It sounds crazy, but given the current dynamic, it’s an absolute truth.
“Those who played sport at the highest level are generally the biggest advocates for balance, rest, & multi-sport participation in youth athletics.
Yet, we allow dads who were JV All-Americans to monopolize & profit from the very sports that are (should be) developmental by nature.”
-Ray Zingler on X
This is pretty much true across the board.
From Football to Baseball legends, you’ll hear those who reached the pinnacle of their crafts preaching diversification, balance, rest, and time away from individual sports.
I’m not implying these folks didn’t strategically dose genetics with heaping volumes of hard work throughout their journey to get to the top, but if you think they sold out to the over-prescription of a single sport from 8 years old all the way up, you’d be sadly mistaken. In fact, you’d be hard pressed to find a single one who did.
Think about it, if these were true “baseball guys” or “soccer gals” wouldn’t they be preaching their sport over everything else? Wouldn’t they be pushing the “grind don’t stop” message?
The reason they aren’t is because they know it’s nonsense.
Yet here we are in today’s landscape having our children guided by dads with beer bellies, putting compression sleeves on 10-year old’s, doing their darndest to prevent little league elbow. (Yes, I’m serious.)
If you don’t want to listen to the science that defends multi-sport participation, taking (real) time off, and resting the body, that’s fine.
But at the very least, listen to the guys who made it to the top of the mountain.
Would you not trust the proven brain surgeon with 100’s of successful surgeries under his belt, over the guy who read about brain surgery on google one time?
But we do this with our kids every day.
“Well, my son’s baseball coach said that in order to be the best he’s got to do this every day! And he was a Pro pitcher!”
Is this person trying to make a living on your son’s participation in his services?
Could this quite possibly be biased advice?
And no, he wasn’t a Pro pitcher. He was a low-level farm system guy making $60 a game, eating gas station food before he fizzled out and started selling “lessons”.
We need to start listening to the real pros.
The people who have unbiased opinions and defend their stances with facts.
The Tom House’s of the world. The James Andrews.
(https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/2023/09/17/tom-house-advice-sports-parents-young-athletes/70878770007/
https://mynbc15.com/news/local/dr-andrews-how-parents-can-help-prevent-overuse-injuries-in-youth-sports)
Why are they preaching against the way things currently are?
Because they know and can prove to you, it’s wrong.
We need to start listening to them over Jimmy’s dad.
