I hate youth and high school sports

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think this generation of parents has lost the plot. They have ruined youth sports. It used to be that kids could change sports with the seasons. It's much healthier for students to switch it up every few months. Not just to avoid repetitive stress injuries, but to develop other skills, new friends, etc. But this generation of parents is so performance-fixated that they force their children to choose one sport around the age of 8. And they'll need to play this sport and only this sport for 12 months every year for the next ten years.

This is terrible for 99 percent of children. Parents have only themselves to blame for the abysmal state of youth sports in this country. Their hyper-fixation on performance is toxic and completely at odds with healthy childhoods.

I agree but why did it change? We’ve tried to keep our kids playing multiple sports because we think it’s important not to specialize at an early age but the older they get the more difficult it is because all of the teams/different sports clubs seem to be in an arms race with each other. We never know schedules in advance, then put down money only to discover there’s a conflict between soccer and basketball, etc. we just want our kids to have the opportunity to be kids and play sports (because they love to play). We are not thinking about potential college admissions advantages.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The whole system is ridiculous, and what is more ridiculous is that people support this broken system. You have to play for years just to make it into a high school JV team, and once you make it, you have to spend 20+ hours per week training. It takes time away from academics and other extracurricular.

And all of this time and money invested into sports is for nothing for most parents. Most kids will never play at the NCAA level. It doesn’t matter much for college admissions. I know a kid who has perfect grades and a 35 ACT who was a captain of the varsity football and lacrosse teams (and was class treasurer, NHS president, volunteered, and did part time work), and he got rejected from every remotely selective college. The Ivy Leagues, Notre Dame, Michigan, Duke, Stanford, Vanderbilt, Northwestern, UNC, and UVA all rejected him

Break out the 20+ hours of YOUTH and HS training programs please. I just can't get there with the math and my kid is on an ECNL team and plays AAU basketball.

+1 for our ECNL player and another on a top volleyball team. Maybe a tournament weekend would push us close to 20 if you add in travel.

Or maybe my nephew who was a golfer and would joyously do two rounds of golf Saturday and Sunday with friends.

But otherwise no, unless you are at the elite Olympics level and most of those kids don’t attend public high school.

Serious HS baseball players are getting 8 hours of games, 4 hours of warmups on a normal fall tournament weekend. Plus 2-3 hours daily of practice, conditioning, BP, arm care during weekdays.

Kind of surprised the soccer and basketball players at that level aren’t spending enough out of practice time shooting, lifting, etc. to reach 20 hours. But obviously different sports require different time commitments.

Baseball is such a time suck and terribly inefficient if you count how many times you touch the ball or hit the ball in a game or practice.

When my son was 4 we moved to Southern California and in the neighborhood there was a dad who played div. 1 soccer. He started a soccer team with his friend who also played on his div. 1 soccer team becsuse they had sons the same age. my husband is from Latin America and they noticed my son, his sister and husband would play outside for hours.

They played in a Hispanic League at first then in club soccer leagues starting at 7. The coach always talked about touches in the ball. How many times a player touched a ball in practice was critical. All the training was done to maximize that so they got 100’s of touches on the ball at practices and then Sat games they did a lot of passing as well.

The my son started playing little league as well. I was shocked at how inefficient practices were. In the course of 2 hours there were very few touches. In a 2 hour game there were kids who touched the ball on the field 2-3 times and sometimes only once. If you were the picture or the catcher you stood around for a long time. You maybe got to bat 3 times. I y son started playing at 8 and just by my husband taking him often to the batting cages and field practicing one in one he was able to make the all star team by the end of the season.

The best baseball players tended to have moms or dads who practiced with them apart from the inefficient practices.

[Anonymous]

I agree with OP and I was a D1 swimmer who actually did put in 20 hours a week, maybe a little more, of training my last two years of HS. 10 practices per week plus a little bit of weight training. This was all with the club team. I only went to the meets for the HS team.

