It goes to show that adult egos & money are more important than the kid’s & the inarguable research as it relates to their development.
“Kids are severely under physically prepared.
Adults: ‘Eh, Whatever.’
Kids are severely over-specialized.
Adults: ‘They need more sport specific work on top of the already overdosed volume of sport!’
Hobble the horse AND put it in front of the cart. The good ‘ol American way!
-Ray Zingler on Twitter
A building’s structural integrity and performance hinges on the quality of its foundation.
I think most would agree with this statement.
If you don’t go build a house on sand and wait for moderately high winds.
Now let’s shift the word building to athlete.
An athlete’s structural integrity and performance hinges on the quality of its foundation.
Would you agree?
My hope is that the rational reader would.
I am fully aware that the landscape of youth athletics is rapidly shifting.
Whether we like it or not, most athletes (and parents) are being funneled into the idea of single-sport specialization. This is being encouraged (softly forced in many cases) at earlier ages by the day.
We can share all the facts defending why this isn’t a good idea.
We can acknowledge the truths.
Hell, we can even dislike the notion, but like you tell your friends at dinner parties and on social media, “it’s just the way it is these days.”
I’ve come to (unfortunately) accept the fact that there are only two ways this flawed narrative is going to shift back to the overall athletic development, youth-centric model.
1. Adults are going to have to step in and put their foot down.
2. The bottom will have to fall out.
Because money is involved and most are afraid to challenge the status quo, in my opinion we will unfortunately have to wait for number 2 to take place and I assure you, it will.
So what can I do in the meantime?
Wish it was different? Or react to reality?
I choose to react to reality.
Just because this is the “way it is” does not mean the question I presented in the intro doesn’t need answering.
Athletes structural integrity and performance still hinges on the quality of their foundation. (Even if we don’t want it to have to.)
We can’t just skip over the most important construct of sustained athletic performance and cheaply say ‘whatever its fine’.
It physiologically isn’t fine.
In a time where our kids are exposed to more consistent volume of single-sport related activity than ever before, do you really think they need more sport?
I mean honestly. Do you think that?
They’ve never been more physically unprepared, yet overspecialized than any other time in human history.
They need MORE general & LESS specific.
It’s literally scientific fact.
