And people buy it.
“There are adults in real life who will prescribe kids who can’t skip or perform a somersault, band resisted ‘speed training’.
They will apply resistance to kids who lack the strength to effectively coordinate their limbs to perform basic movement patterns.
And people buy it.”
-Ray Zingler on X
Let’s say you have a 10-12 year old who has grown up in an era where “PE” is a 30-minute grab ass class a few times per week, that is only prescribed in semesters or blocks, where kids have the “option” to play pick-up games, while teachers sit & scroll Facebook.
Contrary to PE being widely recognized as an “easy A” for students and a dead period for teachers, PE stands for Physical Education.
Years ago, (like 100) we prioritized, took pride in, and took the time to physically educate our youth.
Calisthenics, gymnastics, sprinting, jumping, flexibility, mobility, etc.
We put actual physical culture into kids lives, and we did so with the same vigor and intensity (oftentimes more) as their traditional academic classes.
(Ask yourself, when push comes to shove, what is more important, knowing the most arithmetic that you can find on the internet in seconds or being a healthy, physically capable human being? – yet we still think SAT scores and GPAs are life or death.)
As I work to get this train back on the tracks, what we have today are a bunch of kids who lack fundamental athleticism.
They don’t know how to hop, skip, jump, somersault, back bend, cartwheel, or ariel.
Not because they are inherently unathletic, but because no physically responsible adult took the time to teach them.
See we like to talk about “building a foundation” but don’t want to take the time to help them do it.
And then it happens.
They get to an age where competition increases, and you want to help them gain an edge.
So, what do you do?
You take your kid, despite being “older”, who has no general athletic foundation, to a speed & agility trainer.
A speed & agility trainer, who is going to take your foundation-less kid and apply advanced training modalities to him to appease your ego.
Modern kids today can’t effectively manipulate their own bodyweight in space, but your kid’s trainer is going to apply external resistance? And that’s somehow going to make him better?
I understand not knowing any better, but at some point, we must at the very least wonder.
And once you give it an ounce of thought, you’ll quickly see the charades.
