OT: Youth sports
- Thread starter Antwill
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Couldn't agree more. The article as around three years old...there was a great debate in this very chatroom about this article, and it's author. He's added another profession to his list since this article was written...he's the mayor of GI.
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anon_umk0ifu6vj6zi
Guest
He has good points. But it is kind of pointless considering he never did anything to stop what he has a problem with. He took full advantage of these things by putting those kids into his program (a damn good program). And I am not saying that is a bad thing. It has gotten so out of hand you cannot single-handedly do anything about it besides taking your kids away from it, thus taking away opportunities from them as well. It's a crappy situation all around.
Posted from Rivals Mobile
Posted from Rivals Mobile
Been my experience that the least talented kids are the ones with the parents saying "It should be all about the kids, everyone takes this stuff to seriously now, who can afford all this, it wasn't like this when I played" They want everything to be equal and low key, because their kid isn't any good. Parents of the talented kids work the system to the best of their ability to get as much as they can out of it. I don't have a problem with it. If you want to make it low key and just enjoy playing, their are teams for you. If you want it to be more competitive, there are teams for you. Go find a team that fits what you want, and have at it. Quit telling everyone else how they should be doing it. Now, do I like everything about youth sports? Of course not, but if their parent really cares they will get engaged and figure out where their kid belongs, and therefore put them in the best situation for their kid.
To take it one step further I will use my son as an example. He is good enough to be playing at a higher level of baseball. But I'm not a good enough coach to coach at a higher level. My son and I are best of friends and spend hours hanging out, everything from riding bikes to X-Box football, and I coach his baseball team. He could easily be playing at a higher level, and he has less talented friends doing it who are always asking him "Why don't you play select, you're never going to make the high school team if you don't play select". My sons response is something like, "If I don't make the high school team so be it.,I don't care, I would rather hang with my dad, than hang around a bunch of kids I barely know, don't go to school with, and may or may not like" (Our team is comprised of kids who all know each other, same school for the most part, eat at the same lunch table together, same neighborhood, etc). He has friends who play select who don't know any of their teammates, or go to the same school. But it works for them, fine. The found what worked for them. We play "In house" baseball, works for us. I have at least 4, maybe 5 kids who could play select, but they don't want to do it, they found what works for them.
This one is kind of a tough call for me. My son had the CHOICE available to him this year in regards to baseball. The traveling team was a collection of kids that were asked to "try out". The problem with this in my town is that, much like basketball, the "try outs" are only available to a select few. My son was left out in basketball when these traveling teams were formed in third grade. And when I say only a select few are asked to "try out", those are the kids that are already positively going to make that specific team. So, only a few are asked to try out and the opportunity is kind of not available to the rest of the kids. I think in a situation like this, if you have thirty kids that want to play a traveling sport in a specific sport, that's a good thing, right?
Who's to say that some of those kids that never really got the opportunity, but would have loved to play on that traveling basketball team, could not have developed into great players by the time they hit middle school basketball? In a smaller town, there are just a limited amount of alternatives for those kids to develop and stay on pace with the kids that have that opportunity to practice and travel damn near year around, like those kids that were "selected" for that traveling team. In this situation, I find it rather unfair that we are choosing who we are going to develop starting in the third grade. Just my opinion.
I did find my two older boys other opportunities..... as I was told to do. Now my boys catch grief for that because you are viewed as traitor, because your kids are playing for another traveling team in a different town. Neither of them may end up making the cut, but it would be nice to at least have them on a level playing field.....and at the very least before they reach middle school. It is still kind of tough for me.....because I love our high school coach.....love our school administration.....and actually like most of the parents and coaches that are involved in the youth traveling basketball programs.
However, my son WAS one of the ones that was chosen for the try-outs for baseball. He also had an opportunity to play for litespeed's team in Omaha. He chose to play for the Omaha team and is very happy with his decision now. He likes his coaches and teammates......he can't wait to get to practice. In hindsight, I am VERY happy that he chose to go away from the traveling/select team in our town. I found out later that some of the parents were asking my wife if my older son was on that traveling team. They stated that neither their boys nor them knew anything about the team until they were already playing in their last tournament last weekend. I would have felt like a HUGE hypocrite if my son had chosen to play on that team.
