I have a quibble with this meme. I think it is wrong.
Modern, world-class athletes are identified at a very early age and are sent to expensive, elite "sports camps" where they compete against other budding near-world-class athletes.
There is an element of arbitrariness. Athletes whose birthdays are near the beginning of their age-cohort are given more attention than athletes born near the end of their cohort because an eleven month growth-and-coordination advantage is almost impossible to overcome. The youngest of a cohort never quite qualify for the limited opportunities and intense training.
Everything comes at a cost
The cost of that system, other than the beau coup $$$$ required to run it, is the risk of turning out one-dimensional human beings. Or, at the very least, humans who are "stunted".
The cost of spending 12 hours a day in a gym or on a playing court is that they don't have those hours to interact with a spectrum of other people or to try new experiences.
Sad.
Yes, the love of money is the root of many evils.
ReplyDeleteUp until the late 80's the traditional bluecollar sportball variant in glorious Queensland Australia and the neighbouring simian colony of New South Wales was Rugby League.
The plucky heroes on the teams held regular jobs, lived in regular people's suburbs, went to the same pubs, coached the local youngsters at the local club field, and played their hearts out just for the satisfaction of doing a thing well.
Look up Wally Lewis and Mal Meninga, and the State of Origin Series, that was about the end of the former era.
Then the big money muscled in, and it became synthetic, the humble gifted amateur next door or at the next workbench became a professional primadonna raking in a lifetime's income per year.
Advertising and sponsorships, new rules to suit pay per view programming, performance enhancers, etc.
A precious part of the culture, the "personality of the community", was lost.
Same thing in cricket, rugby union, aussie rules, surf lifesaving rowing, even the limpwristed soccer-thespian scene went wonky. The culture became a superficial, bland, caricature skinsuit of what was.
It was no accident. It is not over yet.
There was a time when the high school athletic teams that dominated were the ones where the players baled hay all summer or pushed lawn-mowers because their dad's were laid-off from the factory.
DeleteEddie, one of those guys, told me that he was baling hay with a farmer who asked him "I adjusted the knotter this morning. Are the strings tight enough?"
Eddie, who was standing near the back of the wagon that could hold 125 bales said "You tell me" as he threw the 40 pound bale and knocked the farmer out of the seat of the tractor.
Eddie stood 5'-9" and weighed 225 pounds in his prime. He never spend a minute in a "weight room".
Its analagous, or another instance of, 'they've never been punched in the face'.
DeleteThey don't even know, what they don't know. They have zero experience with these sorts of matters. Its funny, b/c it mirrors the race issues. What their side views as a strength or feature, our side believes is a detriment... because they have zero experience with it. They lived their whole lives in WASP suburbia, they cannot fathom urban citizenry.
There is gym rat strong, and then there is farmer strong.
DeleteFarmer strong is mo betta.
40 pounds? We used to do about 60-80. Except for the one guy, pea hay "I want them 110 pounds. I'm paying by the bale & I want my moneys worth" You will drive in this gear, and each bale will have 23-24 plunger strokes. Or you will not be baling my hay.
DeleteJerry
As an inspirational saying, perhaps - I have known one or two people who seemed to have completely "fall apart" to come back together.
ReplyDeleteAs to your point on athletics, completely 100% true. That is why the restart of the Olympics in the modern era was so much more exciting to me in that it was true amateurs that loved their sport that trained and went. Now they may be amateurs in the sense they are not professionals, but they (at least in the First and Second World) are backed by a huge amount of resources. (And, of course, I do not understand the nationalistic aspect of it. The athletes win; we as a country do not "win".)
The fall of physical fitness can be, in my opinion, at least partially tied to the change from simply doing sports and creating a lifetime interest to pushing people up into the "professional" ranks.
I had a classmate and friend that held every AAU swimming record for under 16 years of age. He never lost a swimming race, held 3 or 4 state championships (individual and relay) every year once he was a freshman in high school. Swam every day before school than afterwards.
ReplyDeleteHe was offered scholarships to all major swimming colleges, most for 5 years because they assumed he would take a year off for the Olympics.
He quit swimming his freshman year in college. Just plain burned out at 19 years of age. Winning had got to the point it was meaningless to him. Finished college on his own dime.
As I got older I realize the mental part of sports is what separates the winners from losers. I've seen lots of talented athletes can't take the daily stress of competition. No amount of muscle can make up for that.
You are not wrong. Those folks never 'know' failure until they are no longer 'viable' in their sports. Then they fall apart when no one 'caters' to them.
ReplyDeleteThe struggle is the way.
ReplyDeleteMy daughter has a friend who had two very athletic parents. Nothing special in her raising or schooling but then she got a rowing scholarship at a Ivy League school.
ReplyDelete