A little more than a month ago, as his high school wrestling season was coming to a close, my son asked me if it would be OK for him to do some work at a wrestling club over the summer. All the wrestling dads I'm friendly with tell me that working in the clubs is the only way -- or the fastest way, anyway -- to truly improve as a wrestler.
But besides being one more thing my wife and I have to pay for, club wrestling now becomes one more thing to add to our very busy son's agenda for the summer. He's already got football practice and club lacrosse, and we'd like him to get a job, if he can. Now he has to wrestle, too?
The answer to that, I suppose, is if he wants to be competitive next winter, then yes. This year he did fine against the other kids like himself -- the football players who are trying to stay in shape over the winter, and the good athletes who aren't great wrestlers -- but there were too many nights when he had to face one of those committed, year-round wrestlers who's been doing it since Kindergarten. He couldn't compete with those kids, and he knew it.
As a competitor, that's hard to accept. And if going the wrestling gym this summer gives him even the slightest chance to win just one more match next winter, then how could my wife and I say no to that?
These days, extra training is just part of the landscape. The kid who's playing against your son or daughter probably has a personal pitching coach, quarterback coach, skating coach, shooting coach, or yes, wrestling coach. And if your kid doesn't have one, then he or she is going to be at a disadvantage. And if your son or daughter plays a team sport, then the team is at a disadvantage, too.
On the other hand, a friend of mine whose oldest son is about to graduate high school and head off to a large university (where he will not be playing a sport) was joking with me recently that he wished he hadn't spent all that money on pitching lessons when his son was young. His son ended up not even playing baseball in high school, and my friend's point was that money he spent on pitching lessons now looks like it might have been put to better use somewhere else.
So I guess what I would take from that is, before you dive into the world of extra, personal sports training, you should probably first examine what your expectations are. If you think your child will want to try and play a sport in college, then yeah, you'll most likely want to invest in extra training at some point. But that's probably not something you need to worry about in second grade. Maybe you can wait a little while.
If your child isn't likely to play college sports, but you just think he or she would enjoy a better experience by improving his or her skills through extra training, then go for it, if you can afford it.
Is extra training a must for every athlete? No. But as more and more athletes use extra training to get a leg up on the competition, then more and more are going to have to do it just to keep up.
