Jaylin Fleming: The Nation's Finest 10-Year-Old Basketball Player - WOW!!!

(Photo from
Chicago Tribume)

In today's Chicago Tribune, Anne Stein highlights the exceptional talents of a very young and rising basketball star (can you be a rising star at 10?) in her article The Best 10-Year-Old Basketball Player in America. On the current online version of this story, they have a video demonstrating Jaylin's basketball prowess, along with comments from his father regarding how he is being raised and where Jaylin's and his family's priorities are.

What I find most interesting as I watched the video clip, and read through the commentary in the article, is how much of what Jaylin is doing and dedicating himself to resembles what I went through as an athlete my last year of high school, only, for me, at a much older age. His passion for mastering the skills of his sport, at least at this point, is very evident, and the solid foundational upbringing of placing family, school, and religion as important pieces in his life is also obvious.

NEW “BECOMING A TRUE CHAMPION” LIVE CHAT

WHAT: Live Chat
WHO: Kirk Mango
WHEN: Sunday Afternoons: 4:00 – 5:00 pm central time
Tuesday Evenings: 7:00 – 8:00 pm central time
Randomly: Evenings throughout the week & afternoons on weekends
WHERE: Right here at The Athlete's Sports Experience: Making a Difference

I have been working on an interactive way to make immediate and direct contact with those interested in my new forthcoming book Becoming a True Champion, published articles on my blog, sports and youth sports issues, high school and college sports experiences, coaching, and /or anything else pertaining to issues within any of these environments. My search led me to a website called Chatroll. This site gives individuals an option to embed a live chat window within a blog, something I have just updated my blog with and will use to discuss various topics sports and youth sports enthusiasts might be interested in.

So as to keep discussions centered and focused, I would like to present a list of topics that I have practical knowledge of and experience with, and that will help with direction.

Topics of Discussion

Organized Functional Training: A Format for Success

If you are an athlete wanting to become better, more successful, maybe even of state or national caliber, you will likely find a multitude of things, or pieces of the puzzle, that need to be addressed in order to reach the level of attainment you are seeking. It can become overwhelming if you do not create for yourself an organized and functional way of handling all that must be done. I know for myself, I kept moving forward by following a specifically organized schedule of training created from a thought process that focused on organization and functionality. This training schedule, and thought process, was something I added to and adapted as I moved up the learning curve toward objectives and goals I had set. And it was something I followed with religious vigor. My purpose was to make sure I “covered all bases.” I just was not willing to leave anything up to chance.

Four Attributes That Lead To Athletic Greatness

Have you ever gone to a sporting event and noticed that the better players, the ones who stand out head and shoulders above the rest, all seem to have something in common with each other? That they, for some reason, tend to play harder, show more emotion, demonstrate a high level of skill, can consistently perform at an elevated level and seem to be the players, or player, that a team rallies around and looks to for their success. You know who I am speaking of, the ones that make a difference.

Part 3: Specialization in Youth Sports, Good or Bad?

Getting back to our focus on specialization, another factor that athletes (and their parents) need to keep in mind is that different sports can and do bring different circumstances into the mix. There are some sports that tend to have a genuine overlap between them, more so than do others, and because of this overlap they do not require as much specialization. It is almost as if the sports truly complement each other. Take football and wrestling as one example. I am sure you can find many good football players who are also very good wrestlers, especially in the middle and upper weight classes. In fact, I personally know of two who were solid football players and became state champions in wrestling. There are other sports that also tend to have similar overlapping characteristics. If size, speed, agility, jumping ability, coordination (hand/eye), etc. are high priorities in a sport, then usually these attributes easily carry over to another sport that has the same high priority for these athletic skills.

Part 2: Specialization in Youth Sports, Good or Bad?

I suppose the best answer to this question of specialization in sports (and I know I might get some grief for this) is that there really is no best or right answer, at least no right answer for everyone and every situation. There are just too many variables in order for one answer to truly be beneficial for all. In fact, doing so would not only be inappropriate but completely unfair to the athlete and/or situation they might be faced with. So, even though it might seem vague at first, let’s start with some general guidelines (and I do mean general; some will even come up with scenarios that would simply not fit these general guidelines either).

What Parents Need to Know About Employing a Performance Enhancement Professional

Before you consider hiring a performance enhancement professional for your sports-minded child you should first ask yourself this question: Why do you want to secure the services of someone to supplement the training your children are receiving from their school or club coaches?

If your answer centers on getting your son or daughter a college scholarship, creating a young Olympian, or even making them the star of their team, then it might be best to reconsider this option. These types of goals need to come from your children themselves, and, in most cases, at latter stages of their sports careers. In addition, it is very important to keep in mind that only a very small percentage of athletes (out of the significant number who participate in sports) will ever reach a level high enough to garner a college scholarship, and an even smaller percentage will gain Olympic status. The odds for the latter are astronomical.