I watch it impact our kids self-worth and confidence every day of my life.
“Quality youth training is not only essential to maximizing athletic performance, it’s essential to development in life.
And I’m not talking about the sets & reps part.
A well versed coach who understands the mental/emotional side can change the trajectory of a kid’s life.”
-Ray Zingler on Twitter
How in 2023, it’s not common knowledge that Youth Strength & Conditioning Training is a non-negotiable requirement to maximize youth performance is something that still boggles my mind.
Truthfully, I do believe those who are looking to maximize their safety, performance, and overall experience in sport do understand this fact (whether or not they act on it is a different story) and those who don’t acknowledge it aren’t doing so spitefully, they just aren’t in a place of understanding the global concept of athletic development or are just there for the t-shirt. This is why we must continue to educate.
Beyond the physical benefits of stronger, faster, more explosive bodies having profound positive implications on sports performance, there is a side to S&C that the vast majority just “going for a work out” miss entirely.
The mental and emotional side.
“Huh”?
See we talk all about sports performance. All the techniques. All the drills. All the analytics. But what we rarely talk about is the most important aspect of the equation:
The highly complex, dynamic, forever changing and evolving, emotional human beings, who require nuanced, well communicated inputs to increase their outputs.
“What?”
Yeah, there is more to a work out than just doing 3 sets of 10.
Like I said in the intro, of course S&C is “worth it” for the physical performance benefits, but what a well versed coach, who has a pulse on the mental & emotional side of the equation can do for our kids is worth a figure you can’t put a number to. Yet, you’ll still get people everyday saying that changing the trajectory of a human life is “too expensive”. Those people just don’t know what they don’t know.
I’ll certainly never step out of my lane as there are more qualified people out there than me, but I will go as far as saying this: sound S&C is therapy for our kids. Therapy that can help them not only to excel in their sports, but therapy they can harness and apply to every area of their lives.
We live in a fast world, this happens then that happens, then it’s on to the next thing and before you know it, we’re circled back around. Who has “time” for depth with our kids?
The S&C Coach does. It’s literally his job.
