Travel Youth sports scam?

[Anonymous]

There's different levels of travel. My kid is on a baseball travel team and the most we have "traveled" is 20 min away. Most of the games are home games at a field 5 minutes away. Really, all it does is weed out brand new players from experienced players in a way that the rec league doesn't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Youth sports is definitely toxic. I urge all parents to watch this documentary

https://youtu.be/xOAxFnrGHAA?si=eU2aNWe6S3KigvMA

Sure but youth sports is a key part of developing your kid. It is the parents job to make sure that the level fits the kid and the kid's goals.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Youth sports is definitely toxic. I urge all parents to watch this documentary

https://youtu.be/xOAxFnrGHAA?si=eU2aNWe6S3KigvMA

Youth sports is not toxic if you find the right league with normal parents who don’t have delusions of grandeur. No one on our softball team thinks their kid is getting a softball scholarship. Some might not even start in HS depending on how stacked their particular school is.

As a PP said, it’s just a way to weed out beginners and the kids who think it’s fine to skip half the practices and a quarter of the games.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t see how it’s a scam. At least in our local travel softball group, no one is making any money and everyone is a volunteer. All the money we pay goes directly towards expenses. Playing travel vs rec is the only way to weed out brand new or non-serious players, especially once you hit 11/12 or so. Also “travel” is a misnomer. We don’t travel - plenty of local tournaments and double-headers so we don’t need to.

So how is it a scam? We’d be happy playing in a select house/all-star league against other similar teams but those don’t exist in our area.

Most travel sports have some kind of governing body that employs a lot of adults. Who runs tryouts, secures fields, sets up teams administratively, hires coaches, etc. If your entire league is run by volunteers I assume you pay nothing to participate?

No. Coaches and administrators are not paid and there is no “governing body” other than a board of volunteers. But there are still direct costs - we pay for field time, league liability insurance, umpires for double-headers, tournament entry fees, team equipment (separate from individual gear), stuff like that. I’m confused why you think it would be free? How would that even work?

Ok, close to free. Any rec league run by a County (who have paid staff) or a group like Arlington soccer, you pay a pretty nominal fee to participate.

Who are these leagues finding to run all this for free? Is that unique to baseball? No professional coaching? I don't know any other travel sport run by volunteers. Summer swim (NVSL) is run by a bunch of volunteers and even there the coaces get paid, but that is a different animal.

[Anonymous]

The parents who do it, love it. They are extroverted alcoholics, usually. They love to have social plans every weekend where there will be others to gossip with and drink with and have dinner with and drink with, plus, their kids can play sports with their friends. It’s a win for everyone!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t see how it’s a scam. At least in our local travel softball group, no one is making any money and everyone is a volunteer. All the money we pay goes directly towards expenses. Playing travel vs rec is the only way to weed out brand new or non-serious players, especially once you hit 11/12 or so. Also “travel” is a misnomer. We don’t travel - plenty of local tournaments and double-headers so we don’t need to.

So how is it a scam? We’d be happy playing in a select house/all-star league against other similar teams but those don’t exist in our area.

Uh, this is a rec league. You travel nowhere and don't pay coaches.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t see how it’s a scam. At least in our local travel softball group, no one is making any money and everyone is a volunteer. All the money we pay goes directly towards expenses. Playing travel vs rec is the only way to weed out brand new or non-serious players, especially once you hit 11/12 or so. Also “travel” is a misnomer. We don’t travel - plenty of local tournaments and double-headers so we don’t need to.

So how is it a scam? We’d be happy playing in a select house/all-star league against other similar teams but those don’t exist in our area.

Most travel sports have some kind of governing body that employs a lot of adults. Who runs tryouts, secures fields, sets up teams administratively, hires coaches, etc. If your entire league is run by volunteers I assume you pay nothing to participate?

No. Coaches and administrators are not paid and there is no “governing body” other than a board of volunteers. But there are still direct costs - we pay for field time, league liability insurance, umpires for double-headers, tournament entry fees, team equipment (separate from individual gear), stuff like that. I’m confused why you think it would be free? How would that even work?

Ok, close to free. Any rec league run by a County (who have paid staff) or a group like Arlington soccer, you pay a pretty nominal fee to participate.

Who are these leagues finding to run all this for free? Is that unique to baseball? No professional coaching? I don't know any other travel sport run by volunteers. Summer swim (NVSL) is run by a bunch of volunteers and even there the coaces get paid, but that is a different animal.

Pretty much all of the travel softball teams in Loudoun are volunteer run.

[Anonymous]

There are travel programs that don't pay coaches, find one of those.

The scam in my eyes is the high school coaches doing private lessons. The kids get free lessons during regular practices. Are they paying for private lessons to get picked for the team or starting positions?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The parents who do it, love it. They are extroverted alcoholics, usually. They love to have social plans every weekend where there will be others to gossip with and drink with and have dinner with and drink with, plus, their kids can play sports with their friends. It’s a win for everyone!

Is it win for everyone though? Do all the kids actually love it, when they can just play with friends in an unorganized, probably more fun way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why do you care op?

I’m not OP and I don’t lose sleep over this but I do think it’s ruined youth sports for a lot of kids.

Clear negatives I see:

Overspecialization too early in one sport. Bad for kids, but forced on them.

Loss of family and community time while spending all ones time playing a travel sport.

It's also very unfair to younger siblings who are often dragged all over the place for their older sibling's activities. And if the younger sibling expresses an interest in sports, they are gently steered to the one their older sibling already plays. If your older brother plays travel soccer, you're going to be playing it too even if you are better at and prefer something else.

[Anonymous]

Drinking in this establishment!?! Shocking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why do you care op?

I’m not OP and I don’t lose sleep over this but I do think it’s ruined youth sports for a lot of kids.

Clear negatives I see:

Overspecialization too early in one sport. Bad for kids, but forced on them.

Loss of family and community time while spending all ones time playing a travel sport.

It's also very unfair to younger siblings who are often dragged all over the place for their older sibling's activities. And if the younger sibling expresses an interest in sports, they are gently steered to the one their older sibling already plays. If your older brother plays travel soccer, you're going to be playing it too even if you are better at and prefer something else.[/quote

+1

[Anonymous]

Both of my kids did a travel sport, and it was a great experience for us (and no, I’m not an extroverted alcoholic). But plenty of their friends didn’t. Do what you feel is right for you and your family.

I feel plenty of people who wring their hands over it are less concerned with other parents being “taken” for their money and more concerned that those kids have a (an imagined) leg up over their rec sport kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In other news the sky is blue

+1.

My nephew got sucked into this. His parents were driving all up and down the Eastern Seaboard every weekend because they thought he was going to get a college scholarship. It was nuts.

[Anonymous]

This from the article …..

It’s acceptable to be less talented in sports than your peers. Most kids are OK with it- the parents can’t accept their kid isn’t as good as the neighbor's kid. It grinds on them. So what do they do? They push their kid to be something they are not, and most likely something they don’t want to be.

This is true but the worst parents are the ones who complain the lowest level players are bringing their child down. In elementary school!