You’ll be hard pressed to find an activity that yields these front and back end returns.
“There are few greater investments parents can make in their children’s lives than a quality S&C Coach who cares.
-Discipline
-Work Ethic
-Delayed Gratification
– Improved Confidence
-Quality Habit Building
-Positive Association w/ Fitness
& that’s the (extremely) short list.”
-Ray Zingler on Twitter
Notice my short list doesn’t even have the “main” benefits one would typically associate with when partaking in strength & conditioning.
Obviously, (this is where a great coach is important, because without one the following won’t be ‘obvious’) it will help them improve their strength, speed, power, stamina, and resilience.
When youth athletes consistently apply effort and participate in a scientifically sound training program directed by a Coach worth his or her salt, physical results are pretty much guaranteed.
But I tend to focus on the back end.
Not necessarily what S&C can do for them today (which is A LOT) but what it can do for them as people tomorrow and beyond.
-Discipline. Training is hard. It takes commitment. It takes you having to do things you may not always feel like doing. If you choose to do them anyway, by default you will improve your personal discipline and become a more mentally and physically resilient human. What realm of life doesn’t benefit from discipline?
-Work Ethic. The overarching problem with our modern youth today is that they don’t know how to work hard. It’s not their fault either. Adults and the app store baked hard work out for them. S&C will teach them.
-Delayed Gratification. If you want to learn delayed gratification, the weight room is the place to be. Gratification will never come over night, but if you stick with it, the weight room will pay you. You just have to pay rent, first.
-Improved Confidence. Most kids today don’t know how to shake hands or look people in the eye. They are shells of humans because they don’t have to interact with people in real life and they lack confidence. Watch what happens when they get physically stronger.
-Quality Habit Building. We have constructive and destructive habits, right? What do you think happens when you tie an ultra-constructive activity to their identity at an early age? I’ll let you answer.
-Positive Association with Fitness. Do you think they are going to be leveraging lessons from the highly politicized, overprescribed youth sporting experiences they had as kids when they are 50? Do you think they will NEED a positive association with health and fitness? The quality of their lives will quite literally depend on it.
The investment, while a no brainer, is some of the lowest hanging fruit out there.
