Is playing sports important ?

[Anonymous]

My DS is a bright kids in 7th grade AAP with straight As. I want him to focus on academic learning including math competition but he plays baseball 6 days a week and 3-5 hours each day. In his spare time, he is on the phone playing chess or other video games. He never does his school work at home. When I asked about his homework, he said he finished at school. I am debating if he should continue travel baseball.How useful it is for the college application? He is one of the top players on the travel team.

[Anonymous]

My kids are younger so I can’t say how it will impact his college application.

I think the most important question is, what does he want to do? He might pull away and resent you if you make him quit. Maybe get depressed and not want to study. Be careful what you wish for. Quitting for what? A better college, who knows….

[Anonymous]

Let him play. Childhood should be about more than just prepping for college admissions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DS is a bright kids in 7th grade AAP with straight As. I want him to focus on academic learning including math competition but he plays baseball 6 days a week and 3-5 hours each day. In his spare time, he is on the phone playing chess or other video games. He never does his school work at home. When I asked about his homework, he said he finished at school. I am debating if he should continue travel baseball.How useful it is for the college application? He is one of the top players on the travel team.

Parent of a kid at a T20 college.. My son played a travel sport all the way through MS and HS (TJ). I think it helped him focus and prioritize better. He loved the sport so much that he gave up other pursuits to make time (music). There were months when he was traveling every weekend either for sports or for an EC like debate or Science Olympiad in addition to having a couple of days off from school in addition to after school practice a few days a week. This required him to manage his academic expectations - homework in the car or between games, reschedule tests, sometimes taking them in advance of the rest of the class, etc. He was not a star player but loved the camaraderie of the team and helping teammates with their math homework. He now plays recreationally in college.

Make a deal with your son that he can continue playing his sport as long as he does very well in school. Leave it open ended (don't say he has to get an A in every subject, for example) and be flexible. You don't want him to stress out and start resenting you if he ends up giving up the sport to get all As.

[Anonymous]

Does he love it and find joy in it? Then yes, it is absolutely, 100% worth doing.

He's a good student. It's not causing his grades to suffer. Let him enjoy his sport!

[Anonymous]

Math competition and baseball competition are just different extracurricular activities. Usually at 9th grade a student has to pick an activity to concentrate on in order to stand out in college application, cuz we all know straight As alone won't get him into top schools anymore.

If your son has the motivation to self-learn math, great; otherwise, let him practice baseball but demand excellence. Don't have him give up baseball and be miserable at math competition. That won't get the result you wanted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DS is a bright kids in 7th grade AAP with straight As. I want him to focus on academic learning including math competition but he plays baseball 6 days a week and 3-5 hours each day. In his spare time, he is on the phone playing chess or other video games. He never does his school work at home. When I asked about his homework, he said he finished at school. I am debating if he should continue travel baseball.How useful it is for the college application? He is one of the top players on the travel team.

Why are you even considering making a straight A student give up an activity they enjoy?

[Anonymous]

Does your kid get all As? If so I would leave him be on the HW piece.

If he wants to play sports, I would let him, as long as he can also get his school work done.

Sports are helpful to be a normal person and some jobs you need social skills in addition to a brain.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DS is a bright kids in 7th grade AAP with straight As. I want him to focus on academic learning including math competition but he plays baseball 6 days a week and 3-5 hours each day. In his spare time, he is on the phone playing chess or other video games. He never does his school work at home. When I asked about his homework, he said he finished at school. I am debating if he should continue travel baseball.How useful it is for the college application? He is one of the top players on the travel team.

School isn't for everyone. Let you kid find his own path.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Let him play. Childhood should be about more than just prepping for college admissions.

This, OMG, this!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DS is a bright kids in 7th grade AAP with straight As. I want him to focus on academic learning including math competition but he plays baseball 6 days a week and 3-5 hours each day. In his spare time, he is on the phone playing chess or other video games. He never does his school work at home. When I asked about his homework, he said he finished at school. I am debating if he should continue travel baseball.How useful it is for the college application? He is one of the top players on the travel team.

Purely in terms of college admissions, baseball has a pretty low ROI, but the real benefits are social and emotional. Math competitions are also great (and have a better college ROI) but you don't need to throw him in the deep end right away. Get the book Competition Math for Middle School by Jason Batterson and AoPS prealgebra and work through the problems in them with him

[Anonymous]

No