Does anyone hate how competitive the world has become?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:This is not true at all. There are tons of sports that require wealth. Sure it helps if kids have an athletic physique once they go through puberty; however, wealth makes quite a difference in a lot of sports.

Downhill skiing, squash, tennis, golf, hockey, equestrian sports, fencing, ice skating are some examples of sports that require tons of money. My friend taught at a private school in Florida where it accommodated students' sports schedules which included swimming, tennis, equestrian sports, fencing and car racing. All of those kids were super wealthy.

Yes they may require money but it doesn’t necessarily mean the kids will be good. Are you seriously debating this

Are you kidding? You need money to get good in tennis or golf. Even Francis Tiafoe needs serious training that JTCC provided him for FREE due to his family situation. Scott Scheffler wouldn't be the best golfer in the world had his family was poor.

If you have kid A and B with the same athletic ability, but kid A has wealth and kid B is poor, kid A will come out ahead in athletic because kid A gets the best training money can buy.

You’re forgetting about the genetics that are needed to create an elite athlete. You can bring the kid to reach his full potential by hard work, good nutrition and training but without certain genetics his full potential won’t be good enough.

Look at the Olympic sprinters. Do you think money would allow your child to be that fast? The ACTN3 gene, is sometimes referred to as the “athlete gene”. In our muscles, the two main types of muscle fibres are slow-twitch and fast-twitch fibres. These are the easily identified genes that can found on a DNA saliva test.

My family is middle class with a lot of athletes including pro athletes. Nobody needed crazy excessive training, no private coaches.

Both your lies about your family and your lack of understanding about how much training even the kid with great genetics undergo are comical.

Caleb Williams had a QB coach starting in 8th grade, Quincy Wilson has had professional coaching since 6th grade…the list goes on and on…

I don’t know, I think you have a pretty compelling list there of (let me count again) TWO examples of athletes who has professional coaching as kids. I think two gets you fully out of the realm of “anecdote” doesn’t it?

It’s everyone…considering you didnt even list your fake family pro athletes that’s infinitely more than your zero.

Name me one recent pro athlete that fits your description.

DP but are you asking for someone to name a professional athlete who got there not due to expensive private coaching but rather due to having superior genetics even though they were only middle class growing up?

You can’t be serious.

How can you possibly separate the two..even the ones with superior genetics all have private coaching. Everyone…they may get it for free or low cost…but they all get it.

So, yes name one that had no private coaching and turned pro.

I mean… I would think technically anyone who is on a high school team gets some form of private coaching (professional high school coaches are only going to coach the kids they personally select for their team, right?).

Maybe you need to define your terms here.

And if they’re getting extra private coaching for free, that’s because they have superior athletic ability and has nothing whatsoever to do with their family’s wealth or resources, so you are basically proving a PP’s point that if you’re athletic you don’t need money to make it…

I certainly don’t think some random Joe who has literally never been coached before is going to walk onto an NFL team.

I am uncertain as to the point you think you are making.

I won’t pretend to know anything about the NFL or NBA. I do know that most athletes around us had parents who were also athletes whether they were high school, college or pro. These kids are built for the sport and their parents know how to navigate the system.

My kid loves to play basketball. We have the money to pour into coaching. Dh and I are average height and no amount of money or coaching is getting him in the NBA. We are hoping he can make the high school basketball team.

I keep reading this.. we want our kids to be able to play on the high school team.. and in order to do that they must start the sport in elementary school and get lots of private coaching etc. Why? Why is it so important to play on the high school team? There are lots of sports organizations available where the kids can keep playing well into their high school years. Why do so much work to be able to play in high school?

The same parents frown upon those who do outside academic enrichment and even criticize those who get tutors for their kids in AP classes. Why is it okay to start coaching for athletics at a young age in the hopes of being able to play on high school teams but not okay to do academic enrichment?

The culture is messed up with so much focus and importance on sports.

Huh?

Are there now cuts to AP history class or Calc BC like there are for the 10 person basketball team?

No.

Tutoring to get ahead is only that. It’s not tutoring for an LD or special needs kid, it’s to do better than others for grades and class ranking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think what’s hard for a lot of us is we grew up in a time when things were less competitive but we grew up in families without a lot of money. So if you had the money, there was a lot of opportunity and you could join a swim club, join a gymnastics team, or get into a good private school as long as you could pay for it.

