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The "Talent Trap," The Odds Of Going Pro, And Becoming Elite

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Parents often make the mistake of thinking their young athlete will make it professionally, and therefore put pressure on them from a young age. Here are the facts about the number of athletes who play after high school, taken from the excerpt found below:

“NCAA statistics indicate that fewer than 1 in 200 high school seniors playing baseball will get drafted by a professional team. For football it’s 1 in 1,000. For basketball, 1 in 3,333 for boys and 1 in 5,000 for girls. As long as these odds are, they overstate the case because the majority of drafted athletes never make it to the big leagues. Worse, most kids who play sports before high school never play on their high school team.”

There are many advantages to participating in sports other than the chance to play at an elite level. Be careful not to harm your child’s ability to succeed in sports and life by focusing just on talent. Instead, you can use the lessons found in this excerpt to develop your children’s ability and enhance their learning experience.

In addition to an explanation on why focusing on effort, rather than talent, is the healthiest approach for supporting your child’s athletic career, you’ll read about how to develop your child's potential and how many hours and years it takes to become an elite athlete. Download the excerpt found below, and avoid the talent trap with your young athlete!

This PDF was excerpted from PCA Founder Jim Thompson’s (@JimThompson18) book Positive Sports Parenting. To purchase the entire book, and to learn more about other PCA books, click here.

These books are used in PCA’s live workshops. To learn more about our interactive parent workshops, click here.

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  • Type: PDF Document
  • Size: 352 KB
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