I was sitting around talking with some strength coaches recently and we started discussing some really elaborate pipe dreams about what we would want to see happen with athletics. Particularly, youth athletes.

Some of the ideas were really far-fetched and I don’t see ever happening. But, some have potential legitimacy.  

I took the 5 best that came out of this discussion and will throw it on the table for you guys to ponder. I realize some, if all, will never happen, but could be some good debate to talk about with other parents of athletes.

Here are the 5 in no particular order:

  1. You are not allowed to play tackle football until high school.  If everyone at every level is limiting the amount of full contact drills you can do in practice, then I think the body is not as prepared for the physicality of football as it used to be. Thus, your body can only take so many finite hits before injuries occur. Don’t let them play until they get to high school.  

    Most of them will be hitting puberty and their bodies developing. This gives them a better opportunity to learn proper technique from coaches better than the parents volunteering at the youth level (I do applaud those parents for sacrificing their time to do that). With the maturing bodies, they will be able to handle the hits better.

    For those of you who say your kids will not develop enough aggressiveness by high school, I say hogwash. If boys would get outside and play more they would continue to develop their aggressiveness rough-housing with their friends. They would also continue to develop their overall athleticism which is really what you need to do to be a good football player.
  2. Enough with everybody deserves a trophy. I don’t think this is helping our kids develop for life let alone playing sports. They have to understand about winning and losing. If you want something bad enough, you have to understand about the hard work you need to do to put you in a position to attain that goal. And even then, it might not be enough.

    If we are going to continue to push the travel sports, then at the very least these kids have to understand rejection especially if they don’t make the travel team they want.  

    Even at a young age, I am all about having fun, but those little kids don’t need a trophy for participating on a team. You can encourage fun at each game, but if you are going to keep track of who wins and loses, then a trophy should only go to the ultimate winner.  
  3. Travel teams need to do an assessment with each athlete at the beginning of the club year to see who might be a potential injury risk. I don’t think the travel hysteria is going away any time soon. I do think if you are going to have these young athletes play the same sport year round, the least these teams can do is provide some type of assessment that could indicate if they have a higher risk for injury. Maybe like a Functional Movement Screen at the bare minimum.

    These kids are devoting a lot of time to their sport on an annual basis, but their bodies aren’t as developed as adults. Thus, they are having injuries at a younger age through all the repeat of movement patterns. Before each season, do an assessment and the athletes that score low on it, encourage them to do some training to address the issue. Hopefully, reducing the chances of a big injury occurring.
  4. Let’s have the Little League World Series done by the end of July at the latest. C’mon, the fact this is on TV is ridiculous, but obviously people are watching it if it is the spectacle that it is.  But, these kids aren’t getting done until the end of August. The key word is “kids.”

    School has already started for these kids. If they want to play football they probably have missed the first game of the season and all of the practices. What exactly is this serving having the Little League World Series on playing so late? Someone please explain that to me.
  5. Maybe make the travel teams a little more affordable. Yeah, I know people tell me all the time, if a team wants an athlete they will find a way to cover fees. But, honestly are travel teams really the best of the best or the best of the best out of the athletes who can afford it??

    I talk with people all the time that pay 4 figures to join a team and then pay double or triple that for hotel fees, travel, etc. These travel teams are like mini colleges. It seems like it is a big business anymore, but hopefully the focus is still on the athlete development.

These were the best of the 5 that I heard when we were talking. I would be interested to see what you guys think. Please feel free to post comments in the comment’s box below and I know that some of these are a little outrageous so “Keep it clean!”

Photo courtesy of Mike Morris on Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/23471940@N02/