How One Man Changed My
Day
As you know, my last few newsletters
have been based on my thoughts and comments about the ‘HOW TO GROW A
SUPER ATHLETE’ article written by Dan Coyle a couple of weeks
back.
I hope I challenged you. I hope I made you think.
That is the goal of every single one of these newsletters that I
write for you. Youth sports and the safe training of young athletes
is contingent on us being able to take a critical look at what we
have done in the past, what we are doing right now, and what we must
do in the future to ensure optimal safety and potential
development.
Every once in a while, I get a great email from someone just like
you - someone who has been reading my newsletter for some time now,
and just wants to offer their thoughts.
One of my favorite subscribers (I can say that because he has
actually come to one of my seminars and so I had the pleasure of
meeting him in person). is Bill... he’s a baseball coach from the
east coast of the United States.
Bill’s got a ton of passion when it comes to youth sports and
baseball in particular. I have always really enjoyed the emails I
get from him - they’re usually very insightful and his passion for
the game really shines.
Here’s something Bill emailed to me recently:
"I want to point out that NOT ALL baseball practices in this
country still start only with a lap and static stretching anymore
and you are one of my influences why. I wish you could attend one of
the winter workout sessions I perform with my youth athletes (note I
refer to them as athletes and not baseball players). Our program is
built on the platform that to be a better baseball player we first
need to focus on making you a better athlete."
O.K, so you may be thinking, "of course Brian likes Bill’s
emails... it’s basically one big stroke to his ego". I encourage
you... read on:
"You and the article touched briefly on one of the biggest
problems facing the youth coach in the United States for most sports
today that I wish you can more fully address in a future article.
Your two word sentence "All competition" and Dan Coyle's footnote #
7 about replicating the Spartak system "a focus on the glamour of
winning rather than on the brickwork of building technique" gets to
the heart of the elite travel team trend in youth sports. I am
seeing travel teams emphasizing schedules of 60 + games which makes
me wonder when do they actually focus on developing the skills it
takes to be and/or remain ELITE".
This is an absolutely fantastic point, and one I am going to
challenge myself with.
Bill, you’ve got it my friend - A critical anaylysis on ‘the
over-competition syndrome’ is coming next week.
Here are the closing comments in Bill’s email to me:
"I just wanted you to know that you are having an effect and that
not ALL youth coaches don't get it. I am constantly preaching to
youth coaches at coaches clinics the importance of basic skill
developments (like neural cross patterning) as essential as they
can't take for granted that players know how to move correctly."
You have no idea how much that reads like music to my ears!
This speaks to the heart of why I created packages like Complete
Youth Training (check out what I
mean by clicking here).
I poured my heart and every ounce of my knowledge into a
multi-dimensional package that encases everything I know about
training kids safely and effectively.
The fact that my work IS
impacting Trainers and Coaches around the world means everything to
me.
Bill... thanks for the email... I appreciate you taking the time
to respond to my newsletters.
‘Till next week,
Brian
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