I remember thinking as a kid that I just needed to make money so I could give my kids those things. But now there is an order of magnitude more of people who are trying to get the same things, and in most places there aren’t more swim clubs being built, more competitive gymnastics programs being opened, or more elite private schools opening. We thought we could just earn more money and that would earn us access, but the finish line has been moved and the bar has been raised along the way.

No never thought that.

Have however thought about finding what intrinsically motivates each child, make them set their own goals, help them find good programs and let them fly.

Can’t teach or buy Grit and motivation.

[Anonymous]

Well, grit and motivation will die quickly when there simply are no opportunities. As the PP said, if there is just one competitive swim team/club, one competitive soccer club or gymnastics program, if you don't make it before middle school, the probability of making it later is about zero. A human being needs something to strive for. If there's nothing to strive for, the bar has been raised so high or made impossible to pass by some other means, people will disengage. Stop participating.

[Anonymous]

I think most of the comments on this thread have missed the point. The reason that the schools in the DMV (and let’s face it we’re only talking about certain schools in particular neighborhoods) are so competitive is that the most competitive people come to this area. I have lived in NJ NY and Conn. I have friends in SF and LA and as far as I can tell they don’t hold a candle to dc. On my block there is not a single family where at least one of the parents don’t have an advanced degree. I have not met a single adult in my town that does not have a college degree. Other than than the SAHMs everyone I meet has a professional or management position. Competitive people have competitive kids which makes for a competitive community. When I lived in NJ there were lots of competive people but there were also people who had regular jobs who inherited their parents house or lived in low income apartments. But if you live in an area where the only housing is million plus single family homes you’re not going to get many people like that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think most of the comments on this thread have missed the point. The reason that the schools in the DMV (and let’s face it we’re only talking about certain schools in particular neighborhoods) are so competitive is that the most competitive people come to this area. I have lived in NJ NY and Conn. I have friends in SF and LA and as far as I can tell they don’t hold a candle to dc. On my block there is not a single family where at least one of the parents don’t have an advanced degree. I have not met a single adult in my town that does not have a college degree. Other than than the SAHMs everyone I meet has a professional or management position. Competitive people have competitive kids which makes for a competitive community. When I lived in NJ there were lots of competive people but there were also people who had regular jobs who inherited their parents house or lived in low income apartments. But if you live in an area where the only housing is million plus single family homes you’re not going to get many people like that.

You must have lived in a MC neighborhood. Hate to break it to you but NY and CA housing costs much more than your $1m DMV homes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
You must have lived in a MC neighborhood. Hate to break it to you but NY and CA housing costs much more than your $1m DMV homes.

In my Langley neighborhood, homes are around 5M, and they are about .25 mile from Langley HS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is not true at all. There are tons of sports that require wealth. Sure it helps if kids have an athletic physique once they go through puberty; however, wealth makes quite a difference in a lot of sports.

Downhill skiing, squash, tennis, golf, hockey, equestrian sports, fencing, ice skating are some examples of sports that require tons of money. My friend taught at a private school in Florida where it accommodated students' sports schedules which included swimming, tennis, equestrian sports, fencing and car racing. All of those kids were super wealthy.

Yes they may require money but it doesn’t necessarily mean the kids will be good. Are you seriously debating this

Are you kidding? You need money to get good in tennis or golf. Even Francis Tiafoe needs serious training that JTCC provided him for FREE due to his family situation. Scott Scheffler wouldn't be the best golfer in the world had his family was poor.

If you have kid A and B with the same athletic ability, but kid A has wealth and kid B is poor, kid A will come out ahead in athletic because kid A gets the best training money can buy.

You’re forgetting about the genetics that are needed to create an elite athlete. You can bring the kid to reach his full potential by hard work, good nutrition and training but without certain genetics his full potential won’t be good enough.

Look at the Olympic sprinters. Do you think money would allow your child to be that fast? The ACTN3 gene, is sometimes referred to as the “athlete gene”. In our muscles, the two main types of muscle fibres are slow-twitch and fast-twitch fibres. These are the easily identified genes that can found on a DNA saliva test.

My family is middle class with a lot of athletes including pro athletes. Nobody needed crazy excessive training, no private coaches.

Both your lies about your family and your lack of understanding about how much training even the kid with great genetics undergo are comical.

Caleb Williams had a QB coach starting in 8th grade, Quincy Wilson has had professional coaching since 6th grade…the list goes on and on…

I don’t know, I think you have a pretty compelling list there of (let me count again) TWO examples of athletes who has professional coaching as kids. I think two gets you fully out of the realm of “anecdote” doesn’t it?

It’s everyone…considering you didnt even list your fake family pro athletes that’s infinitely more than your zero.

