A friend was telling me about his son’s first Jiu-Jitsu tournament.
He went against a kid who was way better than him, got tapped three times in less than 10 seconds each, and that was it. Over and done.
Sure, a good coach can find plenty of coachable moments buried within that sub-30 second competition that could very well lead to hours and hours of pointed, high quality training.
But, as facilitators of experiences for kids, we should also be asking ourselves if this is the best we can do for our next generation?
Whether you’re a parent or not, a teacher or not, a coach or not… adults have an innate responsibility to pave a way forward for our next generation—in the same way the generation before did for us… and the one before them.
And what we should be asking ourselves is how can we maximize the experiential learning buried within each opportunity taken? How can we increase the reps, the time on stage, the effort required… so as to expand the amount of raw experience our kids can dissect (and learn) from? How can we make the IRL experiences as exciting and rewarding (and even as time consuming) as the damn video game experiences that are competing for their attention day-in and day-out?
As an adult reading this right now, I hope you’ll at least consider this question for the sake of the kids who could be impacted by the efforts and energy of your life…