If you don’t know what you don’t know are you sure what they’re doing is best?
“The amount of progress our kids would make athletically if we traded perception and attention for proof and fundamentals would be astronomical.
But people won’t.
Why?
Because perceived validation from strangers on the internet is more important than developing in real life.”
-Ray Zingler on Twitter
The deeper and deeper I get into this and the more conversations I have with parents, the more I am understanding that most just don’t know. Hell, most don’t even have a clue.
I don’t say this to knock these parents at all. Insert Ray Zingler into the “understanding diesel mechanics conversation” and the only value I’ll have is being able to hold the light or hand you a wrench.
While it’s inessential for any parent to be well versed in the realm of S&C (like it is for me in the diesel mechanic industry) we have to at least seek to fundamentally understand concepts that affect our lives.
If you have a youth athlete or a diesel truck, you don’t need to know how to train them or wrench on the vehicle, but at the very least you should know how to decipher a coach or mechanic worth his weight from a phony one. Your child’s performance and your safety on the road depend on it.
As much as I believe most would agree my claims aren’t “extreme” it is very evident that most parents of youth athletes forgo the common-sense approach to training/coaching and trade it for the perception based one.
“Oh well so & so goes here so it must be fine.”
“They have all the speed and agility stuff, that’s what my kid needs.”
“I heard he trained ‘x’ Pro Athletes back in the day!”
All this is is smoke & mirrors. It’s all a façade.
Most of our choosing coaches or trainers for our kids (hell if parents are even entertaining the idea of physical preparation) boils down to what looks cool on Instagram.
As much of an idiot I feel like writing that, it is 100% true.
We’re so focused on perceived truths and garnering attention with some flashy off brand music video training montage that we pay no attention to the stuff that actually works and helps our kids move the performance needle.
We’re so concerned with that double tap on social.
Well guess what.. That double tap on social media doesn’t help you in real life.
What helps athletes in real life is consistently applying effort to scientifically sound modality throughout the length of their careers.
Proof & Fundamentals > perception & attention.