skill vs. athleticism
As I watch my two older boy’s (ages 10 & 13) play thier sports, I alway’s seem to find a couple of kids who are just at another level when it comes to the skill required for that particular sport. For example: Elijah (10-year-old) has played basketball for about 2 years and sometimes plays with another kid who has been playing for at least 5 years!! I mean this kid can dribble with the best of them, has knowledge of the game and is money from just about anywhere on the court! But here is the kicker….the kid is not that quick, fast or agile. In fact if you play pretty good D on him you can really limit is scoring and frustrate him.
Now Elijah isn’t the best scorer on the team, but he can create points from steals that he gets by using his quickness and raw athleticism. Now, if Elijah chooses to put in the hours of developing his basketball skills I know that in about a year or two he will be a even better basketball player then the “phenom”.
Here is the bottom line: Sooner or later the sport skills (i.e. shooting, dribbling, catching etc.) will level off as kids get older, but athleticism does not…..okay, it does but not as fast! Speed, strength & quickness is the number 1 commodity that coaches absolutely love and the sooner you can get your son/daughter into a quality training program the better off they will be (from an athletic stand point) as they reach high school and beyond.
My advice…..spend as much time building athleticism (speed, agility, quickness, strength, balance, etc.) as you do on your specific sport skills. But, it has to be quality work, not just going through the motions!
written by Alex Molden
