From Todd R. Berman

Zach Berkowitz is on to something with “No More Street Ball” (in Scuttlebutt 3687). The shortcoming of American youth sailing is as much spiritual as they are mechanical. Let kids go wild in fast boats without coaching or adult “hyper” supervision and they will develop the instinctual love of speed rather than the more robotic mechanical parts of being fast in a boat.

Obviously the solution is a blend of factors but Zach’s observations are a thread that almost nobody wants to pull at in American youth sports today.

We are seeing the same things from young athletes in other sports. Today’s 18 year old up and coming American soccer star may have been professionally coached on groomed fields since being 8 years old, and that player may have wonderful athletic and technical skills for the game. However, in many cases they sadly lack the creativity and love that blossoms from a youth spent without obsessive coaching in the streets and beaches of Brazil.