How One Man Changed My Day

As you know, my last few newsletters have been based on my thoughts and comments about the 'HOW TO GROW A SUPER ATHLETE' article written by Dan Coyle a couple of weeks back.

I hope I challenged you. I hope I made you think.

That is the goal of every single one of these newsletters that I write for you. Youth sports and the safe training of young athletes is contingent on us being able to take a critical look at what we have done in the past, what we are doing right now, and what we must do in the future to ensure optimal safety and potential development.

Every once in a while, I get a great email from someone just like you - someone who has been reading my newsletter for some time now, and just wants to offer their thoughts.

One of my favorite subscribers (I can say that because he has actually come to one of my seminars and so I had the pleasure of meeting him in person). is Bill... he's a baseball coach from the east coast of the United States.

Bill's got a ton of passion when it comes to youth sports and baseball in particular. I have always really enjoyed the emails I get from him - they're usually very insightful and his passion for the game really shines.

Here's something Bill emailed to me recently:

'I want to point out that NOT ALL baseball practices in this country still start only with a lap and static stretching anymore and you are one of my influences why. I wish you could attend one of the winter workout sessions I perform with my youth athletes (note I refer to them as athletes and not baseball players). Our program is built on the platform that to be a better baseball player we first need to focus on making you a better athlete.'

O.K, so you may be thinking, 'of course Brian likes Bill's emails... it's basically one big stroke to his ego'. I encourage you... read on:

'You and the article touched briefly on one of the biggest problems facing the youth coach in the United States for most sports today that I wish you can more fully address in a future article. Your two word sentence 'All competition' and Dan Coyle's footnote # 7 about replicating the Spartak system 'a focus on the glamour of winning rather than on the brickwork of building technique' gets to the heart of the elite travel team trend in youth sports. I am seeing travel teams emphasizing schedules of 60 + games which makes me wonder when do they actually focus on developing the skills it takes to be and/or remain ELITE'.

This is an absolutely fantastic point, and one I am going to challenge myself with.

Bill, you've got it my friend - A critical anaylysis on 'the over-competition syndrome' is coming next week.

Here are the closing comments in Bill's email to me:

'I just wanted you to know that you are having an effect and that not ALL youth coaches don't get it. I am constantly preaching to youth coaches at coaches clinics the importance of basic skill developments (like neural cross patterning) as essential as they can't take for granted that players know how to move correctly.'

You have no idea how much that reads like music to my ears!

This speaks to the heart of why I created packages like Complete Youth Training

I poured my heart and every ounce of my knowledge into a multi-dimensional package that encases everything I know about training kids safely and effectively.

The fact that my work IS impacting Trainers and Coaches around the world means everything to me.

Bill... thanks for the email... I appreciate you taking the time to respond to my newsletters.

'Till next week,


Brian