[5 Star Elite]

I believe that in any area, the youths that mature faster will have a decided advantage in athletics compared to those that have maturing to do. But once EVERYONE matures, the playing field will even. And those that matured early are so used to dominating or excelling that they do not realize everyone else will catch up eventually. They should be training just as hard to try to use the early maturation as an advantage in being able to train harder at an earlier age, thus being able to do more in the future as well.

There are countless examples of kids I played with that matured faster and were the best, but did not have the same work ethic as others in high school ball and were either caught or passed up. Not that they were not talented, because they were, but they just did not establish a work habit early because it wasn't really necessary.

With a few exceptions, the old saying will eventually hold true, "hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard."


(As far as this being a geographical thing, who knows what factors go into it. Maybe diet, culture, and genetics are factors that could be causes.)

I agree totally with everything you just said and I think you hit the nail on the head when you referred to differences in culture. I was talking to a friend of mine and he said that in the mountains, everyone holds their kids back. In Southern Kentucky, we don't hold our kids back unless they absolutely have to be for academic reasons only. Therefore those kids from the mountains have a size, maturity, and ability advantage until everyone catches up in high school. Just my opinion. What are your thoughts?