In regards to coaching, you can get some pretty quality coaching outside of the select ranks in youth sports and I am not so sure that it is devastating to their chances to play high school ball if they are NOT on a select team. At some point, it falls on the kids AND their parents to just get them an opportunity to play ball.......no matter what level it happens to be......and continue to work on their skills OUTSIDE of regularly scheduled practices. Play a lot of catch, work on your fundamentals when doing so, go to batting cages, hit the ball off of tees, etc. Example: I have seen lite's kid pitch. He could be playing select ball. That being said, the kid is obviously developing just fine. He is fundamentally sound when on the mound, so he is obviously spending extra time on his own working at it. That is the key at an older age.......if you are going to b**ch about your kid not getting a chance, but they do nothing to help themselves, who's fault is it that they are not good enough to play on a traveling team if they choose to do so?
I am not sure if my son WOULD be travel team potential. He has never played on one, so maybe, maybe not. At this point, I do not care and neither does he. He is excited about getting the chance to play the game that he loves. As long as you are getting the chance to play with coaches and teammates you like, keep working at it, and have the potential to become a good player, I believe the development will come. Unfortunately, it sometimes will come down to that old thing called genetics.
This post was edited on 4/6 7:33 PM by HuskerDana
Who's to say that some of those kids that never really got the opportunity, but would have loved to play on that traveling basketball team, could not have developed into great players by the time they hit middle school basketball? In a smaller town, there are just a limited amount of alternatives for those kids to develop and stay on pace with the kids that have that opportunity to practice and travel damn near year around, like those kids that were "selected" for that traveling team. In this situation, I find it rather unfair that we are choosing who we are going to develop starting in the third grade. Just my opinion.
I did find my two older boys other opportunities..... as I was told to do. Now my boys catch grief for that because you are viewed as traitor, because your kids are playing for another traveling team in a different town. Neither of them may end up making the cut, but it would be nice to at least have them on a level playing field.....and at the very least before they reach middle school. It is still kind of tough for me.....because I love our high school coach.....love our school administration.....and actually like most of the parents and coaches that are involved in the youth traveling basketball programs.
However, my son WAS one of the ones that was chosen for the try-outs for baseball. He also had an opportunity to play for litespeed's team in Omaha. He chose to play for the Omaha team and is very happy with his decision now. He likes his coaches and teammates......he can't wait to get to practice. In hindsight, I am VERY happy that he chose to go away from the traveling/select team in our town. I found out later that some of the parents were asking my wife if my older son was on that traveling team. They stated that neither their boys nor them knew anything about the team until they were already playing in their last tournament last weekend. I would have felt like a HUGE hypocrite if my son had chosen to play on that team.
In regards to coaching, you can get some pretty quality coaching outside of the select ranks in youth sports and I am not so sure that it is devastating to their chances to play high school ball if they are NOT on a select team. At some point, it falls on the kids AND their parents to just get them an opportunity to play ball.......no matter what level it happens to be......and continue to work on their skills OUTSIDE of regularly scheduled practices. Play a lot of catch, work on your fundamentals when doing so, go to batting cages, hit the ball off of tees, etc. Example: I have seen lite's kid pitch. He could be playing select ball. That being said, the kid is obviously developing just fine. He is fundamentally sound when on the mound, so he is obviously spending extra time on his own working at it. That is the key at an older age.......if you are going to b**ch about your kid not getting a chance, but they do nothing to help themselves, who's fault is it that they are not good enough to play on a traveling team if they choose to do so?
I am not sure if my son WOULD be travel team potential. He has never played on one, so maybe, maybe not. At this point, I do not care and neither does he. He is excited about getting the chance to play the game that he loves. As long as you are getting the chance to play with coaches and teammates you like, keep working at it, and have the potential to become a good player, I believe the development will come. Unfortunately, it sometimes will come down to that old thing called genetics.
This post was edited on 4/6 7:33 PM by HuskerDana
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