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| The Road to the Pros |
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Many young athletes dream of becoming
a professional football player, basketball player, or baseball
star. They train for hours a day and pour their souls out into
their goal. I would be the last person on this planet to
discourage a person from persuing his dreams, but I think it would be wise to
examine the risks and to weigh in on other options. There are, for example,
about 500,000 boys playing high school basketball in the U.S. Of those only
about 110 will ever play in at least one NBA game. That means that someone who
is currently playing high school basketball has roughly a one in 5,000 chance of
ever playing in an NBA game. If you never do make a professional sports team, I think all that exercise, discipline, and being part of a team will have life long benefits. But for those who put their entire lives on hold to pursue a pro career, especially if they ignore their education, the risk seems much greater than the likelihood of reward. Not only do you have a half of a million other athletes to compete with in the U.S, but nowadays NBA players come from all over the world. And the worst part is that you could spend your whole life preparing for that goal and lose all of that training and conditioning in the blink of an eye. Sports are riddled with injuries. Post high school I only ran for about 6 years, but I spent two of those years recovering from injuries. The first came from what we called "toe-ups" because we raised up on our toes with a weight on our shoulders (some people call them "heel-raises".) After a set of these I had pain in my achilles tendon. In the days that followed I thought that I could continue running, or at least jogging, just "run through it". Big mistake, it took me an entire year to recover. I spent another year recovering from a thigh injury. And in addition there were other injuries. One summer I was unquestionably in the best shape of my life. I wanted to run in the Deseret News Marathon, but I also wanted to try out for the cross country team shortly thereafter, so in keeping with my goals I abstained from the marathon and decided instead to focus on making the team. A few days after the marathon I was up Millcreek Canyon horse playing around when I tried to throw a cute girl into the stream. She pulled me in along and I fell on my knee. So there I was, in the best condition of my life, and I never even got a race out of it to see just how good I was. Such is the risk. You have already read about how, after all the work I put into high school track, my senior year was interrupted by what I thought was persistent bronchitis. As a reult I lost my scholarship and went into a five year lay-off. Even though basketball is a "non-contact" sport, your chances of getting knocked down or elbowed in the face are infinitely higher than you will see in a sport like track or swimming. American football is altogether another story. I have seen the University of Utah lose the first five running backs on its roster. Just 17 months ago its defensive backfield was so riddled with injuries that in the Rose Bowl they had to start a player who hadn't played that position since he was a sophomore in high school. If you are going to invest a huge part of your life into getting good at something, it would seem more logical, more practical, to invest in something that is injury free and that you can still perfrom as you begin to age, like chess or music. Then all the work you do adds to your repertoire, you never have to worry about taking three steps back. Better than chess or music, if you can find something that you really enjoy, try to become an expert at it to the point that your talents will come into high demand. Now wouldn't that be great if people would pay you for that talent and you could build a living on it? Wouldn't it be great if all that work was guaranteed to improve your lot in life? Don't get me wrong, I have no advice, just a few things to think about. If I am ever reborn, the chances are I would run and play basketball all over again. (Above Photo: When I first got back into running my roomate was kind enough to come up to the foothills and photograph me running along this trail in the snow. I wanted to make a poster of it that read "If Ye Are Prepared Ye Shall Not Fear.") |