By the time I was doing all that it was clear that I was a legit D1 prospect. My parents thought it was crazy but I was partly motivated by proving them wrong. My kids are only in ES right now and what I am seeing with my own kids’ sports and neighbors/friends with high schoolers is crazy. It seems you have to be basically at the elite level just to make the JV team at our HS for a lot of sports. Just playing decently high level club/travel is not enough. And you have to get on this path early or you can’t catch up to the kids whose parents have been shelling out for extra training for years. Coaches are trying to treat 10 year olds like they’re 15 in terms of expectations and maturity. Then if you do make the HS team they act like they own you, as if you are D1 on scholarship. The vast majority of the kids on the HS teams have zero college prospects so I don’t understand why the coaches act like this. HS is the last stop for most of them so why not make it a little more balanced and enjoyable? Maybe their egos won’t allow it. It just all seems so silly if you aren’t preparing for a college athletics career.

Maybe it’s a little easier on the girls side, at least for certain sports. But for boys in particular it seems we have lost the plot.

[Anonymous]

Why do you keep posting this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t get your complaint? Life is not fair? College admissions are weird? Why do you care what other families are doing with their kids?

Also the NCAA athletes are not playing high school sports for the most part. And they certainly are not playing JV

Most NCAA athletes play high schools sports…100% of all football players, 90%+ for basketball and baseball and softball and LAX et al.

Soccer is the one exception for team sports. Yeah, I get that most high schools don’t have fencing teams or other country club NCAA sports (though actually crew probably has 50%+ competing for their high school), but the sheer numbers are slanted towards the team sports.

Basketball, soccer, swim, lacrosse, gymnastics, and even field hockey are all playing club. They are not just playing HS.

And for gymnastics, club is the only thing that matters. Legitimate D1 prospects are doing 30+ hours a week. Most (but not all) states don't allow gymnasts to do high school and club at the same time. Because of how the club gymnasts season is structured, it's incredibly difficult to take a season off of club to do HS, so high school is very much second or even third tier. It used to be strong HS gymnasts could join D3 college teams, but even that is increasingly rare. These days, to have a shot at D3 you have to be doing 25-30 hours a week in club, if not more. Qualifiers to level 10 nationals are going to some D3 school! It's absolutely insane.

[Anonymous]

OP, our kids tried out team sports for the first time in 5th grade. Made HS varsity teams, if not in their chosen sport than in another. Argued with coaches who kept them too long at practice. Academics always came first. No parent desire that they would play in college.

We would never have done *travel* anything. The high school team is all that matters to our family.

[Anonymous]

^ FCPS btw

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The whole system is ridiculous, and what is more ridiculous is that people support this broken system. You have to play for years just to make it into a high school JV team, and once you make it, you have to spend 20+ hours per week training. It takes time away from academics and other extracurricular.

And all of this time and money invested into sports is for nothing for most parents. Most kids will never play at the NCAA level. It doesn’t matter much for college admissions. I know a kid who has perfect grades and a 35 ACT who was a captain of the varsity football and lacrosse teams (and was class treasurer, NHS president, volunteered, and did part time work), and he got rejected from every remotely selective college. The Ivy Leagues, Notre Dame, Michigan, Duke, Stanford, Vanderbilt, Northwestern, UNC, and UVA all rejected him

Break out the 20+ hours of YOUTH and HS training programs please. I just can't get there with the math and my kid is on an ECNL team and plays AAU basketball.

+1 for our ECNL player and another on a top volleyball team. Maybe a tournament weekend would push us close to 20 if you add in travel.

Or maybe my nephew who was a golfer and would joyously do two rounds of golf Saturday and Sunday with friends.

But otherwise no, unless you are at the elite Olympics level and most of those kids don’t attend public high school.

Serious HS baseball players are getting 8 hours of games, 4 hours of warmups on a normal fall tournament weekend. Plus 2-3 hours daily of practice, conditioning, BP, arm care during weekdays.