Name me one recent pro athlete that fits your description.

DP but are you asking for someone to name a professional athlete who got there not due to expensive private coaching but rather due to having superior genetics even though they were only middle class growing up?

You can’t be serious.

How can you possibly separate the two..even the ones with superior genetics all have private coaching. Everyone…they may get it for free or low cost…but they all get it.

So, yes name one that had no private coaching and turned pro.

I mean… I would think technically anyone who is on a high school team gets some form of private coaching (professional high school coaches are only going to coach the kids they personally select for their team, right?).

Maybe you need to define your terms here.

And if they’re getting extra private coaching for free, that’s because they have superior athletic ability and has nothing whatsoever to do with their family’s wealth or resources, so you are basically proving a PP’s point that if you’re athletic you don’t need money to make it…

I certainly don’t think some random Joe who has literally never been coached before is going to walk onto an NFL team.

I am uncertain as to the point you think you are making.

You don’t think there are kids blessed with great genetics that go nowhere in sports because they didn’t have money or connections to people that could help them? That’s most of them.

One of the best AAU travel teams in the DMV is Team Durant. Every kid on the team has multiple D1 offers. Every kid is actually UMC including the JR kid…and yes the Sidwell, O’Connell and other players.

Go look at the best NHL stars…outside of the Canadians they all come from elite boarding and private schools.

The best HS baseball players are primarily UMC including Ethan Holliday and basically every player on the U18 team that just won the international baseball championship in Panama. SJC has a kid that may go high in the 2026 draft and he is from Great Falls…who BTW has been getting training since a middle schooler. Bryce Eldridge trained at R&D privately for years even though he also had great coaches at Madison.

Once more…just name one player that fits your profile…you can’t even do that. That’s not how things work anymore.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is not true at all. There are tons of sports that require wealth. Sure it helps if kids have an athletic physique once they go through puberty; however, wealth makes quite a difference in a lot of sports.

Downhill skiing, squash, tennis, golf, hockey, equestrian sports, fencing, ice skating are some examples of sports that require tons of money. My friend taught at a private school in Florida where it accommodated students' sports schedules which included swimming, tennis, equestrian sports, fencing and car racing. All of those kids were super wealthy.

Yes they may require money but it doesn’t necessarily mean the kids will be good. Are you seriously debating this

Are you kidding? You need money to get good in tennis or golf. Even Francis Tiafoe needs serious training that JTCC provided him for FREE due to his family situation. Scott Scheffler wouldn't be the best golfer in the world had his family was poor.

If you have kid A and B with the same athletic ability, but kid A has wealth and kid B is poor, kid A will come out ahead in athletic because kid A gets the best training money can buy.

You’re forgetting about the genetics that are needed to create an elite athlete. You can bring the kid to reach his full potential by hard work, good nutrition and training but without certain genetics his full potential won’t be good enough.

Look at the Olympic sprinters. Do you think money would allow your child to be that fast? The ACTN3 gene, is sometimes referred to as the “athlete gene”. In our muscles, the two main types of muscle fibres are slow-twitch and fast-twitch fibres. These are the easily identified genes that can found on a DNA saliva test.

My family is middle class with a lot of athletes including pro athletes. Nobody needed crazy excessive training, no private coaches.

Both your lies about your family and your lack of understanding about how much training even the kid with great genetics undergo are comical.

Caleb Williams had a QB coach starting in 8th grade, Quincy Wilson has had professional coaching since 6th grade…the list goes on and on…

I don’t know, I think you have a pretty compelling list there of (let me count again) TWO examples of athletes who has professional coaching as kids. I think two gets you fully out of the realm of “anecdote” doesn’t it?

It’s everyone…considering you didnt even list your fake family pro athletes that’s infinitely more than your zero.

Name me one recent pro athlete that fits your description.

DP but are you asking for someone to name a professional athlete who got there not due to expensive private coaching but rather due to having superior genetics even though they were only middle class growing up?

You can’t be serious.

How can you possibly separate the two..even the ones with superior genetics all have private coaching. Everyone…they may get it for free or low cost…but they all get it.

So, yes name one that had no private coaching and turned pro.

I mean… I would think technically anyone who is on a high school team gets some form of private coaching (professional high school coaches are only going to coach the kids they personally select for their team, right?).

Maybe you need to define your terms here.

And if they’re getting extra private coaching for free, that’s because they have superior athletic ability and has nothing whatsoever to do with their family’s wealth or resources, so you are basically proving a PP’s point that if you’re athletic you don’t need money to make it…

I certainly don’t think some random Joe who has literally never been coached before is going to walk onto an NFL team.

