There’s the summarized image of our youth sports model in America.
“Parental misconceptions regarding athletic performance are exactly what are limiting our children’s potential.
Parents are led to believe that foundational, generalized preparation should be viewed as an afterthought in an effort to prioritize and abundance of specialization.”
-Ray Zingler on X
You see it every day. And it’s sad.
A 147-pound kid out there busting his ass, going to all the extra “lessons” (highway robbery), the extra practices, and even doing some work on his own.
And for years he continues on this path because he has been conditioned to believe by his superiors that “the more you practice, the better you’ll be!”
While I largely agree with this narrative for activities like playing the guitar or mastering the game of chess, this is not at all how reaching your ceiling of athletic performance potential works.
It’s important to think of athletic performance in the context of a recipe. It’s not a complex recipe, but a recipe with multiple parts, nonetheless.
And what happens to a recipe when you overprioritize one ingredient at the expense of another?
It messes up the recipe, right?
Now let’s get away from recipes and onto athletic performance.
If becoming the best athlete you could be only required high volumes of sport participation and practice, I’d shut my doors.
I’d tell everybody to go out and just play hours and hours of sport to ‘master their craft’ and ‘become the best athlete they can be.’
But guess what?
Kids are already practicing & playing hours and hours of sport believing this will lead to heightened levels of performance. And what is happening?
Because everybody is following this same misguided path, the outliers, who would reach the top regardless of what they do, elevate to the top and every other kid falls into the average category.
Yes, even after spending tens of thousands of dollars annually on additional sports instruction, ‘do or die’ showcases, and tournaments.
Why is it like this?
Because we are creatures of habit and we revert to not what is right, but what we perceive to be true.
We know skipping out on the Oreos is “right”, but we perceive that only having a couple “isn’t that bad” and then we blame bad luck when it comes to belly fat.
As adults, if we truly want to maximize our kids experiences and help them reach the pinnacle of their potential, we must understand that this greed driven narrative is not what is best for their development.
And then, here’s the kicker, do something about it.
