Bravo! I never understood pushing kids in sports because the odds that it would make sense financially or in any way long term is just so small (so sinking a ton of any resources, whether time or money, in to it seems crazy, unless a kid REALLY wants it badly).
And now with the imminent coming of AI devaluing all purely intellectual work, it _really_ doesn't make sense to push them on the intellectual/academic aspect either (other than getting them to pick up a basic education).
You’ve got to get on science of sport with Ross Tucker and explain some of the stuff to them. They’ve been talking around the disconnect between youth athletic “success“ and adult success for a while, but they miss a lot of the key points that you bring up here.
I don't have kids but I see the professionalization of children's sports. It's a bit of an arms race, if you want any success at any sport you need to be dedicated from earlier and earlier ages. Even when I was a kid I felt adults took it all to serousely.
I see it a lot in my preferred sport, motorcycle racing. All the professionals now started at 5 and by the time they are a teenager they are home schooling, living in a camper while their parents work all available overtime to pay for it all. Until recently if you didn't have a professional contract by 16 that your parents sign you were passed over. We celebrate the few that succeed and gloss over the vast majority that do not. A small improvement in this is that more professional organizations are moving the age up to 18 for a professional license.
Hockey, dear to Canadians requires endless hours in cars driving to games and then leaving their families to live in another city to join the pyramid scheme that promotes a few to professional teams. In the mean time you have young men with limited adult supervision treated like stars creates a dangerous culture. Hockey Canada until recently kept a secret fund to pay out rape allegation charges might give an idea of the culture this creates.
The olymics just passed and if I could make one change I would restrict it to just adults, no under 18 participation, ideally older really. This would give everyone more of a chance to be a kid, including the many that dedicate their childhood to it but never get there and spare the ones that do make it from the pressure of being part of a countries political symbol for their country.
I'd like to push back a bit. I do think that someone connecting the dots for me when I was younger would have helped:
- "Hey Stephen, do you realize that if you practiced this move in basketball, you'd get a lot more good shots off? You'll probably have to practice it every day -- and you'll probably have to practice it in a real gym, not your backyard hoop."
I don't think I had anyone showing me examples of drilling a particular skill to get better at the thing they loved. I heard the phrase "practice makes perfect" and my parents talked about practice, but at the middle school and high school level, I didn't understand the nuts and bolts of how to do that.
I have a similar experience with music. No one pushed me to try an instrument.
Is there room in this framework for the right amount of pushing (encouragement? coaching?) from parents?
Also, are there resources that describe this "autonomy supportive coaching"?
Bravo! I never understood pushing kids in sports because the odds that it would make sense financially or in any way long term is just so small (so sinking a ton of any resources, whether time or money, in to it seems crazy, unless a kid REALLY wants it badly).
And now with the imminent coming of AI devaluing all purely intellectual work, it _really_ doesn't make sense to push them on the intellectual/academic aspect either (other than getting them to pick up a basic education).
Love this.
Seeing all types of sports parents and looking back at my journey as a sport parent, this resonates for sure. "Be the governor, not the gas pedal".
You’ve got to get on science of sport with Ross Tucker and explain some of the stuff to them. They’ve been talking around the disconnect between youth athletic “success“ and adult success for a while, but they miss a lot of the key points that you bring up here.
I don't have kids but I see the professionalization of children's sports. It's a bit of an arms race, if you want any success at any sport you need to be dedicated from earlier and earlier ages. Even when I was a kid I felt adults took it all to serousely.
I see it a lot in my preferred sport, motorcycle racing. All the professionals now started at 5 and by the time they are a teenager they are home schooling, living in a camper while their parents work all available overtime to pay for it all. Until recently if you didn't have a professional contract by 16 that your parents sign you were passed over. We celebrate the few that succeed and gloss over the vast majority that do not. A small improvement in this is that more professional organizations are moving the age up to 18 for a professional license.
Hockey, dear to Canadians requires endless hours in cars driving to games and then leaving their families to live in another city to join the pyramid scheme that promotes a few to professional teams. In the mean time you have young men with limited adult supervision treated like stars creates a dangerous culture. Hockey Canada until recently kept a secret fund to pay out rape allegation charges might give an idea of the culture this creates.
The olymics just passed and if I could make one change I would restrict it to just adults, no under 18 participation, ideally older really. This would give everyone more of a chance to be a kid, including the many that dedicate their childhood to it but never get there and spare the ones that do make it from the pressure of being part of a countries political symbol for their country.
I'd like to push back a bit. I do think that someone connecting the dots for me when I was younger would have helped:
- "Hey Stephen, do you realize that if you practiced this move in basketball, you'd get a lot more good shots off? You'll probably have to practice it every day -- and you'll probably have to practice it in a real gym, not your backyard hoop."
I don't think I had anyone showing me examples of drilling a particular skill to get better at the thing they loved. I heard the phrase "practice makes perfect" and my parents talked about practice, but at the middle school and high school level, I didn't understand the nuts and bolts of how to do that.
I have a similar experience with music. No one pushed me to try an instrument.
Is there room in this framework for the right amount of pushing (encouragement? coaching?) from parents?
Also, are there resources that describe this "autonomy supportive coaching"?