It’s about finding the empty buckets in their development and helping them fill them.
“Does it make sense for the athlete?
Or are you prescribing it because that’s what you like?
Coaching sports performance is not about your preferences.
It’s about being aware and honest in regards to what buckets are empty & doing everything in your power to help fill them.”
-Ray Zingler on X
I think this is one of the most important questions anybody working in the field of sports must ask themselves.
From head sport coaches to physical therapists, all the way down to my favorite “footwork and mindset” coaches (lol, but yes, some people actually think they are that.)
The reason is because people tend to inflate their importance. They tend to think their thing is the solution to all the athletes’ problems.
The track coach will say it’s a track problem.
The sport coach will say it’s a sport skill problem.
The mobility coach will say it’s a mobility problem.
Many people prescribe to people what it is they know or what it is they like doing regardless of whether or not this is what the athlete actually needs.
The speed & agility guy isn’t putting that speed and agility on kids because they need more planting, cutting, shifting, and changing of directions than they are already doing too much of.
He is doing it because that’s “his thing” and it’s cheap and easy to implement.
It has nothing to do with that being the most beneficial stimulus for the athlete. It’s the fastest and easiest track for the “coach” to make money (Low operating costs, low skill required, palatability, etc.)
What makes athletic performance so beautiful is the marrying together of all the critical components.
This requires coaches to be self-aware and brutally honest with themselves when evaluating the youth athlete and what it is they need.
I tend to prioritize strength development.
Is this because I am a “strength guy”?
Not in the slightest.
I am a physical preparation specialist.
So, when building out program models, I must implement not what “Ray Zingler likes doing” but what the modern youth athlete actually needs.
Because strength is the foundational component for all things performance related for beginner youth athletes, this is what I prioritize.
If across the board, our youth were strong as oxen with years of strength training under their belts, do you think as a performance coach, I’d be in the market of selling them more weight lifting?
Of course not, I’d adjust and look for the other buckets that needed filling. (Skill work, conditioning, etc.)
But this isn’t the case.
We must prioritize & emphasize the empty buckets.
