I agree with comment below… more opportunities for rec sports (one season long and inexpensive) A young person will have the opportunity to play multiple sports throughout the year.
Our local middle schools have an amazing program for 6 week long opportunities to practice and compete against other middle schools. The issue is too many of the students are playing the “travel, select, club” sports and are too busy to try other sports. A question is how do we decrease the preference/desire for these “travel/select/sports” when so many factors are luring in coaches and parents: tournament/coaching companies drive to make money, college play, societal value of sport, etc. Will increasing opportunity for rec sport squelch these driving factors? I think we need to look at the need to decrease driving factors of the “travel/ select sports”. I wish the “travel/select sports” had the value to create inexpensive multi sport opportunities, not easy in todays money driven world preying on our insecurities and current proclivities.
My daughter is four years old and I'm already struck by how her soccer coaches push performance over fun. There's this "toughen up" performance-based mentality that feels inappropriate for kids generally, and especially for such young ones. I'd love to see a more intentional focus on how sports can help kids improve their emotion regulation, problem solving and communication skills (team sports are such a great opportunity for this!)
Oh, the reminder of the woman sports coach I had in junior high school who when we confided in that we were having menstrual symptoms made us RUN MORE (and this was not track or cross country). Not only penalizing us by removing us from playing our sport - but using running as a punishment. It was so awful.
Thanks for this - sent it to my daughter's coaches!
I agree with the comments above about increasing rec sports opportunities and somehow delaying involvement with travel/select teams until a certain age (a pipedream, I realize). We did not allow our kids to participate in travel/select teams until sixth grade, but they were (and are!) still behind their age group despite talent and athleticism. They want to keep playing, so I guess we are a small experiment to see if talent outlasts earlier development and/or if those other kids just wind up burning out because it's likely that they started travel/select teams earlier perhaps because of parental ego but that is another topic entirely.
I also think us parents that do participate in these travel/select teams (but also volunteer coaches on rec teams) need to start demanding A LOT more emotional intelligence and pyschological development training from these paid coaches. I have yet to experience a paid coach for my kids that I don't have to spend a lot of time after practice and games undoing a ton of what they say to their teams that completely fly in the face of what I consider pretty basic emotional intelligence and understanding of child development. Shaming from the sidelines, yelling at kids not to cry about it, having outsized expectations for their age/development. But then I try to rally some parents together, and I get most of them telling me that I'm a snowflake and/or looking at me blankly. It is maddening, and I really just want to quit except that both of my kids are good athletes and love their sports.
I would love to see more regulations for youth sports. There are so many kids I know who play on multiple club sports teams at the same. No one is checking to make sure that their bodies have time to rest, heal, and grow. There is no incentive to put limits on playing time because there is so much money on the table.
I have also noticed that club sports have cannibalized low-stakes rec department sports. Learning a new skill or delaying specialization is a challenge when too few people sign up for non-competitive leagues. This also takes opportunity away from those that can't afford club sports. In my town there weren't enough girls for the eighth grade rec basketball division, so the same eight girls played 4-on-4 all season. Everyone else was either on a travel team or decided it was too late to start at the advanced age of 13!
I agree with comment below… more opportunities for rec sports (one season long and inexpensive) A young person will have the opportunity to play multiple sports throughout the year.
Our local middle schools have an amazing program for 6 week long opportunities to practice and compete against other middle schools. The issue is too many of the students are playing the “travel, select, club” sports and are too busy to try other sports. A question is how do we decrease the preference/desire for these “travel/select/sports” when so many factors are luring in coaches and parents: tournament/coaching companies drive to make money, college play, societal value of sport, etc. Will increasing opportunity for rec sport squelch these driving factors? I think we need to look at the need to decrease driving factors of the “travel/ select sports”. I wish the “travel/select sports” had the value to create inexpensive multi sport opportunities, not easy in todays money driven world preying on our insecurities and current proclivities.
My daughter is four years old and I'm already struck by how her soccer coaches push performance over fun. There's this "toughen up" performance-based mentality that feels inappropriate for kids generally, and especially for such young ones. I'd love to see a more intentional focus on how sports can help kids improve their emotion regulation, problem solving and communication skills (team sports are such a great opportunity for this!)
Oh, the reminder of the woman sports coach I had in junior high school who when we confided in that we were having menstrual symptoms made us RUN MORE (and this was not track or cross country). Not only penalizing us by removing us from playing our sport - but using running as a punishment. It was so awful.
Thanks for this - sent it to my daughter's coaches!
I agree with the comments above about increasing rec sports opportunities and somehow delaying involvement with travel/select teams until a certain age (a pipedream, I realize). We did not allow our kids to participate in travel/select teams until sixth grade, but they were (and are!) still behind their age group despite talent and athleticism. They want to keep playing, so I guess we are a small experiment to see if talent outlasts earlier development and/or if those other kids just wind up burning out because it's likely that they started travel/select teams earlier perhaps because of parental ego but that is another topic entirely.
I also think us parents that do participate in these travel/select teams (but also volunteer coaches on rec teams) need to start demanding A LOT more emotional intelligence and pyschological development training from these paid coaches. I have yet to experience a paid coach for my kids that I don't have to spend a lot of time after practice and games undoing a ton of what they say to their teams that completely fly in the face of what I consider pretty basic emotional intelligence and understanding of child development. Shaming from the sidelines, yelling at kids not to cry about it, having outsized expectations for their age/development. But then I try to rally some parents together, and I get most of them telling me that I'm a snowflake and/or looking at me blankly. It is maddening, and I really just want to quit except that both of my kids are good athletes and love their sports.
Agree Kim!!!!
“We have to stop using men’s sports as the benchmark we’re trying to measure up against.” OMG. Yes!! And that article from The Cut? 😳😳😳😳😳😳
I would love to see more regulations for youth sports. There are so many kids I know who play on multiple club sports teams at the same. No one is checking to make sure that their bodies have time to rest, heal, and grow. There is no incentive to put limits on playing time because there is so much money on the table.
I have also noticed that club sports have cannibalized low-stakes rec department sports. Learning a new skill or delaying specialization is a challenge when too few people sign up for non-competitive leagues. This also takes opportunity away from those that can't afford club sports. In my town there weren't enough girls for the eighth grade rec basketball division, so the same eight girls played 4-on-4 all season. Everyone else was either on a travel team or decided it was too late to start at the advanced age of 13!