It’s actually hurting our kids performance (physically & mentally) and here’s why:
“Our kids are being asked to perform an abundance of sport specific work, with no where near the general base to support it.
Yet, coach keeps pushing more sport work.
Is it because they need more?
Of course not.
He pushes it only because that’s where his dollars are.”
-Ray Zingler on X
“Don’t overcoach sprinting.”
-The Best Track Coaches on The Planet
It’s some of the best advice of all time.
Why do they give it?
The reason is simple: They want to avoid Paralysis by Analysis.
You don’t want your sprinters having to digest 8 different cues before that gun goes off, you want them “relaxed” in the blocks and focused on one thing: SPRINTING.
Now let’s move over to the team sport environment.
Hitting coach, pitching coach, fielding coach, shooting coach, dodging coach, striking coach, position coach, footwork coach, agility specialist, mindset guru, and on and on.
And worse yet, if the “first choice” of specialty guru doesn’t work overnight, we move to the next one and the next one and the next one.
We are chasing a shiny red performance ball that doesn’t exist and unknowingly confusing and destroying our kids confidence in the process.
In 2023/4, very and I mean VERY few kids performance struggles are coming from a lack of sport specific work.
Most kids are doing entirely too much sport specific work as it is, which is actually hindering their progress as athletes.
It’s because as the water continues to gush over the brim of the sport specific bucket, the other critical sport performance buckets are left near empty or barren all together.
Now, if we know this to be true, (just assess the total volume of sport participation over the last year from practices, games, tournaments, showcases, lessons, summer league, fall league, etc.) you’ll quickly tally up the preposterous number of hours dedicated to sport specifics.
Now tally up the hours spent in a professionally coached performance program to increase overall athleticism and time spent in other sports/activities to contribute to a more robust athlete.
See how little it is, comparatively speaking?
So there’s the “issue” in plain sight, for all to see..
But if we know this to be true, why is Coach Jimmy encouraging MORE sport specific lessons on top of what they’re already doing too much of?
It’s sure as hell NOT because that is what our kids need.
If he truly cared about your kids, he’d be pushing general training and time off from sport, but he doesn’t.
He’s leveraging you for his personal financial gain.
