Lupica on Today show

If you just abolished tryouts and put signs on the lockerroom doors that said Pee Wee A and Pee Wee B, the kids would separate themselves close to perfectly.

The bubble kids wouldn't know where to go, because, well, they're bubble kids. Everybody else generally knows.

The only problem with doing that would be you'd end up with too many kids in the B locker room.

 

Before say age 12 why even have A/B/C travel teams? Its better to split up talent equally between 3 teams. It makes everyone better.

 

The thinking is that the higher the level of competition, the more the players will improve. And stay motivated, especially if they're an A level player on a line with B and C level players.

I'm not saying it's right, just the way it is.

 

Agreed, Boom.

Pee Wees are generally 12-13.

And every year in the association I coach in, we divide the Pee Wee's by ability and everyone below into equal teams.

And every year a new set of parents comes through and thinks their kid invented the game and they raise a stink about dividing by ability at squirt. As though their kid is too good to play with the weaker players.

And every year there's a huge spat about it.

 

You obviously never saw the South Park episode where Stan takes over a struggling pee-wee hockey team. They go to a Colorado Avalanche game, and the Avs give them a chance to take on the Red Wings in the third period of a tie game.
The Wings absolutely destroy them. It's awesome.

 

At the younger ages its wrong to pigeon hole kids into ABC format. Its too discouraging on "c" type players.

I would imagine that going to ABC format as opossed to balanced teams takes a program with 90% satisfaction rating down to 50 % with most in that group feeling that their kid should be an A player.

 

It's WAY too early at 8-10 --

Because, for one thing, it's a system that rewards kids who grow early, not necessarily the kids who WILL BE the best athletes.

But coaches will take the kids who will make the best players that year, rather than take a smaller kid who wouldn't be successful at the top level despite superior motor skills.

 

Pewees is when the ABC thing comes into play here. DOB determines the age cutoffs. The A team usually has the top players, then there's an attempt to level it out at B and then at C. The discouragement kicks in more as they get older, close to HS age.

I don't know if you'd find a 90% satisfaction rating in any youth sport. Hope I'm wrong.

 

the entire "a-b-c" crap really ticks me off. kids get pigeonholed at 8 or so, as if anyone really knows dick at that point in terms of a child's physical or athletic long-term development. cripes, how i despise what youth leagues around the country have become.

i'm very much a "let our children be children" adult. 8)

 

Because a highly motivated 11 year old wants to play with/against kids who are roughly at the same talent level.

If you have widly varying degrees of talent on a house league team, it doesnt make the best players "better". Sure, some of them will love that they're the cock of the walk, but lots of them will get positively bored.

You can identify talent at 10 and 11 years old. It doesn't mean the fucking nutbar parents have to get their kid an agent or, as is often the case up here, have their 11 year old play hockey 12 months of the year. That's nuts.

Kids get it. They know the talented ones on the team and unlike some of the parents, they aren't jealous.

 

Training facilities have become very big. Year-round training to increase speed, agility, etc. Kids 10 and up go. All sports are covered.

 

No offense, JR, but I call bullshit.

An 11-year-old wants to play hockey with his friends.

His parents want the validation that comes with the A team.

The kids know who the better athletes are from the pond and the sandlot. They don't need the AAA jackets.

The parents do.