Our model is putting the cart (well before) the horse.
“What we call development in modern youth sports & what development actually is are two entirely different things.
We don’t build foundations, we give lip service to fundamentals, & we sell out on premature advancement.
What we call developmental is actually often retrogression.”
-Ray Zingler on Twitter
Development.
It’s preached to you by every coach, everywhere.
It’s written on every travel ball organization’s website (typically right before or after the list of college commits who would have committed whether or not they played in said organization, but hey, what better food to feed a 9-year-old and their parents as they are just getting started. Development, remember!)
But I beg the very serious question.
Are we ACTUALLY developing youth athletes?
I mean are we are we reading and studying (peer reviewed research) in regards to the important topic of youth athletic development that would drive our critical thinking so that we can make the highest quality, most informed decisions as they relate to our child’s ever so critical development?
Or, are we doing what everybody else does because “that’s the way it is these days” and “it’s probably fine.”
I can assure you the vast majority are (understandably) in the ladder group for a variety of reasons ranging from lack of care to the illusion of not having time.
The problem, because youth ball, which should be renamed to money ball, is that the organizations largely aren’t focused on actual development.
They are focused on building out their brands, generating more teams so that they generate more money, so they can have the best looking facilities to flex on the organization down the road.
And they’ve tried to camouflage this adult ego fiasco with “youth development” by telling you audibly that they are “in it for the kids.”
I know it might come with a sting to the ego of parents (epically dad’s) but your kids are beginners. Literally by definition.
And beginners aren’t advanced, despite what the travel ball coach you’re paying tells you.
Because of this lack of advancement, kids need these unsexy things called foundations and fundamentals.
They need to build GENERAL athletic qualities (movement quality, work capacity, strength, speed, power, & etc.) so that they have the ability to display their general qualities in a specific environment.
But see we don’t do that in America.
We start with the specificity from the go and then wonder why our kids are running around on untapped potential.
In the cowboy world, it’s called All Hat, No Cattle.
We need to back up.
