Please help us understand the youth sports culture in the US

[Anonymous]

Travel sports are evil. Bottom line

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP. The answer is straightforward. In college, athletes do better financially on average after graduation and they donate more. Academically, especially at competitive schools, they aren’t as good on average as the very top academic students but they aren’t far behind and hold their own academically, while also playing their sport at a very high level. Essentially, they launch successfully out of college at a higher rate than the rest of the student population and so bring more money back.

High schools recognize this so the competitive ones recruit athletes.

Can you please post some sources for this? i’ve read many articles stating the exact opposite. Only 2% of college athletes go pro and many have difficulty transitioning post-grad to life outside of sports.

For women

https://www.thestreet.com/csuiteadvisors/stories/c-suite-contributor-lisa-strasman-women-in-sports-better-leaders

Pseudoscience BS form a consulting company that doesn't even attempt to get the basic statistical analysis correct. It's "not even wrong" nonsense that doesn't even set up a control population to compare to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NP. The answer is straightforward. In college, athletes do better financially on average after graduation and they donate more. Academically, especially at competitive schools, they aren’t as good on average as the very top academic students but they aren’t far behind and hold their own academically, while also playing their sport at a very high level. Essentially, they launch successfully out of college at a higher rate than the rest of the student population and so bring more money back.

High schools recognize this so the competitive ones recruit athletes.

The money that comes back is from sports *fans* not athletes in particular. The Good Ol Boys who are excited to see their team win.

Non basketball/football college athletes on the NCAA teams are largely there because they are rich enough to get trained to be scouted, and succeed because they are rich, not because they were on a school team. The same rich kid is just as useful if they don't play the sport.

Being physically fit is a big boon in life, but that doesn't require anywhere near school team level.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Immigrant mom nerd again:

The other thing is that the schools know these kids have very supportive and wealthy parents if they are in travel sports.

It’s is very very very time consuming to do these sports and it takes a ton of money (hotels every weekend for games sometimes) and a ton of time management from the parents and the kids. Do not assume these kids are “dumb athletes” - they probably would do as well as your kid in school if they weren’t at practice 3 hours a day.

So it’s not just that your kid got passed over because they weren’t sporty. It’s because if they are in travel sports (which kinda needs to happen to even get onto high school teams now) they are wealthy, very involved parents. It might not appear that way, but my experience we are talking 7 figures in secret.

NP. The bolded is making the point it's tdying to debunk.
If my kid spends 3 hours a day deep diving into a brainy academic topic (well, when not if), they grow smarter than yours, every time. Sprinkle on top some rec level sports and they are well-rounded and healthy.

OP is absolutely right that it's an American cultural quirk.

We inherited the quirk from UK.

[Anonymous]

Genuinely curious which countries in which youth don’t play sports?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can answer this one:

Large high schools. And few athletic opportunities for anyone who does not make high school teams.

My kids are involved in sports, and I can’t think of many parents who are expecting scholarships, or for their kids to play in college at all.

Most parents want their kids to have a shot at playing a sport in high school, however…and many or most of those require years of travel experience prior to high school- soccer, lacrosse, baseball, softball, volleyball for sure. Football and basketball don’t- but tend to require a certain size or physique (eliminating many kids). Sports like golf, tennis, swim usually require years of advanced training also.

It doesn’t leave many options for the rest. Just cross country or track and field.

It isn’t about college scholarships for most- it is more about making high school teams.

Why do people want their kids to play on high school teams? To have focus, a social group, productive way to spend free time, something to put on college apps. Obviously there are other extracurricular avenues- but sports are a big one for sure.

If there were more high school teams (A & B teams etc) or recreational/intramural /non school league options I think you’d see some of the crazy youth sports focus dwindle.

i completely agree with this. Looking at you Mclean.

[Anonymous]

Unless you are an URM, being a college athletic recruit is a much surer bet to a top college than pretty much anything else. So I think that is some of the appeal. My son excels at music, his best friend excels at tennis. They both practice hours a day, win competitions. Both get good grades, but only my son's friend has a shot of getting recruited to an Ivy. No one recruits for oboe players.

