12-year-old's progress after 1 year on SS

[Kyle Schuant]

Sure. As you say, there's a balance there. Not everyone is good at achieving that balance, however. Thus the bitter former players, musicians, etc.

[Tamara Reynolds]

Sure. As you say, there's a balance there. Not everyone is good at achieving that balance, however. Thus the bitter former players, musicians, etc.

Thus the bitter former (or still) fat kid who always got picked last for kick ball, and the bitter grown up who never won a trophy. It goes both ways.

[Mark Carpenter]

Congratulations, that's really awesome. Very inspiring too.

[Mr_Rogers]

That's some seriously impressive work Kevin.

Does your son play any other sports? I have no doubt his strength would help him succeed there too.

Keep up the great work and keep us posted.

[Joe Murphy]

Very cool, Kevin. Nice work for you and the kid!

My main concern would be that like kids pushed to do piano or whatever, by the time he's an adult he hates it. For every pair of Williams sisters there are a thousand bitter former players...

...And for every thousand bitter former players there are ten thousand club players who wish they could have taken the sport up earlier. Have you tried to get a tee time in the past ten years?

[KevinSimons]

Thanks everyone! I understand the concerns about the kid getting burned out having started so young. Some clarification:

He is not my son. l was his coach in gymnastics for 2 years until he decided the sport just wasn't for him. He really did get burned out with the 20+ hours per week he was in the gym. I had a great relationship with the kid though, and he really wanted to keep working with me. He wasn't sure what sport he wanted to do, but he always saw me lifting in the back corner of the gym and thought it looked like fun.

He just entered middle school this year, and I am encouraging him to try a bunch of sports to see what he wants to do. Right now he is completely devoted to powerlifting but after watching the Olympics he is pretty enthralled with weightlifting too. Then he watched me compete at the CrossFit Games and is itching to try that as well. He knows he has lots of options, but in his mind, strength is king. We're going to focus on that first, while working on Olympic lifting technique and CrossFit's more technical skills in case he decides to compete in it as well.

It's kind of a running joke at the end of each practice I ask him, "You still like this sport? You want to keep coming?!" He smiles, tells me to shut up and quit asking him, and tells me that he will see me next time.

[Corrie]

Thanks everyone! I understand the concerns about the kid getting burned out having started so young. Some clarification:

He is not my son. l was his coach in gymnastics for 2 years until he decided the sport just wasn't for him. He really did get burned out with the 20+ hours per week he was in the gym. I had a great relationship with the kid though, and he really wanted to keep working with me. He wasn't sure what sport he wanted to do, but he always saw me lifting in the back corner of the gym and thought it looked like fun.

He just entered middle school this year, and I am encouraging him to try a bunch of sports to see what he wants to do. Right now he is completely devoted to powerlifting but after watching the Olympics he is pretty enthralled with weightlifting too. Then he watched me compete at the CrossFit Games and is itching to try that as well. He knows he has lots of options, but in his mind, strength is king. We're going to focus on that first, while working on Olympic lifting technique and CrossFit's more technical skills in case he decides to compete in it as well.

It's kind of a running joke at the end of each practice I ask him, "You still like this sport? You want to keep coming?!" He smiles, tells me to shut up and quit asking him, and tells me that he will see me next time.

Awesome! Sounds like you are doing things right.

Kids need prodding sometimes too. I quit piano when I was 14 because I hated practicing. My parents made me do it for a while and eventually got tired of forcing me to do it.
Now its' over 10 years later and I wish to hell I had never stopped.

Just be part of your kid's life and you should be able to make the right decision with them.

[unclean]

That's just embarrassing. Congratulations on the great work.

[veryhrm]

I would argue that there are far too many adults who suffer from accepting mediocrity their entire lives than from being pushed to excel. Just because a child is good at a particular sport, doesn't mean that he was pushed unnecessarily. As someone who coaches a good number of children and teens, it is important to recognize when something has stopped being "fun" for a child but also to balance that with the fact that in order to achieve goals, difficult and non-fun things will be involved.

There's another level though and that is setting goals.

My upbringing and coaching have left me stuck in kind of an enlisted mode. Someone tells me to take that hill... i'll take the hill (and do it well and w/o supervision). Motivating myself to figure out that i should take a hill... and which hill to take and why... not so good at.

...
Then he watched me compete at the CrossFit Games and is itching to try that as well. He knows he has lots of options, but in his mind, strength is king. We're going to focus on that first, while working on Olympic lifting technique and CrossFit's more technical skills in case he decides to compete in it as well.
...

You just walked into the Klan meeting wearing a yarmulke...

[Tiburon]

Did he get taller or is that added muscle?

Dastardly he can press more than you now!