I am uncertain as to the point you think you are making.

You don’t think there are kids blessed with great genetics that go nowhere in sports because they didn’t have money or connections to people that could help them? That’s most of them.

One of the best AAU travel teams in the DMV is Team Durant. Every kid on the team has multiple D1 offers. Every kid is actually UMC including the JR kid…and yes the Sidwell, O’Connell and other players.

Go look at the best NHL stars…outside of the Canadians they all come from elite boarding and private schools.

The best HS baseball players are primarily UMC including Ethan Holliday and basically every player on the U18 team that just won the international baseball championship in Panama. SJC has a kid that may go high in the 2026 draft and he is from Great Falls…who BTW has been getting training since a middle schooler. Bryce Eldridge trained at R&D privately for years even though he also had great coaches at Madison.

Once more…just name one player that fits your profile…you can’t even do that. That’s not how things work anymore.

You’re out of your mind. Seriously. Also, LOL to the “outside of the Canadians” comment re: the NHL (and you mean “outside of the Canadians… and the Europeans” anyway, so you know, most of the players in the NHL) but sure, I think ice hockey *in the US* is more of a rich kid sport. Happy?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is not true at all. There are tons of sports that require wealth. Sure it helps if kids have an athletic physique once they go through puberty; however, wealth makes quite a difference in a lot of sports.

Downhill skiing, squash, tennis, golf, hockey, equestrian sports, fencing, ice skating are some examples of sports that require tons of money. My friend taught at a private school in Florida where it accommodated students' sports schedules which included swimming, tennis, equestrian sports, fencing and car racing. All of those kids were super wealthy.

Yes they may require money but it doesn’t necessarily mean the kids will be good. Are you seriously debating this

Are you kidding? You need money to get good in tennis or golf. Even Francis Tiafoe needs serious training that JTCC provided him for FREE due to his family situation. Scott Scheffler wouldn't be the best golfer in the world had his family was poor.

If you have kid A and B with the same athletic ability, but kid A has wealth and kid B is poor, kid A will come out ahead in athletic because kid A gets the best training money can buy.

You’re forgetting about the genetics that are needed to create an elite athlete. You can bring the kid to reach his full potential by hard work, good nutrition and training but without certain genetics his full potential won’t be good enough.

Look at the Olympic sprinters. Do you think money would allow your child to be that fast? The ACTN3 gene, is sometimes referred to as the “athlete gene”. In our muscles, the two main types of muscle fibres are slow-twitch and fast-twitch fibres. These are the easily identified genes that can found on a DNA saliva test.

My family is middle class with a lot of athletes including pro athletes. Nobody needed crazy excessive training, no private coaches.

Both your lies about your family and your lack of understanding about how much training even the kid with great genetics undergo are comical.

Caleb Williams had a QB coach starting in 8th grade, Quincy Wilson has had professional coaching since 6th grade…the list goes on and on…

I don’t know, I think you have a pretty compelling list there of (let me count again) TWO examples of athletes who has professional coaching as kids. I think two gets you fully out of the realm of “anecdote” doesn’t it?

It’s everyone…considering you didnt even list your fake family pro athletes that’s infinitely more than your zero.

Name me one recent pro athlete that fits your description.

DP but are you asking for someone to name a professional athlete who got there not due to expensive private coaching but rather due to having superior genetics even though they were only middle class growing up?

You can’t be serious.

How can you possibly separate the two..even the ones with superior genetics all have private coaching. Everyone…they may get it for free or low cost…but they all get it.

So, yes name one that had no private coaching and turned pro.

I mean… I would think technically anyone who is on a high school team gets some form of private coaching (professional high school coaches are only going to coach the kids they personally select for their team, right?).

Maybe you need to define your terms here.

And if they’re getting extra private coaching for free, that’s because they have superior athletic ability and has nothing whatsoever to do with their family’s wealth or resources, so you are basically proving a PP’s point that if you’re athletic you don’t need money to make it…

I certainly don’t think some random Joe who has literally never been coached before is going to walk onto an NFL team.

I am uncertain as to the point you think you are making.

You don’t think there are kids blessed with great genetics that go nowhere in sports because they didn’t have money or connections to people that could help them? That’s most of them.

One of the best AAU travel teams in the DMV is Team Durant. Every kid on the team has multiple D1 offers. Every kid is actually UMC including the JR kid…and yes the Sidwell, O’Connell and other players.

