The Race to Nowhere in Youth Sports

Nope, I don't think it should be as important, at least in sports or maybe especially in sports!   To use an analogy, would we watch over our son or daughter taking a test in school and "hang" on every answer?  I think one point of the article is that far too many parents might answer that type of question "yes." Why? Because when their child is entering 5th-6th grade the parent is focused on HS and beyond. In our area, that includes goals for Stanford, Yale, Columbia, Harvard, Princeton and the like.

A baseball field is a very special place for our sons, in my perspective.  None of them ever want to disappoint their parent.  Too often they put plenty of pressure on themselves trying to please the parent.  They want us to be proud of them, their performance, the hits, etc. I can already see this with our 2 year old grandson. His Dad is a college baseball coach. His Grandfather(me) is one who loves baseball.  Last week he came for a visit, found the bat and ball and wanted me to soft toss so he could hit(left handed.)  As we were "hitting," I talked about how his Dad was a really good player who loved baseball.  From a 2 year old came the words "I love baseball too grandpa."
For a parent who hangs on every pitch/play, it is extremely challenging not to let the success or failure generate our reaction of approval or something different.

Just my opinion but we as parents are provided a special trust for our son's when it comes to sports and especially baseball. Baseball is a very cerebral game.  It is also, at ages up to 15(ages 12-15 on the regulation diamond) a slow sport where "failures" are exposed for all to see, where the player lives with that failure until another chance to succeed might come his way. A parent "hanging" on every pitch/play can only enhance that high and especially the low, in my opinion.  I know and did that with our son during his 12 year old All-Star tournament.

From that one play when our son was 12, I much better understood my role as his parent and his role as the player, athlete and competitor. From that point in coaching him and his senior league team through age 15, I was a much better coach and parent because I let them play, let them invest in the competition and the W's and L's. My role was not to hang on every pitch. As his/their coach, my role was to watch each pitch and "coach" the fundamentals no matter whether that pitch/AB was a success or failure. As his Father, my role was to make sure he was at every practice(early) and every game(early) and to support him in any extra ways he wanted and  to provide input, when asked.

By age 15, he played the game at a level I never could. From that point forward, what he earned from baseball was based on his talent, effort, level of commitment and dedication. My role was to guide, when asked and certainly to guide or support if something went sideways.

These last few days with the HOF discussions are fun for me.  One of our sons lowest and highest days in baseball occurred on the same day. Early one Spring Morning he called in the deep dumps after learning he would not get a full season assignment in Milb in his second season. He was devastated from a baseball perspective and it was tough to offer what would be "real" help.  About 3 hours later he called as the AAA bus was arriving at Legends Field in Tampa. Turns out the AAA coaches put him on their roster for the day, he was starting at short and leading off, and the Yankee starting pitcher was going to be Randy Johnson tuning up in his final ST appearance. The excitement in his voice was screaming through the phone.  He used 3 AB's off a guy who will be a HOF'er today to do what it turns out the AAA staff wanted to happen-get an assignment and roster spot when ST broke the following day. As he had done since that one game when he was 12, he worked his AB's against Johnson. There was nothing I could do for him when he stood in against Johnson, just as there was nothing I could do for him when he stood in that batter box against every pitcher from the time he was 13.  What he did in each AB was "his" success or "his" failure and his opportunity to live and learn from it until the next AB.

Rather than "living" on every pitch, I truly learned to cherish the opportunity to watch him compete and watch him earn everything which happened for him in baseball.

Just my view, but there is a very big difference between my role as his parent and his role as the athlete/competitor. 

If your kid grows up one day and his interests change, thats ok nobody needs to feel bad about raising the best centerfielder in the state and now he wants to pitch, or even play basketball. Burnout is tossed arond so often, I don't even know a kid that was truly burned out. But I do know kids that are now great bowlers or play a good game of golf or concentrating all their time on studies because their interests have changed.

I ate so much cinnamon popcorn New Years Eve that I was truly burnned out!

I hear so often, from parents of very young children, 9 or 10, that their kid wants to specialize, that all he wants to do is play X, sometimes its baseball, basketball or soccer, you can name your sport.

