"Back In My Day, We Didn't Do Any Of That Weights Stuff!" Isn't An Excuse To Stay Devolved.
We must evolve to give our kids the best chance at success in not only sport, but more importantly, life.
“‘Back in my day we didn’t do any of that weights stuff, we just played sports!’
You also used to be tethered to a wall to communicate with people outside your home, too.
We evolve everywhere in life, and it’s (way past) time to do the same with our kids athletic development.”
-Ray Zingler on X
As a business owner, but more importantly a man who deeply & genuinely cares about kids and their development for not only sports, but life, I try to see and understand perspectives from every angle. I really do.
The reason is because I strongly desire to impact and influence others, positively. And to do that, it’s not about “what I know to be true”, it’s about what others perceive to be true.
Along with “not having time” and “fears of stunting growth/getting stiff” (lol), I still to this day, hear adults say things like, “well back in my day we didn’t lift any weights, we just played all the time, why should today be any different!?”
On the surface, I get it.
But let me paint you a picture from the 80s, 90s, and even early 2000’s.
“Back in the day”, kids woke up, ate nutritious, whole foods based breakfasts, walked or road a bike to school, then went to sports practices after school.
In their spare time they played a variety of neighborhood games, street ball, and road bikes everywhere.
And this wasn’t like “sometimes”.
This was all day, every day for like 10 years.
Today, kids wake up, shove a blue light device 3” from their face, and begin playing the comparison game with strangers on the internet from a variety of applications.
They eat a processed breakfast bar (if they eat anything) and then get in a car or on a bus and are carted to school where they continue to sit all day for 8 hours.
After school, they, often begrudgedly, go to their single sport they play, practice, and then their spare time is spent, sitting on the comparison game devices they started their days with.
When they do get “extra activity” it’s in the form of repetitive sport movements from the only sport they play (that they are already playing too much of).
Not only is 1985 a far different life from 2025, but we have also far more information to educate ourselves on how to “best go about things”.
And many are still living in the stone age when it comes to Youth Athletic Development.
It aint how it was and we must stop pretending like it is.