We have to adjust our stance on physical preparation or the kids will continue to pay for it.
“Not placing an emphasis on physical preparation for sport is no different than not placing an emphasis on learning and mental preparation for tests in school.
Why don’t we just skip over learning and focus on taking tests over and over again, hoping for a better result each time?”
-Ray Zingler on Twitter
Growing up as the son of two coaches, I had a natural draw to sports. Mom and dad were always talking about them and we were always going to games, watching them on tv, etc.
As I got older and began entertaining the idea of sports (my parents never forced me to play anything) my dad had a very simple rule.
“If you want to play that sport, you must commit to physically preparing for it.”
“Wait, what? You mean I can’t just haphazardly run out into a chaotic environment full of violent collisions, cutting, jumping, and shifting, without, you know, preparing my body for the demands that will be placed upon it in sport, dad?”
Joking aside, it was undoubtedly a logical rule my father had, but it also ended up serving me very well.
I went from a very average athlete on the surface to somebody who was able to make a tangible impact because of my physical preparation. On top of that, in over a decade of (mostly contact) sports, I never experienced an injury that kept me out of a practice, much less a game.
I understand there was likely a lot of luck to this notion, and the truth can’t be an absolute for all, but I undoubtedly believe my physical preparation helped me stay within the white lines and not outside of them during my sporting career.
In America, we flat out undervalue physical preparation for our youth.
It starts with the underfunding of (Real) Physical Education in our school systems and finishes with parents who have inflated perceptions of their kids’ abilities, believing they are “more advanced” than they really are and don’t need that “beginner stuff”.
People don’t have time for training, because they’re “too busy” with crazy sport schedules!
Oh yeah, then how do you have time for 6-8 weeks (or longer) of PT when that injury caused by “bad luck” strikes?
We have to start placing an emphasis on Real Physical Preparation in this country, in the same way we do for their standardized tests in school (which, mind you, are hogwash).
If not, kids will continue to run around plagued by injury and never as much sniff their true potential in sport.