When my son was 9 he would have played nothing but baseball 24/7 if I let him. But as a parent I believe it is my responsibility to make sure that he gets a variety of experiences. All my kids had to do something each season. It could be a sport, chess, mathletes, I did not care what it was. I would do what I had to do to get them to practices and matches. I forced my baseball player to play basketball one winter. He had a deadline to pick something to do and he did not pick so I picked for him. He did very well and fell in love with the game. He played on the middle school team but after that he played rec, because it was the most fun. 

A nine year old does not have the life experience to know they want to focus on one sport. There will plenty of time to specialize later. And it is always nice to get a break. Their is nothing that says a child must play at the most competitive level in all sports.

IFD,

 

Well said! "GOLDEN THREAD"

In our area, burnout is not isolated to sports. Unfortunately, it is the most tragic type of burnout at the HS level.  Last month, one girl from a very affluent area jumped from an overpass onto the freeway and oncoming traffic.  In the area of Palo Alto, CA, guards have been hired to stand and observe at the railroad tracks because of the number of teens committing suicide by standing in front of an oncoming train.Nearly all of them attend  highly competitive High Schools.

Having had a son and daughter who attended a very competitive HS and who competed at high levels in baseball and in swimming, we have seen plenty of burnout. It is very real, as the article proposes.

I think the problem here is differing definitions of 'hanging'.  I tell you one thing for sure when my kid is pitching/hitting I am not going to the concession stand.  My son and I were just having a laugh the other day at what people probably think is going on in our house.  I put him to video about twice a month on average.  Maybe a little more in pre season when we are trying to smooth things out.  I can just hear people behind my back saying how over the top I am and I am probably home screaming at my kid while we watch his video.  Truth is it couldn't be calmer.  We go frame by frame and analyze while comparing to a youtube from a mlb player.  Strictly analytical and educational in nature.  No screaming.  No berating.  Just a dad and son seeing what he can do to get better. I am excited for my kids when things go great and my heart aches for them when things go badly.  I guess my thing is so many people in my opinion seem to establish some sort of moral high ground when it comes to youth sports.  Why can't we just let different people be different.  I hope all kids achieve their dreams.  I wish the world was a perfect place.  But in the long run worrying about what others do is kind of a waste of my time.  Live and let live.  Speaking of wasting time.  I am out of this one for good even if I am called out!  On to other threads for me.  Peace.

Since Joliet is out I guess this is to those who share his opinion. It's not a moral high ground attitude. It's just experience. My son is 14. So 14U is about as far as my experience goes in baseball. So I come to sites like this one to help my perspective of what's going on. When my boy was 6 I was one of those absolute gung ho parents. I was on another web site and I believe it was RJM and a guy named Jake that tore into me. Pissed me off to no end. After a few weeks of calming down I realized they were right. Because of that I've kept things in a little better perspective.

I've coached youth football a long time. Long enough I've started having kids of former players. I've pretty much seen it all. Now I don't know anyone on this web site. But I do know the tail back that turned down a D1 full ride to join the marines and get away from his dad. Maybe if someone would have told his father this stuff it might have been different. I didn't so now I tell strangers lol.

Bottom line people with experience see the effect the earlier actions have. Now if you take 10 overbearing parents maybe 8 kids turn out fine but those that have been around long enough got to see the other two crash and burn. Those that love a sport and truly care about kids can't help but try and prevent that. No ones trying to be an ass or get on a moral high horse. Just trying to help out a kid. Or in my case they helped out a dad and I will be eternally grateful.

We have had a slightly different experience. Our 2019 bugged us over two-plus years (9U through 11U) about playing travel baseball, and we wouldn't let him (in our defense, we have 3 other, younger kids, and we were . . . busy). Finally, we gave in, and he played a lot of travel ball 12U and 13U (and at a high level -- USSSA Majors in SoCal) and is still passionate about it at 14U (I know, I know, a long way to go). Anyway, I don't think missing/skipping/forgoing travel ball during 6U - 11U has hurt him at all. And I agree with the posters who said you can't really tell anything, long term, from prepubescent youth sports.

