michael Hollstegge, a well-known doctor of physical therapy, golf pros and coaches and poured through publications to form their research into a well composed book of exercise recommendations to spread what they learned with other junior athletes to help avoid back injuries. Professor Peter Beames, author of the best-selling book Walk-Thru-to-Par, praised the book as “the best back book ever!”
The two brothers have been active members of and competed in tournaments sponsored by the North County Junior Golf Association (NCJGA) for many years. The coaches there not only helped them improve in their golf game but also taught them to give back to the community. As such, Michael and Gerry Chang founded Junior Golf for Fun, a student-run organization to promote their love of golf among young athletes. As their way of giving back to their community, they decided to donate 100% of the proceeds from their book sales to NCJGA to promote their youth programs.
On November 20, 2021, the Chang brothers launched their book tour at the Wishbone Brawl, an annual event at Goat Hill Park Golf Club in Carlsbad, sponsored by the NCJGA and the Goat Hill Park Caddie and Leadership Academy. The socially distanced event featured an exhibition match between Xander Schauffele (Olympic golf gold medalist) and Dean Wilson (six-time winner on the Japan Golf Tour) against Fred Couples (former world number one, World Golf Hall of Fame) and Will Kropp (PGA Tour Latinoamérica).
While all proceeds from their book sales at this event were donated to the NCJGA, Michael and Gerry would like to carry on their book tour to donate 100% of the proceeds towards other organizations involving young athletes, including Pro Kids, First Tee ‒ San Diego and FC Heat of Escondido.
Please click on this link to purchase the book which would allow the authors to donate 100% of their proceeds to these worthy charities.