Go look at the best NHL stars…outside of the Canadians they all come from elite boarding and private schools.

The best HS baseball players are primarily UMC including Ethan Holliday and basically every player on the U18 team that just won the international baseball championship in Panama. SJC has a kid that may go high in the 2026 draft and he is from Great Falls…who BTW has been getting training since a middle schooler. Bryce Eldridge trained at R&D privately for years even though he also had great coaches at Madison.

Once more…just name one player that fits your profile…you can’t even do that. That’s not how things work anymore.

You’re out of your mind. Seriously. Also, LOL to the “outside of the Canadians” comment re: the NHL (and you mean “outside of the Canadians… and the Europeans” anyway, so you know, most of the players in the NHL) but sure, I think ice hockey *in the US* is more of a rich kid sport. Happy?

So…you come back with nothing…other than I am out of my mind because I gave several specific examples across multiple sports.

That’s literally all you have. I thought so.

You can’t give one example. BTW, the European hockey players are all plucked for National Academies at a young age. Same for basketball and soccer…for soccer, you have kids as young as 5 getting tagged for talent.

Ignorance is bliss.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is not true at all. There are tons of sports that require wealth. Sure it helps if kids have an athletic physique once they go through puberty; however, wealth makes quite a difference in a lot of sports.

Downhill skiing, squash, tennis, golf, hockey, equestrian sports, fencing, ice skating are some examples of sports that require tons of money. My friend taught at a private school in Florida where it accommodated students' sports schedules which included swimming, tennis, equestrian sports, fencing and car racing. All of those kids were super wealthy.

Yes they may require money but it doesn’t necessarily mean the kids will be good. Are you seriously debating this

Are you kidding? You need money to get good in tennis or golf. Even Francis Tiafoe needs serious training that JTCC provided him for FREE due to his family situation. Scott Scheffler wouldn't be the best golfer in the world had his family was poor.

If you have kid A and B with the same athletic ability, but kid A has wealth and kid B is poor, kid A will come out ahead in athletic because kid A gets the best training money can buy.

You’re forgetting about the genetics that are needed to create an elite athlete. You can bring the kid to reach his full potential by hard work, good nutrition and training but without certain genetics his full potential won’t be good enough.

Look at the Olympic sprinters. Do you think money would allow your child to be that fast? The ACTN3 gene, is sometimes referred to as the “athlete gene”. In our muscles, the two main types of muscle fibres are slow-twitch and fast-twitch fibres. These are the easily identified genes that can found on a DNA saliva test.

My family is middle class with a lot of athletes including pro athletes. Nobody needed crazy excessive training, no private coaches.

Both your lies about your family and your lack of understanding about how much training even the kid with great genetics undergo are comical.

Caleb Williams had a QB coach starting in 8th grade, Quincy Wilson has had professional coaching since 6th grade…the list goes on and on…

I don’t know, I think you have a pretty compelling list there of (let me count again) TWO examples of athletes who has professional coaching as kids. I think two gets you fully out of the realm of “anecdote” doesn’t it?

It’s everyone…considering you didnt even list your fake family pro athletes that’s infinitely more than your zero.

Name me one recent pro athlete that fits your description.

DP but are you asking for someone to name a professional athlete who got there not due to expensive private coaching but rather due to having superior genetics even though they were only middle class growing up?

You can’t be serious.

How can you possibly separate the two..even the ones with superior genetics all have private coaching. Everyone…they may get it for free or low cost…but they all get it.

So, yes name one that had no private coaching and turned pro.

I mean… I would think technically anyone who is on a high school team gets some form of private coaching (professional high school coaches are only going to coach the kids they personally select for their team, right?).

Maybe you need to define your terms here.

And if they’re getting extra private coaching for free, that’s because they have superior athletic ability and has nothing whatsoever to do with their family’s wealth or resources, so you are basically proving a PP’s point that if you’re athletic you don’t need money to make it…

I certainly don’t think some random Joe who has literally never been coached before is going to walk onto an NFL team.

I am uncertain as to the point you think you are making.

You don’t think there are kids blessed with great genetics that go nowhere in sports because they didn’t have money or connections to people that could help them? That’s most of them.

One of the best AAU travel teams in the DMV is Team Durant. Every kid on the team has multiple D1 offers. Every kid is actually UMC including the JR kid…and yes the Sidwell, O’Connell and other players.

Go look at the best NHL stars…outside of the Canadians they all come from elite boarding and private schools.

