The calculus many parents are making these days about their kids sports training is this:
Increased focus solely on my kid + individual training year round + lots of $$ spent on training = gain for my kid.
The problem is the math doesn't add up. Let's take the sport of hockey, where in Minnesota this problem has come to an extreme. Parents feel that they need to find the best options for their kids by paying the most money and getting the biggest promises. You'd think they'd understand that trainers or skating instructors are interested in their wallets more often than actually developing their kids.
There's one big reason why the "what's best for my kid" training culture has ironically hurt the same kids it supposedly helps. Unless we're talking about the 100 meter dash, sports like hockey, football, soccer, basketball, lacrossse, etc are all TEAM sports. You need to work with others in order to succeed. The "me-first" mentality has young hockey players envisioning themselves scoring hundreds of fancy goals. It doesn't have them thinking of creative give and go's, great 3-2 play passing moves, or other team-first plays. The problem is that the day dreaming of hundreds of fancy goals goes away pretty quick - basically, the second any real competitive game starts. Then suddenly, it's time to work together! Yet, our kids haven't been told to work together. They've been told "come work with me, I'll make YOU better so next season YOU can do better." Oh, and by the way, write me a check for a couple thousand dollars.
The season then comes along, the players enter into games, and instead of leveraging each other, they play as individuals - as we have taught them to! They foolishly think that 1 + 1 = 2. It doesn't 1 + 1 should equal at least 3 or 4. What I mean is that 2 players which leverage each others strengths and move together to create plays can be as good as 3 or 4 players who do not do so.
The team mentality is actually the one that will benefit our kids the most. For those that only care about how far their kid(s) get in hockey, or any sport, the team mentality is the ONLY one that will get them there. You can play for yourself, but that will only get you so far. There are too many good players that can work with teammates to score goals and they'll beat the kids that can't do that every single day.
If you'd like more information about Josh Levine and the Fortis Academy's vision, please go to www.thefortisacademy.com
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