The Missing Ingredient in US Talent Development | Changing the GameProject

16 year -old Gareth Bale at Southampton

http://changingthegameproject.com/the-missing-ingredient-in-us-talent-development/

The Missing Ingredient in US Talent Development

In 2005, the coaches at one of the top English Premier League Youth Soccer Academies held one of their semiannual meetings to decide upon which players they would keep for the upcoming cycle, and whom they would let go. As they were evaluating their players –many of whom would go on to star not only in the EPL, but internationally as well – they were stuck on one particular 15 year old boy. He had been a good player when he first entered their Academy, but recently he had grown a bit and was no longer scoring well in their physical testing, nor playing like he had a few years earlier. In fact, the once speedy player was now only the 7^th fastest kid on the team!

These incredibly qualified and highly respected coaches were torn; some wanted to keep him and offer him a scholarship to continue his training; others thought they should let him go. It was touch and go.

To break the tie, the coaches brought in their chief scout, a man named Rod Ruddick, to help them decide. Ruddick was the scout who had found the boy play at age 9 and had first invited him to join. He also had a hunch that the player was going through a difficult time as he grew, and that soon the kid he remembered would reemerge. He cast his tie-breaking vote to keep the player (read more about Ruddick here)

Within two years the player would make his first team senior debut for the club, and become the youngest international player in his country's history. In 2013, that speedy winger proved that the staff at Southampton were right to keep him, as he became the most expensive signing in world soccer history when he was bought by Real Madrid for $120 million.

His name was Gareth Bale.

The story of Gareth Bale, and other late developing athletes such as Danish international soccer player Simon Kjaer (whom I have written about here), Michael Jordan, or NFL QB Steve Young, are worth retelling because they beg the question "Would these kids have made it today in the US?"

Would we keep a player who seemed to be declining in ability? Would we keep a player that did not help us win today? Can we identify not just the talent that shines bright, but the talent that whispers?

Currently, in many places the answer is no, we would not keep a player who is not helping right now, because American youth sports is missing the most important prerequisite of talent development.

PATIENCE!

READ MORE HERE:
http://changingthegameproject.com/the-missing-ingredient-in-us-talent-development/

Pirates Gregory Polaco, the new Moneyball and the Marshmallow test

 

This is the game that the low to mid tier markets have to play to stay competitive with their larger brethren.



from Yahoo Sports:

Source: Pirates offered star prospect Gregory Polanco a long-term deal - Yahoo Sports:

The situation with Polanco is even more naked. At 12-20, with a .687 team OPS and failing platoon in right field, the Pirates unquestionably could use Polanco, who is hitting .397/.449/.621 with four home runs and 26 RBIs. Between his performance over the season's first month and his MVP showing in the Dominican Winter League, he has solidified his place among the top echelon of prospects – the sort whom teams conspire to keep in the minor leagues until after the projected cut-off for so-called Super 2 players. 

The top 22 percent of each service class are designated Super 2 players, meaning they are granted arbitration – and therefore a higher salary – for four seasons instead of three. By keeping a player in the minor leagues until after the Super 2 cut-off, which is usually in early to mid-June, teams estimate a savings of millions of dollars.

'via Blog this'





It has nothing to do with advance stats or stats of any kind, really. It's all about economics and the central lesson of the classic sociological test, the Stanford marshmallow experiment: immediate gratification versus delayed gratification.

This is a trend that the Rays started with Evan Longoria. Remember, they sent him down after a stellar spring, brought him up in April and almost before he performed at the MLB level, they locked him up.



 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evan_Longoria

On April 12, 2008, the Rays placed Willy Aybar on the disabled list and called up Longoria from Triple-A Durham to replace him on the major league roster and on the 40-man roster. Longoria made his major league debut that night going 1 for 3 with an RBI.

On April 18, the Rays signed him to a six-year, $17.5 million contract with options for 2014, 2015, and 2016. The first six years of the contract cover his arbitration years, with three more years added by team options. If the team exercises its nd-setters?one-year option for 2014, and then its two-year option for the 2015 and 2016 seasons, the deal could be worth up to $44 million.^[12][13] There is a general consensus that this contract is among the most team-friendly, in terms of dollars per Wins Above Replacement, in Major League Baseball.^[14]

Between this economic trend and the more recent on the field defensive "shift-a-palooza" that the Rays employ and now other teams have followed suit, can we begin to refer to the Rays as MLB trend-setters?



The Longoria deal certainly raised eyebrows at the time among fans and pundits. It has now raised the ire of the union and agent class in baseball who believe teams are using it as a tactic to low-ball young prospects and take away some of their bargaining power in later, post arbitration years, after they have put up some actual numbers.

As the saying from an old, auto repair TV commercial lamented, "You can pay me now, or pay me later".

That's the decision that the smaller market teams are faced with in order to compete.

And the future stars are faced with the ever so tempting marshmallow test decision.

Yummy, yummy!!!

Patience is a virtue

If there is one quality or character trait that would change the climate in sports it would have to be patience. Patience described by one well-respected author as "that calm and unruffled temper with which the good man bears the evils of life, whether they proceed from persons or things."

Granted, we live in a microwave, point and click society. We want things immediately in many areas of our lives. News, information, products and services. We live our lives looking for instant gratification and when things don't go our way we become angry and frustrated.

If people truly were more patient in the sports arena it would lead immediately to the following positive climate changes:

Improved decorum and sportsmanship at games and increased level of respect amongst players, coaches, fans and officials. Think about it; most of the issues arise from an increased emphasis on winning and achievement pushed down from the professional level to the youth sports level. Parents feel that either they or their children are doing something wrong if they have not produced the next Tiger Woods by two years old or if they have not attained some "McDonald's All-American" type status before puberty.

Some of these national publications that rank athletes prowess on a national basis before they've graduated middle school are ludicrous, as is anybody who puts any stock in them.

Specialization, burnout and overuse injuries would be less problematic as parents and young athletes realize they don't have to peak by the time they are twelve years old. There is a virtual lifetime of participation in most sports after twelve.

Team morale and inter-squad political issues would be reduced making life easier on coaches if kids realize they don't have to be a starter as a freshman in high school or their future in the sports is crushed.

Patience is a major building block in building faith and confidence in an athlete. If the basic ingredient is lacking or has not been developed fully, the athlete may not have deep, total confidence in their abilities. They do not truly trust their skills and abilities. The patient athlete ends up being a more valuable teammate in the long run.

What we see happen many time is the development of a feeling of entitlement among parents and players that prevents them from seeing the process they have embarked on from a long-term standpoint. This short-term thinking results in a tunnel-vision view of the environment around them and they take team situations far too personally.

We see a lot of athletes who are very talented who do not harness their abilities until the "slow the game down" and "allow the game to come to them". In effect, what we are describing to them is to develop PATIENCE.

In baseball, we like to see hitters demonstrate patience and allow the pitcher to come to them. It takes young hitters some experience to learn what that means. The same is true with the development of QB's and RB's as they progress from one level of competition to the next. Point guards in basketball are often better when they grow in patience and don't force the action.

Many athletes have the requisite talent. They have the tools in the tool box in terms of athletic gifts. They players who take care in the formative years to learn the discipline of patience tend to take learn how to use their tools to the fullest extent.

PATIENCE - But endurance must do its complete work, so that we may be mature and complete, lacking nothing - James 1:4