Trying to emulate the outliers will forever be our youth’s biggest development detriment.
“The worst thing any parent of/youth athlete can believe is that they can skip out on development because it looks like somebody else can.
Outliers are fun to watch, but you can’t use what they do (or don’t do) as the exception to the rule to justify what is needed for the norm.”
-Ray Zingler on Twitter
Dad sent me a quote yesterday that read, “Devotion to the truth is the hallmark of morality; there is no greater, nobler, more heroic form of devotion than the act of a man who assumes the responsibility of thinking.”
Naturally this quote led me to think, and I got to thinking about my vocation and how the biggest problems in our industry, from the “professionals” standpoint and the consumers’ end stem from a lack of critical thinking.
More common than not, we have the blind leading the blind.
We have coaches who don’t know what they are doing (from a true development standpoint) leading people who have no idea whether or not said coaches actually know what they are doing.
And the craziest part about it is that neither party cares about validity.
If it’s packaged nicely and put in a pretty box, that’s good enough.
“Ehh, it’s just some speed & agility or whatever!”
WHAT!?
I used to ask myself, “in what world would consumers’ not seek validity in regards to the concept of athletic, and really overall human development?” but I stopped asking myself the question because I learned that world is ours.
We turn a blind eye to real tangible development in today’s world because we are so fixated on the outliers.
We are paying attention and oohing and awwing to what the Aaron Donald’s of the world are doing and trying to emulate that because “if it works for Aaron Donald, it must work for me.”
We forget the fact that correlation does not equal causation.
Aaron Donald could flip hamburger patties and still be Aaron Donald.
And another little caveat for people to consider:
What goes viral on social media? Is it the fundamental, mundane, boring stuff or is it the stuff the has the flash and wow factor?
The flashy stuff, right?
And if it’s the flashy stuff that gets all the attention wouldn’t that mean that it’s probably the non-flashy stuff that would better contribute to the development of a kid who isn’t Aaron Donald?
We must stop peeking over the fence to watch what “they” are doing. We must stop trying to justify why “they” can get away without it.
For the overwhelming majority, you cannot skip over the process of REAL development.
