Constant fear of being cut

[Anonymous]

Not just size, but (at least on our MS basketball team) social factors can weed out kids too early. This year at least 3-4 solidly skilled, experienced kids got passed over in favor of kids who have hardly played before and aren’t quite as good, but they’re tight friends with the top players and got passed to frequently during tryouts. Lots of high fives, bro-ing around with each other, etc. The coach said he was looking for “strong team dynamics”.

There’s something to be said for having a close-knit team, but it seems like an odd thing to prioritize. It gives all the selection power to the top jock clique.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not just size, but (at least on our MS basketball team) social factors can weed out kids too early. This year at least 3-4 solidly skilled, experienced kids got passed over in favor of kids who have hardly played before and aren’t quite as good, but they’re tight friends with the top players and got passed to frequently during tryouts. Lots of high fives, bro-ing around with each other, etc. The coach said he was looking for “strong team dynamics”.

There’s something to be said for having a close-knit team, but it seems like an odd thing to prioritize. It gives all the selection power to the top jock clique.

I just saw something similar. It’s wild.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m seeing that now even with age 9. Coaches are prioritizing huge kids. Sometimes the parents are 5’2/5’6. They are just heavier or early bloomers. Jokes on them I guess.

+1

It starts earlier and earlier. Baffling.

My oldest DS was tallish as a child but then plateaued in middle school and was a very late bloomer- 5’3” 90lbs-ish? in 8th grade. Currently a junior & 6’ 1” but quit team sports 2yrs ago. A lot of the “big” early bloomers were fully grown in 8th grade and haven’t grown since- my DS is much larger than some of them now. But they get allll of the reps/playing time/spots on the top teams for years.

Not picking on early bloomers either. At all! I just wish that coaches would recognize the different growth patterns & show some patience and eye for development. Instead it tends to be “win win win. Today!” for so many.

Um shouldnr that be the strategy?

Should it? I think developing kids that top out at 7/8th grade is a horrible long term strategy.

Long term for what? A lot of teams get moved around every year. Nothing wrong with playing the kids who are the best at age 11 on a team for 11 year olds. Then re evaluating which kids are best at age 13 when it’s time for a team of 13 year olds. If a child is a standout athlete they will not get cut at age 11 for not hitting puberty yet because they will have excellent ball handling skills and be fast (thinking of soccer here). And if they are, they can find a different team that works for them.

I am a parent of 2 boys who are both small and NOT athletic , so, truly no horse in this game. My kids enjoy their rec teams.

Soccer is one thing (though it happens in soccer too)- but sports like baseball and basketball can be quite another.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not just size, but (at least on our MS basketball team) social factors can weed out kids too early. This year at least 3-4 solidly skilled, experienced kids got passed over in favor of kids who have hardly played before and aren’t quite as good, but they’re tight friends with the top players and got passed to frequently during tryouts. Lots of high fives, bro-ing around with each other, etc. The coach said he was looking for “strong team dynamics”.

There’s something to be said for having a close-knit team, but it seems like an odd thing to prioritize. It gives all the selection power to the top jock clique.

Yep, I have seen this also.

[Anonymous]

I have a constant fear of being fired. I think it is just part of life in a high performing organization. Look up how performance management is handled at Netflix.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does your DC have constant anxiety about being cut from their team? If so, how have you helped them handle that?

Background—DS has always been one of the stronger players but he’s late to grow/go through puberty and is now feeling like he’s on the chopping block because of his size. He works hard outside of team stuff and coach plays him (and he does reasonably well), but after seeing some kids get cut last season who were of similar stature, DS is expressing a lot of concern around his future with the team. Ordinarily I’d suggest he needs to talk to the coach but it’s become clear that the head of the organization (who doesn’t know the boys well/have real relationships with the families) is calling the shots vis a vis team selection so not sure what good a talk with the coach would do. Switching teams would be very difficult at this time.

Always have a back up plan. If he is talking to you about it he most likely has a good feeling about how things are going to workout. Players know when the coach puts them in the cut zone. This means you and he have to start looking for a new club/team or quit the sport. Sounds like it is over at this club.

