SOS! Calling All Young Athletes – By Craig Cignarelli

Written by: Staff on 17th October 2013

SOS! Calling All Young Athletes - By Craig Cignarelli |

“ – because kids these days are soft. They don’t know how to work hard.”

“ – coddling parents and what not.”

“ – many think college is a good goal.”

“ – administrative body is screwing everything up.”

This nation loves its heroes, and sporting personalities meet the requirements more than most. We like to live vicariously through our athletes, imagining ourselves perched at the top of podiums and holding golden trophies while heading off into perfect sunsets where endorsement dollars rain down upon us. Lately though, our tennis heroes seem to have disappeared into the horizon, or at the very least, faded off into the winter of their careers. Consequently, the questions about American tennis’ future are now ubiquitous.

To research this phenomenon of the absent phenom, I’ve been scouring the national coaching scene for some answers. It seems, contrary to what many think, the issue may have something to with technology. Admittedly, the following is mere postulation without any scientific foundation, but the assertion is a compelling one.

To wit:

When we were young, we rode bikes, climbed trees and constructed imaginary castles from woodpiles and aluminum siding. We built our cardiovascular systems traversing dusty playgrounds and kept our senses alert for dodge balls aimed at our thickening skulls. We learned to throw and catch and shoot hoops in parks, and didn’t worry about being kidnapped by malevolent human traffickers patrolling schoolyards for stray kids. Upon hopscotch routes and soccer fields, we developed enough agility to avoid aggressive freeze taggers. We kicked kickballs and dived or tumbled down grassy hills and leaped from riverbanks. Scraped and bruised, we trudged home when the sun set and called the activities “our youth.”

Today though, kids see trees as something to save. They view hurled-balls as life-threatening. Laptops and ipads have replaced our playgrounds. Youngsters have taken a body’s worth of athletic potential and compressed it into two thumbs that type and text and beat buttons on X-boxes. The only bruises they get today are bedsores from sitting on the couch. Aside from the impending carpal tunnel epidemic inevitably going to strike the nation in about two decades, there are other costs to this developmental malaise.

Regularly, tennis coaches complain about overweight adolescents who can’t throw a tennis ball over the net or perform basic footwork, even at a snail’s pace. In my own travels, I’ve seen service motions that look like an octopus falling from a tree, witnessed balls aimed for the opposite service box and thrown directly into the ground, watched child after child take facials from balls tossed from five feet away, and even observed one young boy toss a ball that ended up bloodying his own nose. Today’s playgrounds, when not vacant, bear more resemblance to a Parkinson’s sufferer’s reunion than anything athletically inclined. One can just imagine a gaggle of teens hanging outside some gas station, preparing to go out for the evening, when a tossed set of keys strikes one in the face, sending the entire group to the ER for the night.

The consequence of this is a generation un-groomed for athletics. The current crop of youngsters was weaned off ball fields and thrust onto screens. Twenty years since the Internet immersed itself into our lives, we’re now witnessing the repercussions. As we watch our youngsters falter, as we saddle them with phrases like “soft” “coddled” and “lacking hunger,” around the globe, other first world nations are moving toward more efficient lives and advanced technological pursuits, and one has to wonder whether they are joining us on the path to athletic decay.

Meanwhile, in less modernized countries, hard, hungry kids are catching up, spending their playtime jumping over landmines and out of falling-down houses in search of a way to prosperity. In places where modernization lacks the requisite finances to ease life’s labors, children lift and sweep and carry objects in ways that make them stronger, defter, and more agile. Is the Third World becoming the womb of future Olympic champions?

Ultimately, America has to decide whether or not to provide these kids with a means to develop their athletic talent. Do we continue to dissolve physical education in the classrooms for more intellectual pursuits? Do we stray from potentially risky activity for fear of injuries – just this week, a school in New York banned all balls from the playground claiming, “one scraped knee is one scraped knee too many.” Do we discount basic coordination skills like throwing, kicking and catching in order to ensure our children are adept with advanced technology. If so, perhaps we are limiting their future before they’ve had a chance to choose it themselves.

President Kennedy said “a rising tide lifts all boats.” If valid, the converse is also true. With all of our advancements, we may now be draining water from the pool of athletic development. Our children are becoming beached fish, sucking for air upon the sands of athletic obscurity. Will we let them dry out upon the cracked earth of America’s apathy, or will we push them back into the waters and teach them to swim?

I’m not one to pass judgment, but it’s an interesting argument, no?

Topics: American Heroes, American Tennis, modern athletics, Sports, Tennis News

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10sBalls_com says:

October 10, 2013 at 1:01 pm

SOS! Calling All Young Athletes – By @CraigCignarelli – http://t.co/bgCfRoTI7Y #tennis @BleacherReport @ESPNTennis