[quote=“BKSquared, post:18, topic:3693600”]
With good training, coaching and practice, you can get pretty good in many, if not most sports, even to a recruitable level. But elite D1 and pro level athletes almost always have some significant physical advantage.
And money. Don’t forget money.
My cousin’s S28 dominated in youth sports. Dad spent over 400k a year on private coaching and eventually bought one of the training facilities. He sent him to tournaments every weekend by having him play on multiple teams and join teams he’d never played on before if they needed an extra body (or, I suspect, in many cases, an extra check). They are convinced that he’s MLB material because when you pay for that much coaching, they’re going to tell you how great he’s doing so you continue to write the checks. The coaches are going to hook your kid up with teams that go to tournaments to beat up on teams rather than learn from playing teams that might beat them. They also end up with lots of players making all tournament teams. By the time he finished middle school, he’d already had 2 injuries requiring extensive rehab that you usually don’t see until college.
What they didn’t realize (and still don’t) is that the kid sprouted early, and most of the kids in these expensive tournaments were there because their parents would pay to travel and stay at these useless tournaments. As soon as he hit high school, he was not even in the top half of players. Of course, my cousin doesn’t see this and will post any stat that makes his kid look good. What he doesn’t remember is that my kid played the same sport and I know how to parse what is being posted.
The kid is now at IMG. Of their 8 teams, he’s on the second from the bottom. As predicted, as soon as he was out of the youth sport vanity travel teams, the kids who had natural talent and size became dominant, even if their families couldn’t afford all of the travel team nonsense. Not only that, but they are seen as more coachable as they are capable of more growth and haven’t hit their ceiling yet. You can only buy your spot for so long. He’s still convinced the kid is MLB material or at least high D1. My husband not only coaches, but has been an official for over 40 years, so he sees kids play at all levels. He predicts D3. IMG is a placement factory, so perhaps he’ll go higher, but money can give the impression that kids are better than they are to the point of delusion.