Also I do think sports help kids with confidence, leadership, ability to work as a team. That stuff is generally more important to more people's careers than being academically brilliant. And I say that as a former (and current) nerd.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Unless you are an URM, being a college athletic recruit is a much surer bet to a top college than pretty much anything else. So I think that is some of the appeal. My son excels at music, his best friend excels at tennis. They both practice hours a day, win competitions. Both get good grades, but only my son's friend has a shot of getting recruited to an Ivy. No one recruits for oboe players.

Also I do think sports help kids with confidence, leadership, ability to work as a team. That stuff is generally more important to more people's careers than being academically brilliant. And I say that as a former (and current) nerd.

there’s also a lot of dumb jocks

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can answer this one:

Large high schools. And few athletic opportunities for anyone who does not make high school teams.

My kids are involved in sports, and I can’t think of many parents who are expecting scholarships, or for their kids to play in college at all.

Most parents want their kids to have a shot at playing a sport in high school, however…and many or most of those require years of travel experience prior to high school- soccer, lacrosse, baseball, softball, volleyball for sure. Football and basketball don’t- but tend to require a certain size or physique (eliminating many kids). Sports like golf, tennis, swim usually require years of advanced training also.

It doesn’t leave many options for the rest. Just cross country or track and field.

It isn’t about college scholarships for most- it is more about making high school teams.

Why do people want their kids to play on high school teams? To have focus, a social group, productive way to spend free time, something to put on college apps. Obviously there are other extracurricular avenues- but sports are a big one for sure.

If there were more high school teams (A & B teams etc) or recreational/intramural /non school league options I think you’d see some of the crazy youth sports focus dwindle.

You think kids make HS basketball teams without years and years of travel play? LOL. At large high schools it is by far the hardest team to make.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unless you are an URM, being a college athletic recruit is a much surer bet to a top college than pretty much anything else. So I think that is some of the appeal. My son excels at music, his best friend excels at tennis. They both practice hours a day, win competitions. Both get good grades, but only my son's friend has a shot of getting recruited to an Ivy. No one recruits for oboe players.

Also I do think sports help kids with confidence, leadership, ability to work as a team. That stuff is generally more important to more people's careers than being academically brilliant. And I say that as a former (and current) nerd.

there’s also a lot of dumb jocks

Eh, there are dumb kids who are non-athletic too

[Anonymous]

I think you found one outstanding athlete that worked really hard to get a scholarship and you think they bumped your kid. HOWEVER, those athletes have to have grades, test scores AND athletic ability. Not just book smarts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Genuinely curious which countries in which youth don’t play sports?

I’m from a Western European country and kids do play sports. But it’s a lot more relaxed, unless you are really, really good at the sport. And sport isn’t tied to the school, it’s done outside of school. No one is practicing 3-4 hours every day (again, unless you’re top level). People who like sports do them in their free time, but the emphasis in a kid’s life is on school. Here it feels like school work needs to fit around whatever sport they do. Most of the emails I get from high school are about upcoming sports games and trying to raise money for school sports.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Genuinely curious which countries in which youth don’t play sports?

I think most do not (at the same level in the US)? Especially on the girls side. It makes me wonder - what do all those high school kids in, e.g., Paris, do after school is out for the day, since (as far as I know), kids aren't playing for high school sports teams (because there are none). Genuinely curious, since it is such a big part of American high school kids' lives.

[Anonymous]

OP i agree. It’s absolutely nuts and completely unnecessary. But everyone does it because they don’t want their kid to be left behind in this rat race.

[Anonymous]

Immigrant mom here with several school age nieces and nephews overseas ( one of the Levantine countries ) .

Kids there have significantly more homework than US kids. I’d say in middle school/ highschool , 3-4 hours of homework in the afternoon is the norm. Of course kids do extracurricular activities such as sports, play a musical instrument, dance … but those are purely for the child’s enjoyment and don’t usually play a role in college admissions.
Weekends are spent studying / doing some extracurriculars and Sundays are mostly spent with extended family