That man you raise will always be your son.

Long after your player has scored his last run.

The gloves and bats will soon collect dust.

But being a father is a must.

He wants to play and see where it goes.

Just sit back and let him know.

That no matter where that journey goes.

Dad will be there and Love him so.

So let him chase his dream he loves.

And you just do what a good Dad does.

Care more about the man you raise.

Than the player that you praise.

And one day you will see it all perfectly clear.

Baseball was a game life is Dear.

 

Let the coaches coach. Let the fans cheer. Let the game take care of itself. Be a Dad. That's what he will need for life. A life that is much more important than any game he will ever play. If your son loves the game the game will love him back. In ways I can't explain to you right now if you don't know right now. Your relationship with your son is the most precious gift you will ever be given. Nourish it. Cherish it. Protect it. And enjoy it. It's a gift that is too precious to ever allow anything to destroy. Let him drive the dream. You just help him with the oil changes and tire rotations. Take a back seat and make sure the windshield is clear. You will enjoy that ride if you just take the time to enjoy where you are Right Now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Great post.  No, excellent post.
Someday they will understand.

Nailed it Coach!

Nobody believes me, but I do see this youth sports craze as we see it today, crashing down very soon. We can't continue down the path we're headed currently. Not just baseball, but all sports. It's unreal. Many parents will never actually see it, but I see it each and every day. In fact, I yelled at a freshmen volleyball player this year. She was complaining about her knees hurting and then got mad at me for not doing a specific treatment for her. Then she informed me how she had 6 hours of a volleyball practice that night. 2 at school, 2 at one club, and 2 at another. No wonder her knees hurt. It's every sport. Baseball, soccer, cheerleading, dance, basketball, you name it. I really believe we're going to see a major culture change in a few years...

I can see the ESPN 30 for 30 special title now, Youth Sports in America-ARMAGEDDON

Jumping into this a little late, but I feel we have been blessed in our area.  Our HS actively encourages kids to play multiple sports.  At just about every team meeting, athletic department meeting, etc the first thing out of the AD and just about every coaches mouth are words encouraging kids to play at least one other sport.  The summer camps and summer schedule are coordinated as much as possible to ensure no crossover between camps.  There are crossover when it comes to summer league competitions (baseball, basketball and 7on7 in our case) we have found that there are no repercussions for missing anything in leu of another sport.  For instance my son missed plenty of morning football camp sessions this summer as he had a baseball or basketball game in the afternoon.  He was still the starting WR on the team.  Once the school year and seasons start you have to prioritize your active sport but when it came to summer camps they were very accommodating of other sports and commitments.  

 

This is my second son going through HS.  My first son gave up football after his sophomore year and moved to rec-league baseball after his jr year as well.  100% his choice as he decided he didn't want to compete anymore.  He was a decent athlete, good enough to start on his teams but not good enough to play in college.  My youngest is now a sophomore, he plays football, basketball and baseball.  He is giving up football after this year as he is starting to get some mid-D1 interest in his baseball playing and wants to workout for baseball in the fall.  He is on the fence about basketball.  

 

He loves the game of baseball and if he had to choose he would pick baseball.  The coaches at his school are actively encouraging him to continue on as a 3 sport athlete.  This includes the baseball, football and basketball coach.  In my opinion his best sport is football, but he has decided he just does not enjoy it as much as the other sports at this point and felt he would be better playing fall ball and working on his physicality.  

 

As far as rec vs. travel ball, he played Little League ball until he was 12.  He did play on an offshoot of our LL program that plays in a Sunday league as well, but I would have a hard time calling this travel ball.  Most of our games were either Saturday night or Sunday games.  This added maybe 2 or 3 games a week to the schedule and most of those were against area  LL or PONY all star teams.  Not highly competitive travel teams.  At 13U we switched over to travel ball.  Mainly due to our local LL having very low numbers and eventually going defunct.  We looked for a travel team that would not have an issue with him playing football, basketball and baseball.  As he was trying out for teams we had many teams who wanted him to play for them, but a lot of them were already encouraging him to only play baseball.  We passed on most of those teams.  

