THREAD:

There was a time where I felt so much pressure to make sure the athletes I worked with were recruited D1. I believed that was the ultimate goal, the measure of success. The problem is this goes against everything I believe about growing the sport.

Here's why

If we build a platform around athletes seeking us solely so we can get them recruited D1 we also make the inverse true - we seek to work with only those athletes that we think we can make that true... easily. Then we use their success of proof of ours and the cycle continues.

To grow the sport, this is exactly what we are FIGHTING. The mindset where coaches only want to work with the best athletes so they can TAKE CREDIT for the best athletes. The athletes who are already there, the ones who don't need a path forward.

To grow the sport our mindset must be about growth and development - at EVERY level. Take an elite kid and optimize them, make them robust against the demands of the game, take an average kid and make them give the elite athletes a run for their money. DEVELOP. EVERYONE.

AND! BE. ACCOUNTABLE. FOR. YOUR. WORK. I cannot tell you the endless hours that go into each athlete at S2. It isn’t a place where we pop in and apply some random program. It’s hard work. And we check our work with objective data.

Easy is taking a kid that’s genetically gifted, applying a cookie cutter program to her and taking credit for her gifts. The problem is there are only so many of those athletes out there, and that approach stunts the growth of the game.

Develop protocols, systems, accountability to help make every athlete better. Show them a path forward. Empower them. You may not get the credit because the credit isn't what it's about. Right? Grow the game... for real.