Today’s episode features a special roundtable featuring experts Jorge Carvajal, Zach Even-Esh, and Jeremy Frisch.  Together, these coaches have over half a century of training expertise, and have worked with a wide sweeping range of athletes.  In addition to this, their experience is with many athletes ranging from very young to the professional level, and have also seen the changes sport culture that has come about over the last few decades (if you aren’t aware, those changes have resulted in injury rates magnitudes higher than what was seen in the 1990’s).   Today’s topic is the injury crisis in youth sports and the related deprivation of movement and physical literacy of the coming generation.

I was asked a while ago if I had anything special planned for the 100th episode of the podcast (I can’t believe it’s gone so far!).  I didn’t have much in mind for it, but I’ve actually saved this recording a few episodes to be 100 since I feel that it checks a lot of boxes on what makes this podcast what it is, and that is the time and willingness of great coaches to be a voice to help other coaches, and ultimately, help athletes reach their highest potential.

I think that the message today that these three coaches bring is honestly the most important one of all, more important than getting an extra tenth off your 40-yard dash, and a higher calling than tacking 2 extra inches on one’s vertical jump.  That higher calling is the physical literacy and movement crisis that so many young athletes are facing. It is one that elicits burnout and injury like never before seen, and also feeds into the nature of our educational system itself.

Topics covered on the show include the age an athlete may actually be ready to specialize and when that is appropriate, how local culture impacts which sport a child plays, how depriving students of movement is harming students' educational and global experiences and how to bring physical literacy back into our culture.

Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, supplier of high-end athletic development tools, such as the Freelap timing system, kBox, Sprint 1080, and more.  

View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage.

Key Points:

Zach, Jeremy and Jorge’s backgrounds in the fieldThe earliest age an athlete should consider specializing in a sportHow local culture and lifestyle impacts which sports athletes playWays to help bring physical literacy back into our cultureHow depriving children of movement and free play is destroying the educational experience of many

“An athlete specializes when they are really ready, mentally and emotionally”

“It seems to take a lot of years and a lot of skill work to get to a certain level”

“I’ll do another sport as the warmup to build their athleticism”

“I could probably take 99% of little league pitchers, and they couldn’t get themselves across the monkey bars”

“The logistics of parenting make it very difficult to have multi-sport athletes these days”

“Everything is coached and organized, and they are not able to think for themselves”

“What I was able to do with a new athlete 5 years ago, is different than what I’m able to do today, I call it the de-evolution of the athlete”

“You have to stop de-emphasizing PE in school, that’s it, that’s where it starts”

“Don’t run a youth class and train those kids like they are in high school… what is the better thing for the kids? They need the play”

“(Regarding the importance of not emphasizing speed training in favor of free play for children) I get more phone calls from Dad’s about first step quickness than I do about the older kids”

About Jorge Carvajal

Jorge Carvajal is a performance coach and consultant who has worked with elite athletes in multiple sports and the tactical world for over twenty-five years.

He has trained thousands of athletes, at the University of Florida, the University of Nebraska, the U.S.