They picked their own path

I absolutely let my kids pick their own path in sports.  In fact, they pulled me into these sports that were all new to me.  I initially typed that they "dragged me kicking and screaming" but I actually enjoyed learning the sports together with them.  My oldest daughter with ballet, my son with baseball and football on the side, and my youngest with gymnastics.  My wife and I didn't know what we were getting ourselves into but we sure enjoyed the ride.  All of our kids did not just dabble in these sports but was seriously committed (and were all relatively good).

My son expressed several times in his early (immature) teenage years his frustration as to why I'm not like other dads who brings him to all these events, aggressively market him to the best travel teams and to other coaches, put him in a position to be chased by these other teams, put him in lots of showcases.  I told him that it's bec I want this to be his activity, and I want to avoid doing anything to push him or set expectations.  I take the fact that he expressed frustration as to why I didn't push him to do more as a good sign that he has that innate hunger for baseball (and that it is his own hunger, not mine).  I wouldn't have chosen to do it any other way.

I would say the one place we interfered (although we did it subtly) was their friend groups. We tried to encourage relationships with kids who had good work ethics and were kind, humble and strong sense of right and wrong.

I think there are a few places/times you can definitely interfere while they are in your house.  Simply.  Two.  Anytime and everywhere.  Who they are friends with, who they date, where they go, when they go, how they go, what they do.  God gives us our children to raise for Him.  They are not ours but His.  We are just the caretakers of them.  One of the places we will be judged at the end is what did you do with what I gave you and the greatest of those gifts is His children.  We only have them for a little while and we are called to prepare them for the the rest of life.

Pushing my kids didn't work. My dad coached tennis and I still think my son would have excelled in tennis, but he didn't like it. I pushed him to play basketball but he wasn't any good at it. His bb coach told him he had to play a fall sport, he chose cross country, which the entire family hated. He played football but his career ended in middle school when the ambulance pulled down on the field and paramedics taped him to the backboard in his full uniform, including helmet. He told me later he didn't want to get hurt doing what he liked (football) and not be able to do what he loved (baseball).

He grew up going to my dad's house to hang out and dad almost always had a baseball game on. A historian, my dad can still recite tons of stats and andecdotes about the game. That's where my son learned to love both baseball and history.

He graduated from college with a degree in history. Will be curious what he does with it when he's done playing baseball.

Maybe it was a push on both, but it was a natural push.

Agreed, there are areas where we definitely interfered with and pushed our kids.  Sports is not one of them.

My kids picked their own path athletically.  Academics were non-negotiable. They were cajole, pushed, convinced, bullied etc to go to the best academic HS they could get in to. Both kids reluctantly acknowledged that it was the right move by their parents. I only wished I recorded them saying it.

The daughter was brought up in a gym and on the field.  She never knew anything differently.  She picked her own path and we supported her.  We were never the parents who pushed her.  I might not say the same academically since we did demand that she get good grades and she did.  In softball, she was always bigger and better than anyone in our area.  She was also great at basketball and volleyball.  Basketball became torture for her due to her coach who was fired for the punishment of my daughter.  In volleyball, she was voted by the coaching staff the "Red, White, and Black Award" which is for the best underclass player.  Her junior years, I had a good golf team but lacked a solid #4 player.  She decided to play golf instead of volleyball and improved so much that she received college scholarship offers.  Her love remained softball and she had an outstanding career.  She is now coaching softball in HS and MS.  I am so glad that she made the decision to change from volleyball to golf.  She married a college golfer and now they golf a few times together each week and have formed a serious two-person scramble team.

We enrolled our kids in various rec or house-league level sports (including T-ball/eventually baseball), as well as other activities, at a young age.  But the desire to try out for a travel baseball team at a young age was 100% my son's idea.  This did not appear to be the case with some of the boys he played with over the years. We've been following his lead ever since.   

If anything, we pushed our kids to do other non-athletic activities when we see them being too intense and focused on their sports.  For our son, we pushed him (my wife even bribed him with a new pair of ostrich cowboy boots he's always wanted) to join the "elite" singing ensemble - bec we know he has the talent, we think he will enjoy it, and his best friend is in it.  He did enjoy it, and met his future girlfriend there.  There was a weekend this past spring where he had a double header playoff game Fri afternoon (where he caught both games) that finished at 6 PM, and he has to run to his end of the year concert performance that night at 7 PM.  Good thing we got home field and they won both games of the double header so he can just rest the next day.  I think it's very important that our kids are as well rounded as possible, which is challenging if they are hard core competitive baseball players.

Mine played baseball year round, was in chorus, beta club, football, basketball, and other clubs/events along with many things in church and community.

Now that he is at College, he has been in the Vol Leaders group which is athletes who take a year learning about how to be great leaders and he has served in SAAC, which is the Student Athlete Advisory Committee for UT for 4 years and was VP for 1 year and has been president for 2 years.  He also has been on SEC SAAC.  I think well rounded is great for athletes and I know college coaches say they love it.  Some actually do and others just give it lip service.

That part @atlnon!! From Sunday School to piano lessons to the bass/viola to high level academic...we tried to make sure they were exposed, well-rounded and grounded. I will say, however, when the kid said, after several years, "I'm done with the bass," we didn't try to force him to continue. I would say the three things we exerted influence on through HS was going to church with us (it was never a fight; it is what we did as a family); my oldest daughter playing her senior year of basketball after tearing her ACL (at the point she knew she didn't want to play but we felt like it was important for college admissions for her to have 4 years of a varsity sport and she was voted a captain); and my son playing basketball. He would have just played baseball from age 12 on but my husband thought with his size, the athleticism basketball gave him was going to be key to keep him from being pegged as a first baseman and to keep him from burning out on baseball.

LOL.  We also pushed our kids to learn at least 1 instrument.  My daughter did violin till 10th grade, at which point she asked to be done with it.  I told my wife to let her bec what's important is that she tried it, willingness to put work/effort into it, and just didn't develop a passion/love for it.  I cared more about her trying it and learning to work on something she doesn't naturally like.  We made my son did piano which he did till 8th grade.  He asked to stop but picked up guitar on his own 2 years later when he joined the singing ensemble group.  A year later, he would join the worship team every now and then at church on Sunday mornings.

Church was also non-negotiable for us, even when my kids complains about our small church that does not have fun, fancy and exciting youth group like his friends have in bigger churches.  What we do have is really good sound teaching, and people who walk the talk (and when they mess up, willingness to be humbly transparent about it).  A month before going to college, he texted me a list of 4 churches he found in the area and asked for my advice.  I helped him narrow it down to 2, and he's been to church every Sunday he's been at college, and planning to go to the college bible study tonight.  He ended up choosing a small church similar to the one he grew up in - go figure...  I love seeing him play and excel in baseball.  But seeing him live out his faith (without us around having to push him) is what warms my heart the most.

PT Wood;

When Sam Jones and I organized our Army basketball team at WSPG, he related the story of his HS years at Laurinburg, NC. In the summer Sam would take the bus to NY City to play against Wilt and other future NBA players. He was a "quick" learner and knew the "road to success".

Bob

PTWood and ATLnon, helping them find a church and stay active as a college baseball player is tough.  They miss every Sunday morning during season but my son has found several Bible studies to attend and started one just for team a few years ago.  He also goes to the 8PM service at the church he attends in Knoxville when he is home during the season.  He sometimes watches our service or at least listens to my sermons because he comments on them.