 

Now at 16U we have joined a program that is geared towards college recruitment and not winning games.  While they do not actively encourage multi-sport athletes their philosophy is such that if you want to play other sports go for it, but you do need to get your off season baseball workouts in on your own time.

 

In the end what I have learned is let your son decide what he wants to do.  If he wants to play multiple sports or only play rec-level ball, let him.  Be there to guide him or help him if he needs it but its his choice.  Sit back and enjoy the ride.  What is right for my oldest is not right for my youngest.  Every kid is different and approaches it differently.  If your kid (not you, or a coach telling him to) wants to specialize then thats ok.  If he wants to be a multi-sport athlete, thats fine to.

 

 

Nice post joe! 

 

One thing I hear over and over, including on this thread.  Something like, "My son wants to play baseball only and he works out 7 days a week for 4-5 hours each day."  Ok, thats an exaggeration, but you get the point.

 

Keep in mind that when you utter these words, you must realize that your son looks up to you...mom and dad, and he WANTS to please you more than anything else!!  Thats a good thing.  Just make sure you're not mistaking wanting to play a single sport (or all sports), wanting to workout/practice all of the time, wanting to play travel ball or year-round...for your son really just wanting to simply just please you.

 

There's a difference.  I have 6 kids, all but one in college or beyond and it took me more than one of them to recognize this subtlety.  Do better than me! 

We moved last year from a large school district in Denver to a very small town of under 8,000 people. The youth sports culture is entirely different. In Denver, as an eighth grader, he was already getting pressure form the HS baseball and basketball coaches to specialize. The basketball coach argues that he needed to be playing summer ball. Fast forward a year. Here there is tremendous pressure to play ALL sports. Despite the fact that the school has a storied baseball tradition (seven state championships and four major leaguers - quite unusual for such a small school), even the baseball coaches try to put pressure on him to play football and basketball as well. I don't mean they encourage it - they absolutely insist on it. He doesn't pay football, but they're still trying. In a small community like this, a 6' 3" freshman moves in who doesn't play football they seem to take it personal.

Surely you gest! No disrespect, but filming a 12 year olds swing twice a month or more and then comparing to a MLB swing frame by frame is certainly over the top! 

It's called good coaching. bad coaching is allowing a 12yo (or even a 9yo) to develop and maintain bad mechanics all the while cementing them into muscle memory.

It's called good coaching. bad coaching is allowing a 12yo (or even a 9yo) to develop and maintain bad mechanics all the while cementing them into muscle memory.

If overdone though - and I sure have seen that as well, it will eventually be called 'burning your kid out.'

 

Here's another thought - I never once video'd either of our sons pitching or hitting mechanics.  Never once reviewed anyone else's video with them either.  But I sure did coach 'em...at a young age anyways (up to about 13/14) - then turned them over to better coaches than me - who didn't videotape them either! 

How is videotaping them going to burn them out? Any instructor worth a nickel videotapes. There are so many things in a swing or in a pitchers mechanics that you cannot see with the naked eye at full speed. Why would a coach not avail himself of something so useful and so available? Coaches fifty years ago had no choice but to coach without the use of video. But not today. Consistent video taping over the top? Not by any stretch of the imagination. If you can point to one kid who was ever burned out because he was videotaped and his mechanics corrected, I'd be interested. I fact, I'll go sa far as to say that actions like that have probably saved many a kid FROM burnout. Nothing like putting all of your time and effort into a sport and failing when a simple correction gleaned from high speed video could have helped.

You seem to be missing the point. He's 12 and his Dad films him twice a month or more to break down his mechanics comparing them to MLB swings. If you want to defend this type of parental behavior, go for it. This is fricken youth baseball friends. Can you say Todd Marenivich?