Kind of surprised the soccer and basketball players at that level aren’t spending enough out of practice time shooting, lifting, etc. to reach 20 hours. But obviously different sports require different time commitments.

Baseball is such a time suck and terribly inefficient if you count how many times you touch the ball or hit the ball in a game or practice.

When my son was 4 we moved to Southern California and in the neighborhood there was a dad who played div. 1 soccer. He started a soccer team with his friend who also played on his div. 1 soccer team becsuse they had sons the same age. my husband is from Latin America and they noticed my son, his sister and husband would play outside for hours.

They played in a Hispanic League at first then in club soccer leagues starting at 7. The coach always talked about touches in the ball. How many times a player touched a ball in practice was critical. All the training was done to maximize that so they got 100’s of touches on the ball at practices and then Sat games they did a lot of passing as well.

The my son started playing little league as well. I was shocked at how inefficient practices were. In the course of 2 hours there were very few touches. In a 2 hour game there were kids who touched the ball on the field 2-3 times and sometimes only once. If you were the picture or the catcher you stood around for a long time. You maybe got to bat 3 times. I y son started playing at 8 and just by my husband taking him often to the batting cages and field practicing one in one he was able to make the all star team by the end of the season.

The best baseball players tended to have moms or dads who practiced with them apart from the inefficient practices.

Ok? I don’t disagree. I was responding to the poster who asked for a time breakout. Some sports certainly take a 20+ hour weekly commitment, whether we view it as inefficient or not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^ FCPS btw

Which high school and sport(s)? Boys or girls? All of FCPS is not the same in terms of competition to make teams; nor are all sports.

[Anonymous]

You have posted on two different forums about this kid that you know. Nobody is going to out you, you're obviously the parent. Said kid is probably at mid public without highest rigor. Or any other number of reasons why he was rejected. Being involved in sports does not prevent admission. I have one D1 athlete at one of those schools you mention, and another who was an athlete but not good enough to play D1, who still spent quite a bit of time at sports and also got into a T20 school. Your little anecdote is pointless.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The whole system is ridiculous, and what is more ridiculous is that people support this broken system. You have to play for years just to make it into a high school JV team, and once you make it, you have to spend 20+ hours per week training. It takes time away from academics and other extracurricular.

And all of this time and money invested into sports is for nothing for most parents. Most kids will never play at the NCAA level. It doesn’t matter much for college admissions. I know a kid who has perfect grades and a 35 ACT who was a captain of the varsity football and lacrosse teams (and was class treasurer, NHS president, volunteered, and did part time work), and he got rejected from every remotely selective college. The Ivy Leagues, Notre Dame, Michigan, Duke, Stanford, Vanderbilt, Northwestern, UNC, and UVA all rejected him

What do you want to happen, boo?

What is your ideal?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t get your complaint? Life is not fair? College admissions are weird? Why do you care what other families are doing with their kids?

Also the NCAA athletes are not playing high school sports for the most part. And they certainly are not playing JV

Most NCAA athletes play high schools sports…100% of all football players, 90%+ for basketball and baseball and softball and LAX et al.

Soccer is the one exception for team sports. Yeah, I get that most high schools don’t have fencing teams or other country club NCAA sports (though actually crew probably has 50%+ competing for their high school), but the sheer numbers are slanted towards the team sports.

Basketball, soccer, swim, lacrosse, gymnastics, and even field hockey are all playing club. They are not just playing HS.

And for gymnastics, club is the only thing that matters. Legitimate D1 prospects are doing 30+ hours a week. Most (but not all) states don't allow gymnasts to do high school and club at the same time. Because of how the club gymnasts season is structured, it's incredibly difficult to take a season off of club to do HS, so high school is very much second or even third tier. It used to be strong HS gymnasts could join D3 college teams, but even that is increasingly rare. These days, to have a shot at D3 you have to be doing 25-30 hours a week in club, if not more. Qualifiers to level 10 nationals are going to some D3 school! It's absolutely insane.

