I have heard it, I have read about it, I have even understood it....but when you truly witness it with your own eyes, it just makes you feel so helpless and even frustrated..
Oh, what is this thing that wrecks me like that?
Well, I tell you in the next blog in about a week from now.....hahaha
No really, I make my youth athletes hang (from a pull up bar) and I time their result.
It is amazing how weak the upper extremities including the grip is with kids today. Last week I had a 12 year old hang for time and he made it to 6 seconds......6 SECONDS! What is that?
Do we even realize how important the grip is as a part of the kinetic chain and as a part of activating the whole chain? Do we really understand how much it is in connection to the shoulder and the function of the rotator cuff not to speak of the thousand other correlations it has?
I feel upset trying to condition a young baseball player when they have never even climbed a tree or crawled under a fence and jumped over a rock etc....
I'm not upset with the kid or even the parent...I am just not OK with the way things are going. You can't have a healthy life without having some basic movement abilities, not to speak of becoming an athlete.
I will not train a single young athlete until I have told them and their parents that athletes are not made in the sport facilities and personal training studios. They are made in the backyards, in the woods and in recreational, spontaneous game and play situations where the movement is inspired by imagination, freedom and whatever elements happen to be around at the time.
Tommi
PS: If your parents never had children, chances are you won't, either. Dick Cavett.