Listen, I'm  just trying to help out here. I did many things wrong during my son's journey, I know now because at 20 he lets me know. The best thing a father of a 12 year old can do is show unlimited support, teach him to have fun and buy him and his team mates an ice cream after the game. Sometimes the power of the video in the wrong hands can do more bad then good. JMHO

Wanted to back up my last post because I can see how defensive I sounded. mainly, because I was, indeed, defensive. I've never heard anyone criticize vigilant use of high speed video. I personally video every single bullpen my son throws. You might be surprised at how often I find him falling back into some small, but significant, bad habit that I just could not possibly see live in full speed. When I do see that, I show him and he corrects it in the next bullpen. In addition, even some things I can see live, he needs to see for himself. Without video, he often truly believes he either is doing something I'm telling him he needs to do or truly believes he is not doing something I tell him he's doing. It's a little harder for him to argue or ignore the information when it's on video. I not only find it helpful. I find it crucial. For him and my students who are also videoed in every bullpen session.

I'm on my third kid going through the journey (oldest is 33), so I've made my mistakes as well. I can also say, through 30 years of coaching and pitching instruction, he's not overdoing it at all. What he is doing takes very little time and effort and does far more good than harm. Now, video can indeed do more harm than good if you're teaching/looking for the wrong things. But that's true with or without video.

If twice a month is overdoing it, then - wow - I'm WAYYYYY overdoing it.

Glad to at least hear you admit it!

My son asks me to video his game swings and pitching on coach's eye.  He looks at it briefly on his own.  He know far more than me about his swing and pitch mechanics.  He takes his own corrections from it, or shows his coaches.

 

Sometimes I video them, sometimes I don't . I find it takes away from the enjoyment of watching the game.

 

BTW he is 13.

Not all 12u kids want ice cream after a game or practice, some want to hit/pitch or field more. My kid....well he wanted to go fishing or play PS4 or hang with his buddies so i will admit that it was basically the same as the ice cream thing.

 

I think its great that root is using video and his kid is learning on the fly about his mechanics etc, if he stays in the game and has a chance to play at the college level, he will probably be apt to listed to feedback and be keenly accustomed to being coached.

 

I probably had my "worst Dad" moments post game, after my son went O-Fer or booted a key ball at SS or didnt give 100% like i thought 24/7 during the game and had my mini "sermon on the mount" about technique/effort/execution that was always ill-timed and overbearing...... i was guilty of that from 13 to 14 during the dimension changes. I am embarrassed to admit that but realized it wasn't helping our relationship. I quit that and hardly say much if anything to him at all before/during or after games since 15U. We have a better relationship now and i know i cant hit/pitch or field the ball....he has to do that. Boy do i feel better acknowledging that and it certainly lowers the blood pressure. I do look forward to the post game calls from his in 2016 when he is in college and plan to do alot of listening.

 

I commend root and hope he and his boy enjoys those times together, his kid wont ever forget that and it sounds like its about as positive as it can get. ^5

I have stayed out of this because while I love the game and love a great debate I like to do it in a friendly manner.  When I sense things getting terse I would rather bow out.  I am still not going to re enter this debate but I can not help to slip back on for a second to say that the todd marenivich comment was really offensive.  We don't need that here.  Now THAT was over the top.  We can feel free to disagree (and we do) but I will refrain from comparing you or anybody else who disagrees with me to a mosterous sports father.

I read the article and I agree kids should play as many sports as they want to play for as long as they can.  However the attacks on travel ball in my experience starts from parents who are selfish and to lazy to travel with their kids.  Or by rec parents who think everyone should get a participation trophy.  As far as vacations we have had amazing family vacations around baseball tournaments.

 

