Are travel sports bad for community?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The alternative to travel sports in middle school is to stay home and plug in to screens. That's just reality in 2023. It's not 1985 when kids went outside to play, etc. (and even that wasn't totally real--a lot of that is fetishizing history.) I agree that this country has screwed up priorities, but travel sports parents and kids are making a choice between that and a worse thing. It's not like there are these amazing local sports communities just ready to accept kids past age 11. It's travel or stop playing, in reality.

Are parents not just setting rules when it comes to screens? I really don't get this. I want my MS kids to be kids as long as they can and play outside. I may not have total control, but I'll try. And it sucks that in many ways it's travel or nothing. Nothing wrong with kids who just want to play for fun. Of course, they can play pickup sports informally as well.

We do. We set time limits and they’re only allowed it fr-sun. Also, they have to spend as much time outside first. We’ve given more privileges to our eldest as they’ve gotten older, and allow him access during the school week but tied to how much he’s read that day.

Also no social media and they don’t have their own cellphones. We’ll prob give a cellphone in high school but we’d still not allow social media.

FWIW, it’s easier to do the above when friends are nearby and also bc their friends parents do the same or similar.

Sounds like your kids have a great balance of things. I commented because an above poster made it sound like there was nothing a parent can do about excessive screen time. They made sound like it's just a fact that kids will be on screens all the time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the travel sports community is one type of community and having various communities is a healthy thing.

The problem I see with the travel sports community is that it’s limited to players whose parents have enough disposable income to pay and enough free time to do all that travel. Very insular.

Wealthy people will find ways to gather and exclude others no matter what. County clubs, golf clubs, vacation homes, private schools, real estate zoning and gates communities. Travel sports is the tip of the iceberg and I imagine teams manage to find money for really exceptional players.

Sigh. There’s always someone. Our travel experience was the exact opposite — a great way to get to know a mix of kids and families. Less wealthy, public school, private school, bunch of different races/ethnicities. It was actually one of the best ways to get to know each other because it was about the sport, not where you lived or how much money you have.

“Less wealthy”

Really?

Yes. There are some wealthy kids in our travel program and some not wealthy at all (us). It didn’t matter. We are a public school family, others private, but now DS knows kids all over the DMV. We also made some of our best family friends in our travel program (and they have stuck). We definitely feel part of a community.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The alternative to travel sports in middle school is to stay home and plug in to screens. That's just reality in 2023. It's not 1985 when kids went outside to play, etc. (and even that wasn't totally real--a lot of that is fetishizing history.) I agree that this country has screwed up priorities, but travel sports parents and kids are making a choice between that and a worse thing. It's not like there are these amazing local sports communities just ready to accept kids past age 11. It's travel or stop playing, in reality.

Are parents not just setting rules when it comes to screens? I really don't get this. I want my MS kids to be kids as long as they can and play outside. I may not have total control, but I'll try. And it sucks that in many ways it's travel or nothing. Nothing wrong with kids who just want to play for fun. Of course, they can play pickup sports informally as well.

We do. We set time limits and they’re only allowed it fr-sun. Also, they have to spend as much time outside first. We’ve given more privileges to our eldest as they’ve gotten older, and allow him access during the school week but tied to how much he’s read that day.

Also no social media and they don’t have their own cellphones. We’ll prob give a cellphone in high school but we’d still not allow social media.

FWIW, it’s easier to do the above when friends are nearby and also bc their friends parents do the same or similar.

Our DCs both do "travel" sports, but neither really "travel" anywhere save once or twice a year for a tournament. They practice multiple times a week and have a couple of games every weekend. They both love playing with kids who are similarly skilled, are invested in improving in their sport of choice, and the team's schedule has helped them learn to manage their time (especially schoolwork) wisely. They still find time to attend sleepovers and block parties, they enjoy unstructured play with neighborhood kids and, regardless of our screen allowances, always seem to beg for more. We set screen limits tied to time outside/exercise/reading as well, but we are in an arms race there because unless other parents are all on the same page, there's always a kid online to play with.

