State of Youth Sports (1 Viewer)

[The Dude]

It's crazy what is going on in youth sports with all this specialized training at young ages. I see mostly in baseball, basketball and soccer. Can't believe I am actually considering placing my 7 year old grand son in professional soccer training.

Anyone else?

 

[joffer]

I know parents pulling their kids out of high school in favor of online home schooling so they can spend more time for golf, dance, volleyball, etc.

 

[SpurrierisisGod]

We have a youth combine here that is getting real popular. My son is 10 and has 3-4 friends doing the football specific training. Kid a glad he gave up football. There is also a soccer combine here. Pic on the website is of a kid about 10 or 11 doing those weighted rope things. Crazy.

My rule has always been "no coaching at home". I coach soccer and basketball but I will not coach my kids at home unless they ask for my help. To me, by 10-11 years old, they are capable of self motivating. If they want to be the best, they'll go outside and work on their own. I'll be damned if I'm paying for extra though.

Also, wish I could find it, but read an article last week or so that mentioned how college coaches are seeking out the multi sport kids now. Think Jimmy grahamn.

 

[The Gator]

At 7, save your money and research 10,000 touches training for him to do at home. If you can find a Futsal league for him, that would be ideal.

 

[uconnalum]

In Florida it is insane the training kids could get. My son takes speed and agility training with a former football player and recruiter with ties still to many NFL Players. 2 X per week for the last 5 months his 40 speed has gotten better, he is no longer running on his heels and it has turned out to a huge amount of playing time for him. He has promised my son a chance to get some pointers and training from NFL Players when they are in Tampa during the offseason. Even though my son doesn't play football speed is key to all sports in this day and age.

 

[belljr]

We were approached to play Travel softball 2 years now.

My daughter just turned 9. I'm having her branch out. If she has the fever at 11 or 12 maybe I'll give it a shot. She won't be too far behind from the current girls on the 8u and 10u travel. Heck she is ahead of 75% of the 8u.

 

[comfortably numb]

In Florida it is insane the training kids could get. My son takes speed and agility training with a former football player and recruiter with ties still to many NFL Players. 2 X per week for the last 5 months his 40 speed has gotten better, he is no longer running on his heels and it has turned out to a huge amount of playing time for him. He has promised my son a chance to get some pointers and training from NFL Players when they are in Tampa during the offseason. Even though my son doesn't play football speed is key to all sports in this day and age.

When does your son turn 7?

 

[uconnalum]

In Florida it is insane the training kids could get. My son takes speed and agility training with a former football player and recruiter with ties still to many NFL Players. 2 X per week for the last 5 months his 40 speed has gotten better, he is no longer running on his heels and it has turned out to a huge amount of playing time for him. He has promised my son a chance to get some pointers and training from NFL Players when they are in Tampa during the offseason. Even though my son doesn't play football speed is key to all sports in this day and age.

When does your son turn 7?

My son just turned 13 the Dude is the one who has the 7 year old and he is in Florid also.

 

[oso diablo]

my 9yo son is really good at baseball, and he moved up to select this year. The more i get into this world, the more cynical i get about it. It just seems that everyone is out to only make money - from the individualized coaching and camps to the team fees to the tournaments themselves. And we legion of local coaches/parents are the suckers, fueled by fears that our kid will get left behind.

 

[roadkill1292]

my 9yo son is really good at baseball, and he moved up to select this year. The more i get into this world, the more cynical i get about it. It just seems that everyone is out to only make money - from the individualized coaching and camps to the team fees to the tournaments themselves. And we legion of local coaches/parents are the suckers, fueled by fears that our kid will get left behind.

In The King of Sports, Gregg Easterbrook had an eye-opening chapter on the rise of the football camps, marketing to high school kids, many of whom can ill-afford to attend, that promise high school players exposure to college recruiters. A couple of hours of drills, maybe a little talk from a washed up former pro and a T-shirt for $75. And after attending, you get the "invitation" to the "Super-Elite Top 100 Regional" Camp. For $150.

If you are a good high school football player, every school in your state and every surrounding state knows about you.

 

[Wayne Kenof]

In Florida it is insane the training kids could get. My son takes speed and agility training with a former football player and recruiter with ties still to many NFL Players. 2 X per week for the last 5 months his 40 speed has gotten better, he is no longer running on his heels and it has turned out to a huge amount of playing time for him. He has promised my son a chance to get some pointers and training from NFL Players when they are in Tampa during the offseason. Even though my son doesn't play football speed is key to all sports in this day and age.

if you dont mind me asking, what camp does he belong too? I myself live in tampa.