my sons journey was soccer at 4 or 5 (I think?), tball rec league same age, basketball  started around 6ish.  He decided he didn't like soccer at 7 and quit playing.  At 9 he played on a 10u semi-travel baseball team (basically his rec team was undefeated and played 2 touraments) rec team got beat badly but my son was hooked.  "HE" ask if he could play on a team that played with all the better players so he played travel ball as a 10 year old but travel is a loose term, they played league and 3 -4 tournaments but it was a very competitive league.  At 11 he joined a very competitive true travel team he quit basketball but started playing football In the fall.  The baseball team had very elite atheletes(4 ended up being drafted from HS and all but one play pro or college ball) the facility they practiced had had basketball leagues as well and the kids ask as 13 year olds if they could play in the AAU team league.  Their coach said sure if a parent would coach them so I did.  they would play Sat after hitting in the cages nd the league ended up making them play up a year, they finished second against one grade older kids who focused  on basketball.  I say this to say elite atheletes tend to be good at whatever they try just on talent.  As 14u the boys all decided they really didn't want to do basketball again(their decision).  In football my son played tight end and linebacker through 10th grade.  This was the first time any coach ever tried to get him to play one sport.  The football coach wanted him to quit baseball as he had (D1 according to the coach) talent, he actually said you need to quit playing that sissy sport and focus on football, I think you could be the next Jason Witten.  My son decided he wanted to only play baseball as a junior to focus on trying to achieve his dream of playing pro ball.  He did and was drafted out of high school.  Moral of the story was we let him play anything he wanted to which as a little guy was whatever his friends played.  Then he self selected when he wanted to stop playing.  Our only rule was you can't quit till after a season.

 

Now the end to that story, the player that is not playing college or pro ball from that team.  He was the best athelete on the team as 12year olds and was by far our best pitcher ahead of my son.  His parents decided we ( the other parents) where all crazy for giving up all our time and family vacations to follow a group of 13 year olds around the state and country.  He made the boy quit so they could travel as a family in the summer.  Kid played no sport 7th or 8th grade made the HS team as a freshman but found out he now was not the player he had been and was at the end of the bench, quit baseball after 9th grade, quit school his junior year and was in drug rehab when the rest of his former teammates where signing scholarships and getting drafted.  Do you think his parents enjoyed their "family" vacations enough to make that ok?  I think it is worse to have a kid with talent and a passion for sports yet not let them reach for their dreams because of their parents selfishness.  The other issue is the rec ball dad that always told me his kid should be the number 2 pitcher.  He pitched less than 20 innings in his entire HS years, kid had some talent but played rec ball all summer and didn't workout other than team workouts.  Bet that dad agrees completely with this article.

I love this dialogue.  I don't often comment on these boards. I have learned a lot over the years listening in on the threads.  The very, very best advice I have gotten from listening in (and from listening to my son's coaches) is to let coaches coach and let parents parent.  (And let me tell you that is a relief!) Daddy and Mommy coaches are in a unique situation - God Bless them! Truly. There is no right or wrong - there have been many "parent,coach too" combinations that have been very successful at high levels in all sports, (circus, medicine, politics, military service etc).   IMHO you can only be one or the other at any given moment in time - whether your viewed as Dad or Coach is not determined by you!  Dad is always Dad to a child - even the grown-up ones. If you understand that.  And you don't corrupt that. Then your situation may be one of the special ones.

How is videotaping them going to burn them out?

Incessantly videotaping at a young age could (not necessarily will) imply an awful lot of parental pressure.

Any instructor worth a nickel videotapes. There are so many things in a swing or in a pitchers mechanics that you cannot see with the naked eye at full speed.

Don't think I agree with that.  No way to prove it.  Not way to disprove it.  But our sons have had lots of coaches who did not video tape them who are paid to do it for a living.  More than a nickel too! 

Why would a coach not avail himself of something so useful and so available?

So I've had 2 sons progress to the highest levels of college and pro baseball.  Did I tape them? - I already said no.  Did any of their HS or travel ball coaches tape them?  No.  Did any of their college coaches tape them?  Some, some of the time...on and off, but neither has ever told me it helped them.  But maybe it did?  Probably did at some point.  Just never heard them discuss it.  Did the older one's pro coaches tape him?  Probably.  But again, I've never heard him say anything about learning from any tapes, but I've heard him say plenty about learning for really good minor and major league pitching coaches in real-time, sometimes on the mound...where no video help was possible.  But I will ask when I get the chance.

If you can point to one kid who was ever burned out because he was videotaped and his mechanics corrected, I'd be interested.

Thats pretty easy - yeah or at least it was a component of daddy-behavior that ultimately led to burnout.

