We are continuing to put the cart further and further before the horse.
“Our kids are playing the highest volume of sport they have ever played.
To think they need more ‘sport specific’ training on top of the abundance of sport work (sport specific training, lol) they are getting is downright foolish thinking. In fact it’s dangerous thinking.
GENERAL training is what they need.”
-Ray Zingler on Twitter
I need to add an asterisk to the tweet above because of character limitations and that is this:
Our kids *who are playing sports, are playing the highest volume of sport they have ever played.
In America, 70% (and climbing) are walking away from sports entirely by age 13.
But those who are playing are playing (the same) sport vastly more than ever before.
While on the surface, this sounds “good” and I would agree there are a lot worse things they could be doing, “good” is not best. It never has been and never will be.
The problem with specificity culture that we are breeding into our kids today is very fundamental. It’s that our kids who are playing this abundance of specific sport do not have the general foundation to support the volume of nuanced work.
I’m talking physically and mentally.
You can’t just play with rubber bands for 5 minutes before baseball practice, call it arm care, and think that is sufficient.
You can’t just keep throwing a blanket over top the mental health stuff as you begrudgingly go to the next <insert practice, game, showcase> because you feel like you have to.
If I’m wrong, can you explain the abysmal rates of preventable youth injuries? Our numbers are down by 70% but injury rates are the highest they’ve ever been? Do you think this is accidental? Bad luck?
Then let’s take a look at the mental health side (a side few want to talk about in youth sports). Do you think tying a child’s identity to a specific sport has profound positive implications on their mental health and well-being? The volume of pharmaceutical drugs we are throwing down our kids gullets at scale to fend off anxiety and depression would lead me to believe otherwise.
This is not a knock on anyone struggling with mental/emotional problems. The guy writing this has been through hell and back mentally which is I’m chasing solutions, not contributing to problems.
Our kids don’t need more of what they are already doing too much of.
It’s gotten to the point where the physical and mental dangers of doing so have reared their head. The data is there.
Our kids need general training and support to be able to handle all of this.
If nothing changes, nothing changes.