Sorry my kid was a very good player, had an injury, coach changed and was cut. Kid was about 3 months from being fully back. It’s tough to find a new team and a cut is demoralizing. It is important to tell him it is okay if he wants to stop. It’s just a sport and there are other things to do. You will support him with whatever decision he makes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a constant fear of being fired. I think it is just part of life in a high performing organization. Look up how performance management is handled at Netflix.

Yes. The players(and employees in your case) become very risk averse, lack initiative and lack of trust in leadership. This results in a culture of prioritizing avoiding risks and uncertainties that stops innovation, decision-making, and overall progress. This stems from a fear of failure or negative consequences resulting in stability and predictability over experimentation and new ideas.

If you watch these kids play in any sport, they are very predictable and seem to sleep walk when making decisions, seeing the field, or exploiting opening. Avoid mistakes means not taking risks and not taking risks will many times result in loss of confidence.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think in areas like the DMV coaches and organizations have the luxury of numbers so they aren’t forced to develop kids who are less physically mature and can pick kids for their teams based on size. Of course these teams wants to win and be competitive (as do the kids and families who sign up to play), but we’ve gotten so out of balance. My boys were right in the middle of the pack size wise so we were able to avoid a lot of this, but definitely saw kids get pushed out for size reasons earlier than they should have (pre-puberty) in baseball and basketball. These were highly engaged, solid athletes who got the later growth card.

Do you think there are so any kids playing in the DMV area because of all the nerdy type parents working in government were never in sports so they are all signing their kids up?

Growing up it was the kids in the driver seats not the parents. In the northern states when the water turned to ice the kids were out there shoveling snow off the ice to play hockey all day. By middle school the committed and talented were in organized hockey. Football same thing. The kids who loved it didn’t have coaches until middle school but they knew everything about the game and knew how to play already. Basketball was the easiest sport to practice. All you needed was a ball and a hoop. Kids were out there for hours.

The kids who preferred video games or were very academic and studied on weekends were at home. It was kind of like by middle school the future varsity players and a small percentage of future college or pro players was set.

Now there’s such an overload of kids playing thanks to corporations getting in the game. For a price anyone can play. And like this pp said, there’s a constant fear of getting cut. There’s a lot of talk about puberty and height and growth. There’s parents taking their kids all over the place to try and do what former kids did with ease. Why the change?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think in areas like the DMV coaches and organizations have the luxury of numbers so they aren’t forced to develop kids who are less physically mature and can pick kids for their teams based on size. Of course these teams wants to win and be competitive (as do the kids and families who sign up to play), but we’ve gotten so out of balance. My boys were right in the middle of the pack size wise so we were able to avoid a lot of this, but definitely saw kids get pushed out for size reasons earlier than they should have (pre-puberty) in baseball and basketball. These were highly engaged, solid athletes who got the later growth card.

Do you think there are so any kids playing in the DMV area because of all the nerdy type parents working in government were never in sports so they are all signing their kids up?

Growing up it was the kids in the driver seats not the parents. In the northern states when the water turned to ice the kids were out there shoveling snow off the ice to play hockey all day. By middle school the committed and talented were in organized hockey. Football same thing. The kids who loved it didn’t have coaches until middle school but they knew everything about the game and knew how to play already. Basketball was the easiest sport to practice. All you needed was a ball and a hoop. Kids were out there for hours.

The kids who preferred video games or were very academic and studied on weekends were at home. It was kind of like by middle school the future varsity players and a small percentage of future college or pro players was set.

Now there’s such an overload of kids playing thanks to corporations getting in the game. For a price anyone can play. And like this pp said, there’s a constant fear of getting cut. There’s a lot of talk about puberty and height and growth. There’s parents taking their kids all over the place to try and do what former kids did with ease. Why the change?

It can be worse outside of the DMV. At least in the DMV there are nerds who recognize the kids’ livelihood will come from their brains. They refuse to let the kids play tackle football, and they have self-imposed limits on sports. One of our friends who falls in this category left a child on a supposedly “less elite” team. The child is now getting recruited.