 

Now...let me be clear.  I am NOT against video'ing.  Perhaps my view is best contained in the last comment above - that it was more than once (not always) seem to be a component of overall 'over-the-top' daddy behavior.  There was a guy in our area who probably video'd every AB his son had from t-ball on - at least thats what people said and I never saw him NOT video an AB.  He also used to be out on the lawn soft-tossing after a bad game (travel ball) while the other kids were headed out to eat or see the local sites or sit by the pool filled with good looking girls. 

My apologies jolietboy! It was not my intention to call you Marv the monster. However, he thought his intentions were in the right place at the time. Never knowing the negative result would damage his son for years.

As a father, the best thing I did with my player was to step back at age 13 and let someone else coach him. 

Again, my apologies, my comments were intended to help, not to offend you. I never knew this site existed when my kid was 12. You are way ahead of where I was. Good luck!

Is success possible without video analysis? Of course. Does video analysis guarantee success? Of course not. However, when you consider being able to break down mechanics at high speed and compare them with prior mechanics or mechanics to which you aspire, how can you not consider that the finest coaching tool developed in the entire history of baseball? It is, today, affordable. Any coach that instructs without such an available, affordable tool is absolutely CHEATING his clients. There are just too many things YOU CANNOT SEE with the naked eye that can make such a huge difference.

 

However, that was not the reason I originally responded. I responded because insinuating that video analysis twice a month actually compares to the Todd Marinovich situation and a sign of "overdoing it" is absolutely offensive and ridiculous.

       
       
Fair enough.  We can still agree to disagree.  And my son is 13 not that it makes that big a difference.  But I would like to think that if we bumped into each other some day we could smile shake hands have a bud light and talk baseball!

Nowhere in that article did it say WHY the coaches only wanted the kids to play one sport.  Makes me wonder.

 

My 12u has a baseball coach that makes it clear up front; if you miss practice you will likely sit out more than half the game or not play at all.  This means you can feel free to play another sport but if you miss practice, or show up 10 minutes before a game I will not play you over a kid who was here to learn the signs and practice with his team, even if you are the better player.  Commitment is commitment and it's something that each and every one of you needs to show me to earn your spot.

 

In the fall we had 1 boy that played Football and he was brought in to pitch on a rare occasion but he wasn't in the line-up and he sat the rest of the time.  The very week football was over, and he attended all practices, he was used a LOT more in the games and in the line up several times...personally I think the life lesson that boy learned was far more valuable than the game time he missed at age 11/12.

 

 

Roothog66,

 

The Todd Marinovich comment was not intended to be offensive. I'm sure Marv never intended for Todd to make the mistakes he did. However, over involved parental presures can have a negative effect on young athletes.

I know I'm kind of old school and computers, cell phones and tablets weren't around when I went college. I'm  pretty sure that the current group of HOFer's were never video taped at 12-13 helping them get to where they will be standing this summer. Technology is great, but sometimes playing the game for fun can have the same outcome as withou it.

Maybe I read this wrong - but what lesson did the boy learn?  To not play football?

 

For <HS age, I did not have such rules as either a rec coach, all star coach or travel coach.  Not based on doing other sports, attending a family event, going to church, or other 'good' life experiences.  If you or your mother told me that you needed to go to your sister's piano recital, I was fine with it.  No problem!

 

Skipping practice just because?  Sure, there would be consequences.  But at age 12 I did NOT think that baseball was (or even should be) held above everything else.  JMO.  Nothing more.

CaCO3Girl, I believe the article is talking about your coach. At 11 and 12 years old they should be committed to having fun.

The lesson my son took from it was that life is about choices, choosing what is important to you, and dealing with the consequences if there are any.  If Football was more important than playing in the baseball game that weekend then that was the choice that boy made.  No long held hard feelings, it was his choice.

 

With 12 kids on the team 3 must be sitting at all times.  If Jimmy went to every practice that week he should get more playing time than Tommy who made it to 1 practice and showed up 20 minutes before the game because he had other sport commitments.  I like that the coach said he plays the kids who are there, who are committed, and he doesn't base the playing time on just who is good.  You have to be good and chose the team over other commitments.

 

And yes, he also made it clear that if you are sick or tell him about a family event in advance he wouldn't hold it against the kid...but one sport vs 2 or 3...I have to agree with him, you make your choice.