The Youth Athletic Development Model We Use Today Is Built To Highlight Outliers.
The problem with this is 99% of kids being conditioned by the flawed model aren't outliers.
“Outliers will be outliers regardless of what they do.
But there are millions of kids who never reach their potential because they are being conditioned to imitate what they outliers can get away with/without doing.
Run your race the right way.
It pays a hell of a lot better.”
-Ray Zingler on X
It doesn’t take an exercise scientist to tell the youth athletic development model we use in America today is a croc of shit.
You can look outside and notice by accident.
And if you have any questions about most adults’ knowledge regarding LTAD (most don’t even know what that means, lol) remember this: We live in one of the most physically illiterate countries in the world with the highest obesity rates.
You can pick up on this rather quickly, too, by hearing most of these guys talk about “development” (they don’t understand) and by looking at their guts hanging over their beltlines.
To be helpful, next time you have an interaction on the subject with one of these “leaders” tethering with your greatest emotional lever (your kids) to serve their own bank accounts, go into knowing it’s (WAY) more likely these guys have no idea what the hell they’re talking about than it is that they do.
Social media screws a lot more things up than it helps.
Views pay.
Sound, fundamental content gets pushed to the side.
It’s because social media sites are not educational platforms (despite industry leaders working tirelessly to change that narrative), but entertainment platforms.
That’s why you see all the bullshit and very little substance.
But the problem is most have very low bullshit meters, which, in today’s world is extremely dangerous.
“Did you see that training video of Derrick Henry!? That was crazy!”
Yes.
I did.
It was dumb as hell, carrying far more risk than it did potential word.
But here’s the truth about Derrick Henry:
It doesn’t matter that he got duped by his clueless, clout chasing, bruh back home.
Derrick Henry could train in the kitchen of a Dunkin Donuts with milk crates and still very likely be Derrick Henry.
Your kid can’t.
While the outliers are fun to watch and make things “look so easy”, most, by pure definition are not outliers.
This makes it way more sensible to focus on not what they do (or more importantly what they can get away without doing) and focusing on sound, long term athletic development strategies.
“The way it is” aint the way.
They just want you to think it is because it pays (them) better.