The Window

I always think randomly about questions like,  “If you had the president’s attention for 5 minutes on a subway train, what would you choose to say?” I know you’re thinking that Secret Service would never allow that ride in the first place but just imagine. Isn’t the thing we want most a captive audience? In young people, you have it.

I’ve coached kids as young as 8 years old to be disciplined while away from their parents for the first time. Those kids can be taught in a week’s time to groom and feed themselves while mastering a jump-stop pivot or jab-and-go move to the basket. Several things make young people the perfect captive audience. They adore coaches and parental figures, they have no money, they have no transportation and everything is new to them.

Whenever I talk to parents after a camp or before a season begins I thank them for trusting me with their most prized possession – their kids. I’ve learned that there’s a short window of time in the life of people where they’re willing to listen to instruction. Young people are in that window from birth to about 14-15 years, it seems given my classroom experience. When I think about what people chose to say to me in my most impressionable years I’m amped about the opportunity to say what should be said while it’s most likely to be heard.