Obviously they won’t tell you that because their money is on the line.
“Modern Youth Sports:
Financially incentivized adults created ‘elite’ travel organizations for adolescents & then monopolized the market by leveraging parents’ biggest emotional levers (their kids), to get what they’re after. Your money.
Modern youth sports are ANTI-development.”
-Ray Zingler on X
We can pretend like it’s something different if we want to.
But one thing you’ll learn in life is that a spade is a spade, even if you don’t want it to be. Oftentimes, especially if you don’t want it to be.
While obviously there are some GREAT adults out there, and honestly some GREAT travel organizations, really doing their best to truly help kids develop, the global youth sport model that we use today in America is broken.
It’s wrong.
It’s not focused on development.
It’s the exact opposite of development.
It’s about money.
Cold, hard, adult cash.
But how and why did we get here?
It started with well-intentioned adults wanting to create opportunities for kids by creating programs where they could be exposed to higher levels of competition and enhance their recruitability by putting kids on regional and national scenes to compete against the best.
Again, this, in theory is a net positive.
In the early days of travel ball, there was no money guiding adult decision making. If anything, the coaches and organization leaders took losses, but were happy to, if it meant truly getting kids opportunities they may not otherwise have received.
These adults were warriors for kids.
Fast forward a few years later.
Where are we at now?
We’re currently funneling pre-pubescent children into early onset single sport specialization at the expense of their development, while simultaneously leveraging FOMO to keep our travel organizations bottom lines rich, 12 months a year.
The days of “summer ball” are long gone.
Youth sports today are a single sport, 12-month a year, identity altering construct that is waging war on our beloved children’s athletic development and potential.
And some will say, “oh come on Ray, it’s not that serious, nobody is forcing them into anything!”
While nobody is “saying” it like this and, admittedly, they ARE “talking” about development, (until your direct deposit goes through) actions speak a lot louder than words.
Look at the state of youth athletics, not what “the few” who you know down the road might be doing, but the model as a whole.
Then look at the research & data pertaining to development.
They’re robbing parents of money and kids of their potential.
