They’ve just leveraged your FOMO into a stronghold, which is why most submit to the unnecessary abundance at the expense of our kids mental, physical, & emotional health.
“This summer you can:
Be like everyone else & slog through endless unimportant tournaments, burnt out, performing less than your best.
Or
You can prioritize developing into a more dynamic, robust athlete who actually has something upgraded to ‘showcase’.
Choose wisely.”
-Ray Zingler on X
What is the goal?
No seriously, what is the goal?
Is it to develop into the best player you can be?
Is it to have the most fun you can playing your sport?
Is it to “get a college scholarship?”
Well, I can promise you, following the stereotypical path of the endless “elite” tournaments & showcases model that we are currently using with our kids is NOT the best path for any of the above.
The model we’re currently using is great for putting our kids and their family’s minds, bodies, and bank accounts in jeopardy.
And that’s about it.
However, because it is good for the adults on the other side of the “1st place Hyper-Mega Elite Showcase Worldwide Regional 9u World Series” banner we continue to not only push, but “evolve” the model. (Notice how they’re starting to have bracket games during the school day? LOL!)
The quick fix is to take the money out, and WOOSH, all this trash would be gone overnight?
Why?
Because again, these people aint in it for the kids, they’re in it for the dollars.
But because we know my fantasy option in a greed driven world would never take root, let’s focus on the facts.
Outside of basketball & wrestling (which are year-round sports themselves) every team/ball sport athlete this summer is either coming out of an in-school season in the spring or heading into a fall sport season at the start of the new year.
What this means is at the VERY least there is 6-months of continuous competition taking place.
And yes, we all know this is erring on the EXTREMELY low end.
Most compete 11 months a year and have 1 month of down time (where the organization they play for then upsells them things like “arm-care” and “agility” – Oh, the irony).
But here is the deal.
If you want to be the best you can be, you must develop.
And the model they’ve convinced you to be truth, isn’t the way.
It’s the opposite of the way.
If you want to get better, and enjoy doing it, take a step back, and focus on getting stronger, faster, & more powerful.
You’ll do a lot better “showcasing” it when and where it matters most.
