The Critical Mistake That Stunts an Athletes Growth
There are two healthy ways of looking at the athletic career of a young athlete. Either 1) you can look at it like a marathon or 2) you can look at it like a series of sprints.
The marathon approach is taking the slow and steady growth curve. It’s pacing the athlete’s progress and putting the most emphasis on maintaining motivation and finishing strong. You must be careful not to exert too much energy at the beginning of the process, as sustaining energy for the finish is more important than getting an early lead.
On the other hand, the view that it’s a series of sprints is one that focuses on levels. Each sprint requires a different level of preparation. Moreover, each sprint facilitates the process of growth for the next sprint on a higher level. You don’t start by sprinting a mile either. Instead, you progressively build stamina so that one day the athlete’s conditioning supports that effort. You start the athlete where they are. Then gradually layer on conditioning, speed, strength, and mental toughness to progress towards where they need to be.
Stealing From an Athlete’s Future
Either one of the above metaphors will work as a framework for helping a young athlete grow into a competitive athlete in their late teens when it counts. However, there is a third approach in which a parent or coach steals from an athlete’s future for the sake of immediate gratification. Let’s call this the “cat burglar” approach.
According to the idiom dictionary:
A cat burglar is a skillful thief who breaks into places without disturbing people or setting off alarms.
This is exactly what metaphorically happens when a young athlete becomes a youth national champion by going to practice 14 times a week, doing strength training 7 days a week, and taking a cocktail of prescribed and non-prescribed drugs to facilitate this pace. This is the equivalent of trying to sprint a marathon by combining the first two approaches into one.
While it’s possible to sprint a mile, it’s utterly impossible to sprint a marathon. Pick one or the other, not both. Choose the marathon or choose the sprint with a healthy dose of rest and recovery in between sprints.
Toeing the line trying to do both is unquestionably a critical mistake that will stunt an athlete’s growth by stealing from their future.