[Anonymous]

I’m pp who made the post about dmv coaches having so many kids to pick from they gave the option to go with the physically mature kids vs develop smaller kids. I think that yea a ton has changed since I was growing up playing sports in the 1980s and much has been written about the year round youth sports complex etc so that’s definitely part of this. But I think whenever you are in a highly populated wealthy area (like the DMV) there are simply more kids playing and therefore more choices for coaches. I’ve also noticed that in this area people seem extremely focused on getting recruited for college (weirdly prioritizing athletes over academics) so that has fueled the training/team selection arms race mentality too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not just size, but (at least on our MS basketball team) social factors can weed out kids too early. This year at least 3-4 solidly skilled, experienced kids got passed over in favor of kids who have hardly played before and aren’t quite as good, but they’re tight friends with the top players and got passed to frequently during tryouts. Lots of high fives, bro-ing around with each other, etc. The coach said he was looking for “strong team dynamics”.

There’s something to be said for having a close-knit team, but it seems like an odd thing to prioritize. It gives all the selection power to the top jock clique.

At the MS level, 2 good players is all you need for a championship team and happy parents that will pay whatever you charge.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not just size, but (at least on our MS basketball team) social factors can weed out kids too early. This year at least 3-4 solidly skilled, experienced kids got passed over in favor of kids who have hardly played before and aren’t quite as good, but they’re tight friends with the top players and got passed to frequently during tryouts. Lots of high fives, bro-ing around with each other, etc. The coach said he was looking for “strong team dynamics”.

There’s something to be said for having a close-knit team, but it seems like an odd thing to prioritize. It gives all the selection power to the top jock clique.

If that's a school, the coach needs to be fired

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not just size, but (at least on our MS basketball team) social factors can weed out kids too early. This year at least 3-4 solidly skilled, experienced kids got passed over in favor of kids who have hardly played before and aren’t quite as good, but they’re tight friends with the top players and got passed to frequently during tryouts. Lots of high fives, bro-ing around with each other, etc. The coach said he was looking for “strong team dynamics”.

There’s something to be said for having a close-knit team, but it seems like an odd thing to prioritize. It gives all the selection power to the top jock clique.

At the MS level, 2 good players is all you need for a championship team and happy parents that will pay whatever you charge.

What? What is an MS championship. My daughter goes to the winter series three times this winter. Any team with just 2 good players is getting blown out every game. Even in county, you aren't winning a championship with just 2 players

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m pp who made the post about dmv coaches having so many kids to pick from they gave the option to go with the physically mature kids vs develop smaller kids. I think that yea a ton has changed since I was growing up playing sports in the 1980s and much has been written about the year round youth sports complex etc so that’s definitely part of this. But I think whenever you are in a highly populated wealthy area (like the DMV) there are simply more kids playing and therefore more choices for coaches. I’ve also noticed that in this area people seem extremely focused on getting recruited for college (weirdly prioritizing athletes over academics) so that has fueled the training/team selection arms race mentality too.

This is because the college admissions game has changed so radically.
Academics keeps getting de-emphasized which increases the importance of everything else.
Almost half the boys at top SLACs are varsity athletes.
GPA inflation has made GPAs less and less meaningful.
The dumbing down of the SAT has gotten so bad that almost 10% of asians are getting a 1500+
The UMC families just assume their kids are going to meet the "cutoff" and most will because the cutoff is so much easier to achieve than it used to be
After that it's a roll of the dice, will the things you do and the story you tell resonate with the person that happens to be reading your application.

Recruited athlete is in some ways easier to achieve than an unhooked admissions with perfect academics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not just size, but (at least on our MS basketball team) social factors can weed out kids too early. This year at least 3-4 solidly skilled, experienced kids got passed over in favor of kids who have hardly played before and aren’t quite as good, but they’re tight friends with the top players and got passed to frequently during tryouts. Lots of high fives, bro-ing around with each other, etc. The coach said he was looking for “strong team dynamics”.

There’s something to be said for having a close-knit team, but it seems like an odd thing to prioritize. It gives all the selection power to the top jock clique.

At the MS level, 2 good players is all you need for a championship team and happy parents that will pay whatever you charge.

What? What is an MS championship. My daughter goes to the winter series three times this winter. Any team with just 2 good players is getting blown out every game. Even in county, you aren't winning a championship with just 2 players

I should have said 2 stars.
You can build the rest.