Are there even HS gymnastics teams in the DMV?

I don’t disagree that there are minimal or zero HS teams in D1 sports like fencing, gymnastics, hockey (there are some private and public HS teams…but few), etc.

Soccer is the outlier in that every HS has a team but it’s standard for club teams to discourage/prohibit playing in HS.

Baseball, football, lax, basketball…everyone plays HS and none of the top club teams (there are none for football) play during the HS season.

[Anonymous]

Dream on your kid is bad add

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The whole system is ridiculous, and what is more ridiculous is that people support this broken system. You have to play for years just to make it into a high school JV team, and once you make it, you have to spend 20+ hours per week training. It takes time away from academics and other extracurricular.

And all of this time and money invested into sports is for nothing for most parents. Most kids will never play at the NCAA level. It doesn’t matter much for college admissions. I know a kid who has perfect grades and a 35 ACT who was a captain of the varsity football and lacrosse teams (and was class treasurer, NHS president, volunteered, and did part time work), and he got rejected from every remotely selective college. The Ivy Leagues, Notre Dame, Michigan, Duke, Stanford, Vanderbilt, Northwestern, UNC, and UVA all rejected him

Break out the 20+ hours of YOUTH and HS training programs please. I just can't get there with the math and my kid is on an ECNL team and plays AAU basketball.

+1 for our ECNL player and another on a top volleyball team. Maybe a tournament weekend would push us close to 20 if you add in travel.

Or maybe my nephew who was a golfer and would joyously do two rounds of golf Saturday and Sunday with friends.

But otherwise no, unless you are at the elite Olympics level and most of those kids don’t attend public high school.

Serious HS baseball players are getting 8 hours of games, 4 hours of warmups on a normal fall tournament weekend. Plus 2-3 hours daily of practice, conditioning, BP, arm care during weekdays.

Kind of surprised the soccer and basketball players at that level aren’t spending enough out of practice time shooting, lifting, etc. to reach 20 hours. But obviously different sports require different time commitments.

Your kid shouldn’t be spending that much time on fall baseball, it’s completely unnecessary and a great way to get them injured.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t get your complaint? Life is not fair? College admissions are weird? Why do you care what other families are doing with their kids?

Also the NCAA athletes are not playing high school sports for the most part. And they certainly are not playing JV

Most NCAA athletes play high schools sports…100% of all football players, 90%+ for basketball and baseball and softball and LAX et al.

Soccer is the one exception for team sports. Yeah, I get that most high schools don’t have fencing teams or other country club NCAA sports (though actually crew probably has 50%+ competing for their high school), but the sheer numbers are slanted towards the team sports.

Basketball, soccer, swim, lacrosse, gymnastics, and even field hockey are all playing club. They are not just playing HS.

And for gymnastics, club is the only thing that matters. Legitimate D1 prospects are doing 30+ hours a week. Most (but not all) states don't allow gymnasts to do high school and club at the same time. Because of how the club gymnasts season is structured, it's incredibly difficult to take a season off of club to do HS, so high school is very much second or even third tier. It used to be strong HS gymnasts could join D3 college teams, but even that is increasingly rare. These days, to have a shot at D3 you have to be doing 25-30 hours a week in club, if not more. Qualifiers to level 10 nationals are going to some D3 school! It's absolutely insane.

Are there even HS gymnastics teams in the DMV?

I don’t disagree that there are minimal or zero HS teams in D1 sports like fencing, gymnastics, hockey (there are some private and public HS teams…but few), etc.

Soccer is the outlier in that every HS has a team but it’s standard for club teams to discourage/prohibit playing in HS.

Baseball, football, lax, basketball…everyone plays HS and none of the top club teams (there are none for football) play during the HS season.

Yes, MCPS has gymnastics, and FCPS and Arlington schools compete against each other. There are others but I'm familiar with those 3 because that's where I've coached.