You’re not “too busy”, you’re poorly stewarding your time & allocating too much energy into the wrong things to maximize your potential.
“If you’re ‘too busy’ to prioritize general physical preparation for your sport, which is the primary driver of your sports performance, health, & well-being..
I promise, you’re not too busy.
You’re allocating too much energy into the wrong things to maximize your potential.”
-Ray Zingler on X
One of the primary reasons my grandfather didn’t let my father play football at a very young age was not because of “fear” or dislike for the game.
After all, my grandfather was a seasoned, successful high school & college football coach.
He didn’t let him play early on because he understood the physical demands of the game, far better than most parents who throw their kids in pee-wee uniforms for the sake of “pictures & memories”.
Grandpa understood that if you’re going to play football, and play football safely & well, you must be physically prepared for the demands of the game.
Novel concept, right?
Grandpa led my father and his brothers with this advice in the 1960’s, light years ahead of his time, as the research has definitely caught up with my grandfather’s wisdom.
But here we are in 2024, over 6 decades removed from grandpa’s intuition, with again, an ABUDNACE of research confirming his stance, still subjecting our kids to an ABUNDNACE of physically demanding activity… while, wait for it…
Our youth are more generally, physically unprepared, than they’ve ever been in any other time in human history.
But ask the random parent at the ballpark about that injury, I’m sorry, the youth injury epidemic at scale we’ve never before seen, and they’ll chalk it up to “bad luck”.
It’s not bad luck.
In fact, it’s the exact opposite of bad luck.
It’s 100% the way it should be based on our behavior.
Grab a live wire in a hot outlet and it’s not bad luck when it bites you.
It’s the appropriate response based on your behavior, despite it being uncomfortable.
If you “don’t have time” to physically prepare for the demands of your sport, I can promise you, you’re not too busy.
You’re poorly stewarding your time and allocating too much energy into the wrong things to maximize your potential.
You don’t get better by playing your sport too much, without enhancing the qualities that encourage higher outputs.
This is why many kids who go to every showcase, always showcase the same thing, never impressing anybody.
If you want to maximize your potential, you must emphasize development as an ATHLETE.
More general, less specialized is the way, today.
