I love sports. But, I see an alarming trend of athletic focus taking away from academic focus.
I understand the pressures of ensuring that your child is a top competitor in their sport. For example, I fully understand the parent whose child dreams of being the starting high school shortstop. Since there is only one starting shortstop on a baseball team, you want to do everything possible to help him achieve that goal. It is extremely hard to counter-balance that desire with conversations about devoting sufficient time for academic excellence. I also want to be clear that for those who can pull off the balance there is no problem.
But, today, the monomania on developing greatness in particular sports is creating a culture of overly striving athletes who ignore their academics.
For example, It was the case for those growing up in the last century that students played one sport in one season. Many student-athletes played two different sports in two different seasons. The best of athletes could manage three sports. Certainly, for the special few who seemed destined for college scholarships, there was a focus beyond the season. But, for most every student-athlete, baseball, for example, was a spring sport. That was pretty much it. There may have been some summer games and certainly a lot of pick-up game.
But, now, we work with students who play nearly the equivalent of a major league baseball season through the combination of their high school baseball team and their premiere team(s) that have a spring, summer, and fall schedule. In addition, many of our baseball playing students have a winter workout league that consumes 6-8 hours.
Here's the tricky part: in terms of our general philosophy regarding mastery, these students are doing exactly what we suggest. They are getting excellent training and then they are putting themselves through a rigorous training program to gain mastery at a skill.
There is something about mastering anything - even if it has no particular practical application - that deserves commendation. If students can take that same vigor they have towards mastering the game of baseball and apply it towards other areas, then they are learning an extraordinarily valuable process.
I also want to be clear that we fully understand the wonders of athletic-recruitment. We, in fact, have a program that we call Student-Athlete Mastery. In this program, we help young student-athletes navigate the balance of excelling in both sports and school with the end goal of being recruited by schools for either athletic scholarships or for leveraging their athletic ability to gain entrance into elite schools.
But, the focus for many student-athletes has been disproportionately focused on the athlete part of the equation. Most every parent fully understands that the athletic career of their child will last through college at best. But, you would not know that from the amount of time, energy, and money that many parents spend on sports.
The problem for most students living in upper middle class suburbs is that they have no idea about the level of competition that exists in other areas of the country. The sports culture at the youth level creates dangerous delusions for both child and parent in equal dimensions.
For example, I worked with a student who was one of the top football players that ever played in his school's history. But, the area where we live in Connecticut is comprised of a small, non-diverse population. This student was an excellent football player for our area. Part of the reason was that he was very big for his position - at least against the competition that he faced in our little neck of the woods. Since he was utterly dominant in the games he played and since he received many local accolades, his parents were certain that he would get a scholarship to play at top colleges throughout the country.
I did not want to burst their bubble. But, it seemed evident from an objective perspective that being the best football player for his position in a wealthy region of a Connecticut did not necessarily mean that the kid was even in the top 100 for his position compared to kids in a big football states like California, Texas, Pennsylvania and Florida. So while the parents thought they this kid's ticket was certain to be punched, they had not done the recruiting math. And, the student, filled with bravado related to his football playing potential, was not doing his math either which was why he was working with us. He was nearly failing out of school when his parents were pushed to get tutoring help by his Southeastern, CT high school.
There are only so many Division I schools that can give athletic scholarships. Some of these schools also care about academics. At the lower Division II and III levels, scholarship money starts to either dwindle or disappear and at many of the Division II and III schools, academics really matter.
As the year passed and the ratings of national high school players came out, the family was stunned to see that their superstar was not in the top 500 for his position. His size - which for our area made him extremely large and was certainly a reason for his dominance - was simply above average at the level of national recruiting and the rest of his skills - did not make him stand out. 50 states - most of which are a lot bigger than Connecticut - each had an average of 10-11 players better than him.
He was good. But, he was not college scholarship good.
This sad story reminded me of a kid I knew in high school. He played basketball. And, he was great in middle school. For his age, he was probably one of the best players in the history of our middle school. His parents encouraged his commitment to basketball excellence. They let him play all hours of the day at the expense of his homework. They hired a private coach to work with him.
But, his parents failed to realize some critical issues related to their child's early basketball prowess: first, their kid was very tall for middle school, in part because he had his growth spurt earlier than most. Second, his skill level was so comparatively high because other 12-14 year olds had yet to dedicate themselves to the sport the way he had.
As he went through high school and other kids caught up to him in height and skill, he went from being a prodigy to being a good high school basketball player. But, being a good high school player does not get scholarships. And, perhaps the focus should have been equally on getting tutoring for his low grades and test scores. During the last conversation I had with him, I could see his crushed expression as he explained that he was going to work at a local factory after high school.
Parents should certainly embrace sports. But, to do so at the expense of academics is foolish.