The best HS baseball players are primarily UMC including Ethan Holliday and basically every player on the U18 team that just won the international baseball championship in Panama. SJC has a kid that may go high in the 2026 draft and he is from Great Falls…who BTW has been getting training since a middle schooler. Bryce Eldridge trained at R&D privately for years even though he also had great coaches at Madison.

Once more…just name one player that fits your profile…you can’t even do that. That’s not how things work anymore.

You’re out of your mind. Seriously. Also, LOL to the “outside of the Canadians” comment re: the NHL (and you mean “outside of the Canadians… and the Europeans” anyway, so you know, most of the players in the NHL) but sure, I think ice hockey *in the US* is more of a rich kid sport. Happy?

So…you come back with nothing…other than I am out of my mind because I gave several specific examples across multiple sports.

That’s literally all you have. I thought so.

You can’t give one example. BTW, the European hockey players are all plucked for National Academies at a young age. Same for basketball and soccer…for soccer, you have kids as young as 5 getting tagged for talent.

Ignorance is bliss.

What you are failing to understand is the talented kids *aren’t paying* for their “elite” training. Parents like you, with no athletic ability and no size and no skill but with plenty of money, are paying to “train” your kids at these facilities… because they need your money to train the kids who actually have potential.

IMG academy costs 90K a year. You know who’s not paying that? Most of the kids who are going to turn pro. But the academy (which ultimately is only interested in training those kids) needs funding, and that’s where rich parents like you come in. Then they can lure in the next generation of suckers by touting how many of their alumni turned pro! But that’s not going to be your kid, Dude. If you’re the one seeking out the opportunities, and you’re the one paying for the training, your kid probably doesn’t have it. Sorry.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
You must have lived in a MC neighborhood. Hate to break it to you but NY and CA housing costs much more than your $1m DMV homes.

In my Langley neighborhood, homes are around 5M, and they are about .25 mile from Langley HS.

Pp here. We also live in a 10,000sf+ house in McLean. Our home is also worth around 5m. I still stand by that NY and CA real estate is more expensive than DMV homes.

I feel fairly rich around here in the DMV. I don’t feel rich at all in nyc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well, grit and motivation will die quickly when there simply are no opportunities. As the PP said, if there is just one competitive swim team/club, one competitive soccer club or gymnastics program, if you don't make it before middle school, the probability of making it later is about zero. A human being needs something to strive for. If there's nothing to strive for, the bar has been raised so high or made impossible to pass by some other means, people will disengage. Stop participating.

Wrong

That’s where you practice in the side to walk on to the team. Camps, 1:1 lessons, youbtube, pay a teen or college athlete, and practice your butt off.

FYI the top players practice their sports by themselves or with their dad or subs or friends 2+ hours a day OUTSIDE of team or organized practices.

Kids like that exist out there. That’s grit and motivation. The action and doing part. Not the wishing and whining part.

Soccer and bball in particular. Kids are out there playing it 2+ hours a day w friends or themselves, etc. All you need is shoes and a ball. If you’re good you’ll get picked off by a program

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is not true at all. There are tons of sports that require wealth. Sure it helps if kids have an athletic physique once they go through puberty; however, wealth makes quite a difference in a lot of sports.

Downhill skiing, squash, tennis, golf, hockey, equestrian sports, fencing, ice skating are some examples of sports that require tons of money. My friend taught at a private school in Florida where it accommodated students' sports schedules which included swimming, tennis, equestrian sports, fencing and car racing. All of those kids were super wealthy.

Yes they may require money but it doesn’t necessarily mean the kids will be good. Are you seriously debating this

Are you kidding? You need money to get good in tennis or golf. Even Francis Tiafoe needs serious training that JTCC provided him for FREE due to his family situation. Scott Scheffler wouldn't be the best golfer in the world had his family was poor.

If you have kid A and B with the same athletic ability, but kid A has wealth and kid B is poor, kid A will come out ahead in athletic because kid A gets the best training money can buy.

You’re forgetting about the genetics that are needed to create an elite athlete. You can bring the kid to reach his full potential by hard work, good nutrition and training but without certain genetics his full potential won’t be good enough.

Look at the Olympic sprinters. Do you think money would allow your child to be that fast? The ACTN3 gene, is sometimes referred to as the “athlete gene”. In our muscles, the two main types of muscle fibres are slow-twitch and fast-twitch fibres. These are the easily identified genes that can found on a DNA saliva test.

My family is middle class with a lot of athletes including pro athletes. Nobody needed crazy excessive training, no private coaches.

