Don’t skimp on the lowest hanging, most important fruit.
“There aren’t many absolutes in life, but here is one:
Skimping on a quality general physical preparation program will forever disallow an athlete to maximize his or her sport performance potential.
You cannot reach the top of your mountain without preparing to get there.”
-Ray Zingler on X
It’s a big deal.
And it’s worth being repeated.
Look at the amount of time, money, resources, and opportunity cost athletes and their family’s inject into youth sport participation.
It’s monumental to say the least.
So monumental in fact that many spend more on travel sports, lessons, and showcases than the cost of a bachelor’s degree they are trying to get scholarshipped (partially discounted) playing whatever sport they’re playing.
I am not implying all the effort is in vain, because the youth sport experience has the potential to provide a ton of unending value for kids when their time spent between the lines comes to an end. Keywords: “Has the potential”.
A guaranteed positive ROI is no longer a reality in our current youth sports landscape, which makes it critical to have your kids being coached by morally sound leaders and not money hungry, or stagnant bums who “have always done it this way”.
The point of the message is this.
If parents and athletes are going to put as much time, effort, and energy into their sports, would we not want to maximize their experiences?
I mean in what world does it make any sense to allocate the volume of time towards something, while simultaneously skimping on the lowest hanging fruit (physical preparation training) that will pour gasoline on the fire of their athletic experience.
It makes zero sense.
But we subject our kids to the crazy volume of sport that we do, at the expense of their development because physical preparation isn’t flashy.
It doesn’t check the shiny red ball box that most people are after.
And when mom or dad peaks over the fence to see what he or she is doing, we falsely assume more of what they are already doing too much of is the answer.
We have athletic development completely backwards in America and the reason is because manipulative adults have used emotional levers (kids) to create fear based FOMO.
And it’s most certainly not because the excessive volume is best for our kid’s development.
In fact, it’s mentally and physically irresponsible. It’s dangerous.
Often people don’t find this out until it’s all said and done.
Prioritize physical prep for development, not charlatan’s salaries.