I understand the pressures of ensuring that your child is a top competitor in their sport. For example, I fully understand the parent whose child dreams of being the starting high school shortstop. Since there is only one starting shortstop on a baseball team, you want to do everything possible to help him achieve that goal. It is extremely hard to counter-balance that desire with conversations about devoting sufficient time for academic excellence. I also want to be clear that for those who can pull off the balance there is no problem.
But, today, the monomania on developing greatness in particular sports is creating a culture of overly striving athletes who ignore their academics.
For example, It was the case for those growing up in the last century that students played one sport in one season. Many student-athletes played two different sports in two different seasons. The best of athletes could manage three sports. Certainly, for the special few who seemed destined for college scholarships, there was a focus beyond the season. But, for most every student-athlete, baseball, for example, was a spring sport. That was pretty much it. There may have been some summer games and certainly a lot of pick-up game.
But, now, we work with students who play nearly the equivalent of a major league baseball season through the combination of their high school baseball team and their premiere team(s) that have a spring, summer, and fall schedule. In addition, many of our baseball playing students have a winter workout league that consumes 6-8 hours.
Here's the tricky part: in terms of our general philosophy regarding mastery, these students are doing exactly what we suggest. They are getting excellent training and then they are putting themselves through a rigorous training program to gain mastery at a skill.
There is something about mastering anything - even if it has no particular practical application - that deserves commendation. If students can take that same vigor they have towards mastering the game of baseball and apply it towards other areas, then they are learning an extraordinarily valuable process.
I also want to be clear that we fully understand the wonders of athletic-recruitment. We, in fact, have a program that we call Student-Athlete Mastery. In this program, we help young student-athletes navigate the balance of excelling in both sports and school with the end goal of being recruited by schools for either athletic scholarships or for leveraging their athletic ability to gain entrance into elite schools.
But, the focus for many student-athletes has been disproportionately focused on the athlete part of the equation. Most every parent fully understands that the athletic career of their child will last through college at best. But, you would not know that from the amount of time, energy, and money that many parents spend on sports.
The problem for most students living in upper middle class suburbs is that they have no idea about the level of competition that exists in other areas of the country. The sports culture at the youth level creates dangerous delusions for both child and parent in equal dimensions.
For example, I worked with a student who was one of the top football players that ever played in his school's history. But, the area where we live in Connecticut is comprised of a small, non-diverse population. This student was an excellent football player for our area. Part of the reason was that he was very big for his position - at least against the competition that he faced in our little neck of the woods. Since he was utterly dominant in the games he played and since he received many local accolades, his parents were certain that he would get a scholarship to play at top colleges throughout the country.
I did not want to burst their bubble. But, it seemed evident from an objective perspective that being the best football player for his position in a wealthy region of a Connecticut did not necessarily mean that the kid was even in the top 100 for his position compared to kids in a big football states like California, Texas, Pennsylvania and Florida. So while the parents thought they this kid's ticket was certain to be punched, they had not done the recruiting math. And, the student, filled with bravado related to his football playing potential, was not doing his math either which was why he was working with us. He was nearly failing out of school when his parents were pushed to get tutoring help by his Southeastern, CT high school.
There are only so many Division I schools that can give athletic scholarships. Some of these schools also care about academics. At the lower Division II and III levels, scholarship money starts to either dwindle or disappear and at many of the Division II and III schools, academics really matter.
As the year passed and the ratings of national high school players came out, the family was stunned to see that their superstar was not in the top 500 for his position. His size - which for our area made him extremely large and was certainly a reason for his dominance - was simply above average at the level of national recruiting and the rest of his skills - did not make him stand out. 50 states - most of which are a lot bigger than Connecticut - each had an average of 10-11 players better than him.
He was good. But, he was not college scholarship good.
This sad story reminded me of a kid I knew in high school. He played basketball. And, he was great in middle school. For his age, he was probably one of the best players in the history of our middle school. His parents encouraged his commitment to basketball excellence. They let him play all hours of the day at the expense of his homework. They hired a private coach to work with him.
But, his parents failed to realize some critical issues related to their child's early basketball prowess: first, their kid was very tall for middle school, in part because he had his growth spurt earlier than most. Second, his skill level was so comparatively high because other 12-14 year olds had yet to dedicate themselves to the sport the way he had.
As he went through high school and other kids caught up to him in height and skill, he went from being a prodigy to being a good high school basketball player. But, being a good high school player does not get scholarships. And, perhaps the focus should have been equally on getting tutoring for his low grades and test scores. During the last conversation I had with him, I could see his crushed expression as he explained that he was going to work at a local factory after high school.
Parents should certainly embrace sports. But, to do so at the expense of academics is foolish.
RSS Feed