Dr. James Andrews: Let them play

There's a family in my area who has three kids and they all "specialize" in running. They're always in some event, be it a 5K or a summer track meet, and the middle child -- who I believe is 10 or 11 -- just ran a 10K.

If they go to a summer track meet, all three kids compete in at least seven or eight events -- you can only compete in four on the prep level. I don't see how they do it, and I'm not sure how the parents can just keep pushing their kids like this.

By the time they reach high school, if they're not still being home-schooled, they're going to be burned out. The parents keep telling me these kids are the "next big thing" in prep cross country and track, but all I see are three kids who won't want to be running in a few years.

 

I think one of the biggest reasons you see so much of a tendency against multi-sport athletes now is because there are a much lower percentage of multi-sport coaches.

Prep Baseball Coach knows the "involved" baseball parents are going to mutiny on him if they don't win at all costs, so he tries to corner the market so when they win the states, he's the one who looks like a genius and gets the better budget and money for tournament trips, while Prep Basketball Coach loses out. Back in the old days when the gym teacher or the civics teacher was coaching football, then maybe track or baseball and if he was really crazy, basketball, he cared about the program generating good athletes. Now, in which a dramatically higher percentage of prep or AAU teams are being used by "involved" parents as star vehicles for their kids, they only care about generating good pitchers/forwards/linemen/outside hitters/midfielders to make their kids look better.

 

Kids like fast food. Do they get it every day?

There's a presumption that sports can teach all lessons in life and, what's more, all lessons sports teach are good ones.

I would argue both are false.

Sports is undoubtedly fascinating on many levels. Hell, I wrote about it. But immersing a child, for an entire summer, summer after summer, into youth sports industrial complex serves the salaries and payrolls of the youth sports industrial complex more than it serves the youth.

Can a kid deeply immersed in travel ball still be well rounded? Sure. And yours probably is. Kids who spend their childhoods on a movie set can also be well-rounded. But I tell you the truth: The labor laws are such that a child working on a movie set is going to spend fewer hours on that set during a week (getting paid, mind you, to be there) than a kid who <i>pays</i> to play baseball spends on the field during the week.

 

Some kids -- the "majors" ones whose parents are spending well north of $10,000 a year -- this happens with.

Most of the kids, the vast majority, practice 2-3 times a week and play tournaments twice a month. You're trying to make everyone believe the exception is the rule.

At what level have you been part of this? From where are you forming your observations?

 

I agree that you are doing the right thing as well. And if your kid can bring it, a fastball and change is all you need. Working the strike zone and location are much better than curves in the dirt or over the catcher's head.

No one should even dream of the pros for their kid. If they can get a few bucks off of a college tuition, that should be plenty.

 

I am not particularly familiar with teams that that only play games two weekends out of each month. I am familiar with the ones who play three games on the Fourth of July. We're talking the teams that generally play 70-80 times per summer. This is common. Common for travel basketball, volleyball, softball teams, too.

 

Those teams are the "elite" and make up a small portion of the whole travel/select deal. If you are not familiar with the teams I'm describing, you are missing out on the "other" 80-90 percent of the situation. Not the best knowledge base from which to issue your proclamations.

 

All travel/club teams aren't created equal.

My two youngest played year 'round sports; my daughter played soccer, my son, water polo. Most parents on these teams were under no illusions that Club or travel ball was a road to a college scholarship. My daughter played year round (10 or 10 and a half months a year) because she really wasn't that good at other sports. She enjoyed it. She wasn't looking for a scholarship, she was looking to be competitive for varsity soccer for her high school. My son just graduated hs and played club water polo. He liked it better than hs water polo, the competition much better.

Costs for us were well under $2k per year for each kid. They enjoyed it. It taught them discipline. They enjoyed the competition and friendships with teammates. They loved going to practice.

And yes, it was a bit unseemly paying adults to coach. But my wife and I completely enjoyed spending weekends going to my kids' games. Rather than growing apart as they grew in their teens.

I am sure there are much worse situations out there. A neighbor with a jv softball kid was going to a July 4 softball "national showcase" in Colorado(!) (we live in SoCal). wtf. A jv girl playing in a 'showcase' for college recruiters.

One size doesn't fit all.

 

The subject of the entire thread is James Andrews warning against precisely the kind of specialization I'm writing about. If you've found a happy niche, congrats. We'll just have to disagree on the percentages. Of the percentage of travel teams, I' argue the elites occupy a larger chunk than you're giving them. And the chunk gets bigger as kids get older.

 

I don't think you have observed any of this and I don't think you know what you're talking about.

See poin's post for more elaboration.

 

If you want to play college softball and you're not so good that the schools will come to you, you go to that showcase. It's in Boulder, I believe.

 

OK.