[Anonymous]

We combined Scouts, some rec sports (basketball, swimming, tennis) with travel for what became the primary sport (baseball, soccer) for all of our kids. Plus other school clubs where no one keeps score. That was a nice balance. Travel sports do indeed have their own communities. Each of our kids made lasting friends in our communities and in the travel community.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We combined Scouts, some rec sports (basketball, swimming, tennis) with travel for what became the primary sport (baseball, soccer) for all of our kids. Plus other school clubs where no one keeps score. That was a nice balance. Travel sports do indeed have their own communities. Each of our kids made lasting friends in our communities and in the travel community.

Same PP. our kids also played their travel sport in high school (back to our community!). Hard to make certain varsity teams without playing travel sports, at least at our school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There have always been kids who do a high level sport that involves practices kind of far from home with kids who don’t live nearby, and lots of traveling to competitions. What has changed is the age at which it all starts and how involved the parents are. Because it starts so young now, the parents have to be more involved. The whole family didn’t used to go. It would be the kids traveling with the coach or maybe one parent would drive several kids because they were old enough to be more independent. This gave parents time to stay around the neighborhood to doing their own thing and interacting with neighbors etc. In this era of intensive parenting you have parents who attend every practice and the whole family goes to competitions. It’s also the intersection of immigrant cultures with the travel sports. The immigrant families tend to all do things together so if one kid is in a sport then they will all attend together. This takes entire families away from the local community in a way that didn’t used to happen.

But honestly I don’t think any of this matters. Smartphones and online shopping/food ordering/everything have killed our sense of community more than any sport.

Sure there have been high level athletes. However, 95% or more of the kids in travel aren’t at that high-level on existing travel teams. They are just players with wealthy parents trying to keep their kids from the unwashed masses. If they all stayed locally, they would develop the same.

Agreed, but this would only work if almost all kids stayed out of travel and if rec would do some sort of draft or leveling of players. It’s hard when rec ends up being this hugely wide range of experience and skill level. It’s not fun for kids who have been playing a sport to be on a team where half of the kids have never played/don’t know how to do the basics. So people put their kids in travel and it’s a vicious cycle.

Not to mention a huge money grab. Do you know how much the owners/operators of your travel organization are making???? Big bucks.

for our kids' youth leagues and travel teams, almost nothing. The 990s are public.

Didn't the guy running alexandria soccer make some insane salary?

NVTBL, MVP, …

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There have always been kids who do a high level sport that involves practices kind of far from home with kids who don’t live nearby, and lots of traveling to competitions. What has changed is the age at which it all starts and how involved the parents are. Because it starts so young now, the parents have to be more involved. The whole family didn’t used to go. It would be the kids traveling with the coach or maybe one parent would drive several kids because they were old enough to be more independent. This gave parents time to stay around the neighborhood to doing their own thing and interacting with neighbors etc. In this era of intensive parenting you have parents who attend every practice and the whole family goes to competitions. It’s also the intersection of immigrant cultures with the travel sports. The immigrant families tend to all do things together so if one kid is in a sport then they will all attend together. This takes entire families away from the local community in a way that didn’t used to happen.

But honestly I don’t think any of this matters. Smartphones and online shopping/food ordering/everything have killed our sense of community more than any sport.

Sure there have been high level athletes. However, 95% or more of the kids in travel aren’t at that high-level on existing travel teams. They are just players with wealthy parents trying to keep their kids from the unwashed masses. If they all stayed locally, they would develop the same.

I've noticed that parents can find a travel team for any kid with a modicum of athletic ability. Everyone wants to say their kids is on a travel team, though I'm not really sure what the point is for most of the kids involved.

Agree.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We combined Scouts, some rec sports (basketball, swimming, tennis) with travel for what became the primary sport (baseball, soccer) for all of our kids. Plus other school clubs where no one keeps score. That was a nice balance. Travel sports do indeed have their own communities. Each of our kids made lasting friends in our communities and in the travel community.

It is t about whether a club or team is a community. It’s about being involved / being grounded in their own hometown, being involved and concerned about their local community, being present so they can give back, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We combined Scouts, some rec sports (basketball, swimming, tennis) with travel for what became the primary sport (baseball, soccer) for all of our kids. Plus other school clubs where no one keeps score. That was a nice balance. Travel sports do indeed have their own communities. Each of our kids made lasting friends in our communities and in the travel community.

