Make sure teaching them to be good people is prioritized over everything else.
“You know whats more important than sports?
Being a good person.
I think most would agree, at least I hope.
But are you putting more time into teaching kids how to be good, hard working, honest, capable people?
Or more time into perfecting their swing?
The world can tell.”
-Ray Zingler on X
Nobody cares if your kid is on the A-team, but is an @$$hole.
And like they say, kids are a reflection of their parents.
While this doesn’t mean teenage kids, won’t teen-age (I know I had my moments) their moral compass is designed & calibrated by their environments and what is emphasized within them.
Are they being taught patience?
How to slow down and be aware of their surroundings?
To say thank you to the lady at the cash register who just made their sandwich for minimum wage?
Are they holding the door for the single mom who has her hands full trying to funnel her kids out the door on the way out?
Are they putting their vehicles in park outside the grocery store to help the elderly woman cross the crosswalk to her car during the rainstorm?
Or are they so caught up within themselves and the pressure that is placed upon them?
Do they know there is more to life than an absurd amount of baseball lessons or traveling every single weekend for lacrosse tournaments?
You say they do, but are you sure?
Are you putting time into helping them develop into great people beyond sport?
Are you positive they know their identities have nothing to do with sport success or lack thereof and everything to do with how they treat people?
Again, are you sure? Are you prioritizing the life stuff, with 5-10x the time they are putting into sport?
What time?
You already say you don’t have time.
The knock is not on sports, I know many people who put an immense amount of time into their sports and are fantastic kids with fantastic parents.
I try to model myself after these folks.
But I’ve also come across many who aren’t.
And it’s not the kids’ faults.
They’ve just had the wrong things prioritized in their lives.
Therefore, learning to be a good person will forever be prioritized in our curricula at Zingler Strength.
Helping load weights, lend a hand, say a nice word, clap for others.
It’s simple stuff, right?
But if you don’t prioritize teaching and enforcing it with reps..
How will they ever learn?
This stuff matters more than their velo by 100 miles.
