Boy... It's been a while!
Just a little light reading for you all!
Over the past several months, I have been overwhelmed at the positive support I’ve received for creating the IYCA. Far more than just a mere certification provider, I, along with my fellow Board of Director members, have always viewed the IYCA as an organization that will become a watchdog of sorts for the youth sporting industry.
Already we are gaining interest from major university’s in the United States and Canada as a potential curriculum provider. We have also been contacted by hospitals, individual physicians and international sporting organizations all of which seek to either aid in making our cause as impacting as possible or wish to utilize our services within their own associations.
With all of the upbeat and optimistic feeling pertaining to our goals of positively influencing the youth sporting world, I was literally floored when I read an article recently about fifth grade basketball players being ranked by independent company’s on a national level – Kids as young as 10 and 11 years old are being categorized and compared to each other on a national scale. More over, shoe company’s (the article lists Adidas as one of them), are hosting invitation-only national tournaments for kids in the fifth, sixth and seventh grade. These camps include sales copy indicating that ‘top college coaches in attendance’... To see 10 year old kids???
I find this to be culpable and dangerous. Where has the innocence and joy of youth sports gone?
Terry Orlick in his wonderful book ‘ Embracing Your Potential’, outlines key ingredients of childhood that many adults forget about due to the chaotic nature of our lives.
Vision -
The things you saw as a youngster influenced you a great deal. As you saw others walk, you learned from them and started to walk as well. You saw, were influenced and aspired to do or become.
Ten year old children may aspire to become elite basketball players, but what if they fall short? What if they get injured or do not develop in the manner that was predicted for them? The world is full of athletes who were considered gifted, elite or even champions as youngsters but never ‘made it’ to the level of superstardom. If you are being invited to national camps, offered shoe endorsements and scouted by ‘top college coaches’ at ten years old, what else are you able to vision for your future?
Absorption -
As a young child playing sports, you are consumed by the sheer pleasure of participation. According to Terry Orlick, ‘your focus was simple and uncomplicated. Your mind was free if distractions and worry. You were totally connected and unconcerned by the thoughts of evaluations of others’.
When I read this, I myself experience wonderful memories of playing football in a park near my childhood home. I can picture sunny days, warm temperatures and feelings of being wonderfully free. The ten year olds going to these camps have no such luxury. Basketball to them is stressful. They are being compared and contrasted to other hopeful stars and their performances on this one day will soon be published in a ranking magazine.
Joyfulness -
Children at play are joyful and relaxed. Enough said.
Purity -
Children are naturally simple and spontaneous. Terry Orlick suggests that ‘you lived without pretense, having no need to be anything other than what you were at the moment’... unless of course you were being graded and ranked by college coaches and recruiters which likely leads you to want to strive to be as good or better than you really are.
What kind of messages are we sending these children?
- Brian Grasso
www.DevelopingAthletics.com