Both your lies about your family and your lack of understanding about how much training even the kid with great genetics undergo are comical.

Caleb Williams had a QB coach starting in 8th grade, Quincy Wilson has had professional coaching since 6th grade…the list goes on and on…

I don’t know, I think you have a pretty compelling list there of (let me count again) TWO examples of athletes who has professional coaching as kids. I think two gets you fully out of the realm of “anecdote” doesn’t it?

It’s everyone…considering you didnt even list your fake family pro athletes that’s infinitely more than your zero.

Name me one recent pro athlete that fits your description.

DP but are you asking for someone to name a professional athlete who got there not due to expensive private coaching but rather due to having superior genetics even though they were only middle class growing up?

You can’t be serious.

How can you possibly separate the two..even the ones with superior genetics all have private coaching. Everyone…they may get it for free or low cost…but they all get it.

So, yes name one that had no private coaching and turned pro.

I mean… I would think technically anyone who is on a high school team gets some form of private coaching (professional high school coaches are only going to coach the kids they personally select for their team, right?).

Maybe you need to define your terms here.

And if they’re getting extra private coaching for free, that’s because they have superior athletic ability and has nothing whatsoever to do with their family’s wealth or resources, so you are basically proving a PP’s point that if you’re athletic you don’t need money to make it…

I certainly don’t think some random Joe who has literally never been coached before is going to walk onto an NFL team.

I am uncertain as to the point you think you are making.

You don’t think there are kids blessed with great genetics that go nowhere in sports because they didn’t have money or connections to people that could help them? That’s most of them.

One of the best AAU travel teams in the DMV is Team Durant. Every kid on the team has multiple D1 offers. Every kid is actually UMC including the JR kid…and yes the Sidwell, O’Connell and other players.

Go look at the best NHL stars…outside of the Canadians they all come from elite boarding and private schools.

The best HS baseball players are primarily UMC including Ethan Holliday and basically every player on the U18 team that just won the international baseball championship in Panama. SJC has a kid that may go high in the 2026 draft and he is from Great Falls…who BTW has been getting training since a middle schooler. Bryce Eldridge trained at R&D privately for years even though he also had great coaches at Madison.

Once more…just name one player that fits your profile…you can’t even do that. That’s not how things work anymore.

You’re out of your mind. Seriously. Also, LOL to the “outside of the Canadians” comment re: the NHL (and you mean “outside of the Canadians… and the Europeans” anyway, so you know, most of the players in the NHL) but sure, I think ice hockey *in the US* is more of a rich kid sport. Happy?

So…you come back with nothing…other than I am out of my mind because I gave several specific examples across multiple sports.

That’s literally all you have. I thought so.

You can’t give one example. BTW, the European hockey players are all plucked for National Academies at a young age. Same for basketball and soccer…for soccer, you have kids as young as 5 getting tagged for talent.

Ignorance is bliss.

Agree. The New England boarding schools with girls or boys hockey programs scout 8th and 9th graders and bring in the strongest players on scholarship to Milton, etc.

My sibling lives in Las Vegas where a wealthy donor hockey fan has FREE hockey gear and heavily discounted lessons and ice hockey team programs. In order to build up the sport and players and talent base there. My others walk from their Summerlin house to the complex for practices or open skate 3-4 times a week. And it’s indoors, key to sports in the south.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is not true at all. There are tons of sports that require wealth. Sure it helps if kids have an athletic physique once they go through puberty; however, wealth makes quite a difference in a lot of sports.

Downhill skiing, squash, tennis, golf, hockey, equestrian sports, fencing, ice skating are some examples of sports that require tons of money. My friend taught at a private school in Florida where it accommodated students' sports schedules which included swimming, tennis, equestrian sports, fencing and car racing. All of those kids were super wealthy.

Yes they may require money but it doesn’t necessarily mean the kids will be good. Are you seriously debating this

Are you kidding? You need money to get good in tennis or golf. Even Francis Tiafoe needs serious training that JTCC provided him for FREE due to his family situation. Scott Scheffler wouldn't be the best golfer in the world had his family was poor.

If you have kid A and B with the same athletic ability, but kid A has wealth and kid B is poor, kid A will come out ahead in athletic because kid A gets the best training money can buy.

You’re forgetting about the genetics that are needed to create an elite athlete. You can bring the kid to reach his full potential by hard work, good nutrition and training but without certain genetics his full potential won’t be good enough.

