Cal!

If you follow baseball, you know that Mariners’ Catcher Cal Raleigh had an historic first half of the season. He has 38 Homeruns already, which is just 1 shy of the all-time record for most homeruns before the All-Star break set by Barry Bonds, and he has a shot to break Mickey Mantle’s single season homerun record for a switch-hitter of 54.

And on Monday, he became the 1st Catcher to win the Homerun Derby! What could possibly make that accomplishment any more special? His Dad was throwing to him and his younger brother was catching – so cool.

Cal has become a household name for baseball fans this season, but what most people don’t know is that he actually got cut from his middle school baseball team.

Yes, you read that right. He was not good enough to make his middle school baseball team. And then this week he won the HR Derby.

This makes for an awesome underdog story but also is extremely instructive for us parents navigating an increasingly crazy youth sports world.

All across the country, and in all sports, travel and club programs are targeting youth sports parents (some with kids as young as 6!) with a consistent message: “if you don’t start early and train hard with us, your child will fall behind and never catch up.”

This of course is total BS and we should all be extremely wary of anyone in youth sports making claims like that because it is simply not true. Just ask Cal.

While youth athletes absolutely can and should be learning the correct fundamentals in their sport, the idea that they might get left behind if they don’t play year-round, or don’t join a certain club team, or don’t start at a young age is a lie.

Watch this video:

There are tons of studies and data to support exactly what this professional Olympic level talent evaluator discovered.

We all know that Michael Jordan got cut from his Freshman basketball team in High School.

But did you know that Greg Norman didn’t pick up a golf club until he was 15? Or that…

Tom Brady was the backup QB at Michigan for 2 years.

Anthony Davis was 6′ 2” as a sophomore in High School and rode the bench.

Tim Duncan was on track to be an Olympic swimmer until Hurricane Hugo destroyed his team’s swimming pool and he was forced to find another sport to try.

Antonio Gates didn’t even play football in college; he played basketball.

Daniel Nava, one of only 2 players in baseball history to hit a Grand Slam on the 1st pitch he ever saw in the Big Leagues, was the equipment manager at Santa Clara University after getting cut as a freshman.

The list goes on and on.

These really cool stories aside (Cal Raleigh now joins the list!), all of the available research on youth sports development supports the reality that any physical success in a sport before puberty is not a predictor of an athlete’s success after hitting their major growth spurt.

Can a great 10 year old soccer player become a great 18 year old soccer player? Of course! But the reason they are great at 18 is not because they were great when they were 10.

Can an average or below average Little Leaguer become a great a high school, college, or professional player? We know the answer is absolutely yes!

So why does this matter?

First, if you’ve got one of the smaller kids on the field, or a kid who isn’t as coordinated, or as fast as his peers…don’t fret! Everything changes during the teenage years.

If you’ve got the alpha on the field right now, don’t get too excited and make sure you’re nurturing a love of the game rather than pushing them harder and harder because…everything changes during the teenage years.

Next, as the Australian gentleman in the video said, nobody even knows what your 9 year old’s sport will be in High School! I can’t tell you how many Little League All Stars I’ve coached over the years who ended up playing something other than baseball in High School, so play all the sports when you’re young!

And finally, because of all of the above, be extremely skeptical of the intentions of anyone who flatters you about how great your kid is now, promises future results, plays on your fear of getting left behind, or tells you that a child must focus on a single sport.

This actually happened to me last year when I got a call from local club basketball coach who started the conversation by saying how great Maddux was (I’m pretty sure he had never even seen him play, but why let that fact get in the way of a good 9 year old recruiting call, right?) and then immediately pivoted to telling me that I was hurting my son’s future in the sport by allowing him to play rec basketball with his friends instead of his “high level” program. It’s safe to say that the conversation didn’t last long or end well for him.

Do you think he was recruiting the next Lebron in Maddux, or was just trying to cash my monthly club dues check? We all know that answer.

The 1-2 marketing punch of “Flattery, then Fear” is a well-known business strategy in youth sports these days (you might have already received emails or phone calls “recruiting” your child to some “next level” program), but now that you’re armed with some data and research you can confidently say NO!

Why do most organizations use this marketing tactic? Because it works! All humans (and especially parents) are motivated by two major emotions: love and fear. When these coaches lead with “your kid is special,” parents will agree! Every parent thinks their kid is awesome, including me! We love our children more than anything in the world, so who wouldn’t want to hear someone pay them a compliment? Then they follow up with fear; “you will be hurting your child’s future by not doing my program or joining my team.” This is effective because every parent wants to provide every possible opportunity for their child and the fear of not giving them an “opportunity” is an extremely powerful motivator.

These emotions often overwhelm our gut reaction that something doesn’t feel right or clouds our better judgement that maybe, just maybe, the local High School coach won’t care about our 9 year old’s stats, and we end up joining a program or team that deep down we know is likely to do more harm than good for their athletic futures.

So, if joining one of the many “7U Super Elite Prosect Dynasty Gold Future-Star Platinum Hall of Fame Ballerz” teams out there isn’t the way forward, what should we be doing for our kid’s athletic development before they turn 13?

1. Expose them to as many sports as possible.
2. Refrain from playing any 1 sport year-round.
3. Stay in community-based rec programs as long as possible.
4. Listen to your gut and say “NO” to any program that plays on your ego and/or fears, and/or seems overly intense. (There’s no good reason for a child to play 5 baseball games in a weekend, ever. Period. End of story. Just because the Dodgers play tripleheaders every other Sunday….oh wait. 😉😁 And just because the LA Galaxy play 3 games before 2pm every Saturday…oh wait 😉😁)
5. And mostly importantly, make sure they are HAVING FUN!

I’m often asked the secret to making a high school team, and my answer is simple: “Make sure your kid still wants to play sports when they get to high school!”

What’s the best way to achieve that goal? Make sure they still love it and are having fun when high school tryouts roll around.

What’s the best way to ruin their chances of playing in High School? By pushing so hard at a young age that it stops being fun for them and they quit.

Always remember this stat: more than 70% of kids walk away from sports around age 12. And the #1 reason why they quit? “Because it’s not fun anymore.”

Prioritize fun. Prioritize learning life skills. Prioritize playing multiple sports. Prioritize community. And the rest will take care of itself.

Play Hard, Have FUN!