It is t about whether a club or team is a community. It’s about being involved / being grounded in their own hometown, being involved and concerned about their local community, being present so they can give back, etc.

One more time: Why do you think these things are mutually exclusive?

75% of travel sports = practices. Believe it or not, those typically do not happen far from home. In fact, my kid practices her travel sport at her school.

Enough with the trolling….

[Anonymous]

Idk about the community, but they are bad for my bank account.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Idk about the community, but they are bad for my bank account.

That's certainly another reason travel sports are bad for people. That could it's own debate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We combined Scouts, some rec sports (basketball, swimming, tennis) with travel for what became the primary sport (baseball, soccer) for all of our kids. Plus other school clubs where no one keeps score. That was a nice balance. Travel sports do indeed have their own communities. Each of our kids made lasting friends in our communities and in the travel community.

It is t about whether a club or team is a community. It’s about being involved / being grounded in their own hometown, being involved and concerned about their local community, being present so they can give back, etc.

One more time: Why do you think these things are mutually exclusive?

75% of travel sports = practices. Believe it or not, those typically do not happen far from home. In fact, my kid practices her travel sport at her school.

Enough with the trolling….

Enough of your trolling. Your situation is not the case for many families. My kids’ school friends are on teams (which we follow via game changer) that are traveling far afield. One team for example is going to Richmond, Philly, Myrtle Beach, Florida, North Carolina, and other places on weekends in June and July. They will practice 2-3 times a week here back home. It’s been like this since they were at least 12yo.

Others are slightly more local but they live in western NOVA and travel into Falls Church / Arlington / Manassas for practices.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Idk about the community, but they are bad for my bank account.

That's certainly another reason travel sports are bad for people. That could it's own debate.

Very good for the economy. Provides jobs. So actually good for people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We combined Scouts, some rec sports (basketball, swimming, tennis) with travel for what became the primary sport (baseball, soccer) for all of our kids. Plus other school clubs where no one keeps score. That was a nice balance. Travel sports do indeed have their own communities. Each of our kids made lasting friends in our communities and in the travel community.

It is t about whether a club or team is a community. It’s about being involved / being grounded in their own hometown, being involved and concerned about their local community, being present so they can give back, etc.

One more time: Why do you think these things are mutually exclusive?

75% of travel sports = practices. Believe it or not, those typically do not happen far from home. In fact, my kid practices her travel sport at her school.

Enough with the trolling….

Enough of your trolling. Your situation is not the case for many families. My kids’ school friends are on teams (which we follow via game changer) that are traveling far afield. One team for example is going to Richmond, Philly, Myrtle Beach, Florida, North Carolina, and other places on weekends in June and July. They will practice 2-3 times a week here back home. It’s been like this since they were at least 12yo.

Others are slightly more local but they live in western NOVA and travel into Falls Church / Arlington / Manassas for practices.

So you spend time following your kid’s friends travel sports activity via app, so that you can then complain they’re not around?

Makes perfect sense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We combined Scouts, some rec sports (basketball, swimming, tennis) with travel for what became the primary sport (baseball, soccer) for all of our kids. Plus other school clubs where no one keeps score. That was a nice balance. Travel sports do indeed have their own communities. Each of our kids made lasting friends in our communities and in the travel community.

It is t about whether a club or team is a community. It’s about being involved / being grounded in their own hometown, being involved and concerned about their local community, being present so they can give back, etc.

One more time: Why do you think these things are mutually exclusive?

75% of travel sports = practices. Believe it or not, those typically do not happen far from home. In fact, my kid practices her travel sport at her school.

Enough with the trolling….

Enough of your trolling. Your situation is not the case for many families. My kids’ school friends are on teams (which we follow via game changer) that are traveling far afield. One team for example is going to Richmond, Philly, Myrtle Beach, Florida, North Carolina, and other places on weekends in June and July. They will practice 2-3 times a week here back home. It’s been like this since they were at least 12yo.

Others are slightly more local but they live in western NOVA and travel into Falls Church / Arlington / Manassas for practices.

So you spend time following your kid’s friends travel sports activity via app, so that you can then complain they’re not around?

Makes perfect sense.

No — I work at an organizational (not team) level.