I’ve been on and off these boards for a long time. Mostly off, due to the toxic people on here, most of whom are on this board.

But as I wind down the club lacrosse journey with my son, I am reminded of a quote that I use to hear incessantly on here, from the beginning.

“The holdback advantage never goes away.”

My opinion is, there is no advantage and that’s why it doesn’t ever go away. It was never there in the first place.

Holdbacks are privileged. They are “given” everything and earn nothing. At first sign of challenge, they quit and go the easiest possible route that their daddy can buy.

They don’t learn how to compete, fight, grind and overcome… the true character traits of winners. They were robbed of this invaluable growth by parents that made them quit and go the softer easier route. Now they have to deal with these inferior feelings that go along with being holdback. This will stick with them their entire life as a constant reminder of their failures.

I took a different approach with my son.

His first 3 years playing lacrosse he played UP. Then he went on age and stayed there.

He went to public school. No holding back for him.

He competed. Encountered adversity and fought through it. In the process he learned far more valuable lessons about winning in life than he will ever learn at the tier 1 school that he will be attending by at basically no cost.

“The NON-HOLDBACK advantage never, EVER goes away.”