Frank Martin Got It Half Right

Social media was buzzing earlier this week with some comments from South Carolina University men's basketball coach Frank Martin. If you've never heard of Coach Martin, he's getting set to lead his Gamecocks into the Final Four this Saturday for the first time in school history. The coach was replying to a reporter's question and shared his opinion on kids. More specifically, he shared his opinion on adults in charge of kids. Here's the quote as seen on Twitter and Facebook:

Coach Martin isn't alone with his feelings. I hear parents and youth coaches complain about the same thing today. I don't have a problem the coach stating his opinion. He was talking with the media and said what he feels. I also don't have a problem with the countless "re-tweets", "likes" and "attaboy" comments I saw on my social media feeds. But guess what? I heard the same thing 30-40 years ago when I was a young athlete. I also have an opinion and I think the coach got it half right.

Remember when you were a kid? Your father or your grandfather probably told you THAT story. You know, the one about walking to school... in the snow... uphill and both ways! Coach Martin is telling the 2017 version of that same story. It's a little different, but the moral is the same. Times were tougher for kids back in the day. Oh, baloney.

Like I said, I think the coach got it half right. Kids haven't changed. They don't know anything about anything. We agree on that. We also agree that adults have changed. But here's the difference. Do we demand less and expect less of kids today? No way. We demand and expect more. A lot more.

I had a 6th grade parent tell me a couple months ago his son was starting to lift weights for junior high football in the fall. My sophomore daughter runs twelve months per year trying to stay in shape for spring track and fall cross country. I hear about kids in the gym before school starts getting up a couple hundred shots just to be ready for winter basketball season. Most all of this is spurred by adult demands and expectations. We never did that crap when I was growing up.

Coach Martin says we make their lives easier instead of preparing them for what life is truly about. If life is truly about working crazy hard, I would say adults today are doing just fine.

These kids from the 1980's were the same as kids today!