 

[Charlie Steiner]

In Florida it is insane the training kids could get. My son takes speed and agility training with a former football player and recruiter with ties still to many NFL Players. 2 X per week for the last 5 months his 40 speed has gotten better, he is no longer running on his heels and it has turned out to a huge amount of playing time for him. He has promised my son a chance to get some pointers and training from NFL Players when they are in Tampa during the offseason. Even though my son doesn't play football speed is key to all sports in this day and age.

This reminds me of one of my favorite stories I used to tell my son when he was younger: My 9th grade class was one of the last ones to go to middle school, and late in the year, the varsity football coach paid my gym class a visit. Every kid that wanted to play football mobbed him like he was a rock star, shaking his hand and trying to get his attention. On the other side of the gym, one kid (didn't play sports but was in good shape, lean but muscular) stood under one of the basketball rims and was jumping up and touching the rim. The coach ignored the mob of kids and went right up the the one kid, shook his hand and said he hoped he'd see him at tryouts. As far as I know, he had no interest in football and I don't know if he played any sport in high school. The point I made of this story to my son is that the first thing the coaches see is height, strength and speed.

Also, anyone familiar with my exploits here knows that I have a son that played/plays travel baseball. He's a sophomore in high school now, so we're pretty much on the waning end of the adventure, and while I won't contradict anything that's been said, I will say that if you keep it in your mind that you're not looking for a financial payoff for all the time and money you're investing, AND keep it all about the kid and not your own worries, it will be a lot more tolerable. In fact, some of my own fondest memories growing up include the 3 years I got to go to Lefty Driesell's basketball camps at the University of Maryland, circa the mid-70's. I got to see the '76 olympic team play a scrimmage and I got to hang out with some college stars of the day, including Len Elmore. I was in no way a good basketball player, but it was my favorite game and my parents were able to swing the 'tuition'. I don't think they had any illusions about my lack of skills, either; for them, the experience was the thing. As such, by the time my son was 10, I had started to see his sports 'career' the same way, and since then, if it was something we could swing, I made sure it happened for him. Plus, he also got to do some things we couldn't afford, like spending a week at Disney World as a guest player (not a ringer, just a replacement for a kid that quit the team earlier) on another team. Bottom line, I think that as long as they love what they're doing, the adventure they have along the way should mostly outweigh the cost. Plus, we're FBGs, we find the money for most of these expenses in our couch cushions.

 

[D in the D]

In Florida it is insane the training kids could get. My son takes speed and agility training with a former football player and recruiter with ties still to many NFL Players. 2 X per week for the last 5 months his 40 speed has gotten better, he is no longer running on his heels and it has turned out to a huge amount of playing time for him. He has promised my son a chance to get some pointers and training from NFL Players when they are in Tampa during the offseason. Even though my son doesn't play football speed is key to all sports in this day and age.

When does your son turn 7?

More importantly, how many leagues does Philo own him in?

 

[oso diablo]

my 9yo son is really good at baseball, and he moved up to select this year. The more i get into this world, the more cynical i get about it. It just seems that everyone is out to only make money - from the individualized coaching and camps to the team fees to the tournaments themselves. And we legion of local coaches/parents are the suckers, fueled by fears that our kid will get left behind.

here's an example: USSSA All-American team

for only $125-$200, your kid can TRY OUT for this A-A team

 

[CletiusMaximus]

It's crazy what is going on in youth sports with all this specialized training at young ages. I see mostly in baseball, basketball and soccer. Can't believe I am actually considering placing my 7 year old grand son in professional soccer training.

Anyone else?

What's become of youth sports is very unfortunate in many ways in my experience. The need to specialize at such a young age is especially sad. Baseball, soccer and basketball are essentially year-round sports starting about 8 or 9 years old around here, and I don't even live in a youth sports hotbed. I'm sure we all have our stories. Even if your head is in the right place as a parent, focusing on the kid's enjoyment, you still want to put him in the best position he can be in to succeed at what he enjoys. In most sports, by the time a kid is 12 or 13, that's going to mean several thousands of dollars each year, significant travel and time commitment, etc. In our group of friends, anyone with 2 or 3 kids in the 6-12 age group have their weekends essentially blocked all summer long. One of my neighbors has 4 kids. All he and his wife do all summer long is drive the kids around to games and practices. They have color-coded charts to map out driving schedules, conflicts, etc. and depend on grandparents and teammates parents to help out (as we all do). The really unfortunate part is that kids for the most part don't play pick-up sports anymore. The cliche is that whenever kids play sports, its because their parents drove them somewhere to do it. In my city, the black kids still play pick-up basketball at the public parks, but otherwise I see very little unorganized youth sports. One of the bigger soccer clubs tries to artificially manufacture the pick-up experience by having unstructured games in the offseason, with no refs, parents or coaches. But they're still scheduled events with parents driving their kids there, they track attendance and some other stats, and the kids know it, so its somewhat of a joke imo. When my son (9) gets together with friends to play sports informally at the park, its almost always because the dads arranged it.