Dated thinking leads to the under service of our kids in an evolved world.
“A high quality, private coaching service is always going to be the optimal resource for athlete physical preparation.
This is not a knock on public coaches or programs as they are extremely valuable as well.
It just comes down to bandwidth & specificity.
One Hat vs Many Hats.”
-Ray Zingler on X
As crazy as our youth athletic scene has gotten over the past decade, our coaching scene has gotten as equally crazy.
In today’s world we have a coach for everything, from footwork to “mindset”.
We have public coaches, private coaches, coaches who are in positions for political reasons, and backyard trainers who aren’t qualified to be coaching anybody.
It’s quite literally the wild west.
Removing the charlatans who are motivated solely by financial incentive, imagery, and clout, most all coaches, regardless of the discipline or sector got into this game with the objective of helping maximize athletes’ experiences.
If this is not true, then you shouldn’t be in the field, in any capacity. Plain and simple. You can make equal money with less stress without having to “work” with kids and the sense of significance you get from strong arming adolescents shouldn’t be a motivator to stay in the field because the power trip isn’t nearly as cool as you think it is.
Now that that’s out of the way, back to coaching.
If we understand that our athletic landscape has changed, (major rise in travel, club, summer, and outside of school teams and leagues) we must also understand the importance of the evolving coaching landscape as well.
We can love this “change” with everything in our being or we can hate every bit of it, but it doesn’t change it.
“Don’t see those outside trainers and coaches, we can do everything right here in the school!”
WHAT?
This has never been true and will never be true. Especially in today’s world. (No, I’m not at all undervaluing school training with one’s sports team – I think those who bash in school training and steer kids away are equally as phony).
The fact of the matter is that in the evolving landscape where “specificity” is the name of the game, the (quality) private coaches will always have the upper hand because of the lack of red tape associated, the ability to customize program models, and give athletes personalized experiences. The quality private coach has more focus and bandwidth.
So instead of bashing one way or the other, remember why we got in this. For the kids, right?
In school, out of school, public, private.. COLLABORATE for them. It’s why we got into this, remember.