Look at the Olympic sprinters. Do you think money would allow your child to be that fast? The ACTN3 gene, is sometimes referred to as the “athlete gene”. In our muscles, the two main types of muscle fibres are slow-twitch and fast-twitch fibres. These are the easily identified genes that can found on a DNA saliva test.

My family is middle class with a lot of athletes including pro athletes. Nobody needed crazy excessive training, no private coaches.

Both your lies about your family and your lack of understanding about how much training even the kid with great genetics undergo are comical.

Caleb Williams had a QB coach starting in 8th grade, Quincy Wilson has had professional coaching since 6th grade…the list goes on and on…

I don’t know, I think you have a pretty compelling list there of (let me count again) TWO examples of athletes who has professional coaching as kids. I think two gets you fully out of the realm of “anecdote” doesn’t it?

It’s everyone…considering you didnt even list your fake family pro athletes that’s infinitely more than your zero.

Name me one recent pro athlete that fits your description.

DP but are you asking for someone to name a professional athlete who got there not due to expensive private coaching but rather due to having superior genetics even though they were only middle class growing up?

You can’t be serious.

How can you possibly separate the two..even the ones with superior genetics all have private coaching. Everyone…they may get it for free or low cost…but they all get it.

So, yes name one that had no private coaching and turned pro.

I mean… I would think technically anyone who is on a high school team gets some form of private coaching (professional high school coaches are only going to coach the kids they personally select for their team, right?).

Maybe you need to define your terms here.

And if they’re getting extra private coaching for free, that’s because they have superior athletic ability and has nothing whatsoever to do with their family’s wealth or resources, so you are basically proving a PP’s point that if you’re athletic you don’t need money to make it…

I certainly don’t think some random Joe who has literally never been coached before is going to walk onto an NFL team.

I am uncertain as to the point you think you are making.

You don’t think there are kids blessed with great genetics that go nowhere in sports because they didn’t have money or connections to people that could help them? That’s most of them.

One of the best AAU travel teams in the DMV is Team Durant. Every kid on the team has multiple D1 offers. Every kid is actually UMC including the JR kid…and yes the Sidwell, O’Connell and other players.

Go look at the best NHL stars…outside of the Canadians they all come from elite boarding and private schools.

The best HS baseball players are primarily UMC including Ethan Holliday and basically every player on the U18 team that just won the international baseball championship in Panama. SJC has a kid that may go high in the 2026 draft and he is from Great Falls…who BTW has been getting training since a middle schooler. Bryce Eldridge trained at R&D privately for years even though he also had great coaches at Madison.

Once more…just name one player that fits your profile…you can’t even do that. That’s not how things work anymore.

You’re out of your mind. Seriously. Also, LOL to the “outside of the Canadians” comment re: the NHL (and you mean “outside of the Canadians… and the Europeans” anyway, so you know, most of the players in the NHL) but sure, I think ice hockey *in the US* is more of a rich kid sport. Happy?

So…you come back with nothing…other than I am out of my mind because I gave several specific examples across multiple sports.

That’s literally all you have. I thought so.

You can’t give one example. BTW, the European hockey players are all plucked for National Academies at a young age. Same for basketball and soccer…for soccer, you have kids as young as 5 getting tagged for talent.

Ignorance is bliss.

What you are failing to understand is the talented kids *aren’t paying* for their “elite” training. Parents like you, with no athletic ability and no size and no skill but with plenty of money, are paying to “train” your kids at these facilities… because they need your money to train the kids who actually have potential.

IMG academy costs 90K a year. You know who’s not paying that? Most of the kids who are going to turn pro. But the academy (which ultimately is only interested in training those kids) needs funding, and that’s where rich parents like you come in. Then they can lure in the next generation of suckers by touting how many of their alumni turned pro! But that’s not going to be your kid, Dude. If you’re the one seeking out the opportunities, and you’re the one paying for the training, your kid probably doesn’t have it. Sorry.

You still don’t have a point.

Now we’re back to many families want their kid to make their high school team, stay off screens, learn some teamwork, be a scholar athlete, and get into college.

Club sports at college are way more fun than the actual teams. Totally different college experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is not true at all. There are tons of sports that require wealth. Sure it helps if kids have an athletic physique once they go through puberty; however, wealth makes quite a difference in a lot of sports.

Downhill skiing, squash, tennis, golf, hockey, equestrian sports, fencing, ice skating are some examples of sports that require tons of money. My friend taught at a private school in Florida where it accommodated students' sports schedules which included swimming, tennis, equestrian sports, fencing and car racing. All of those kids were super wealthy.

Yes they may require money but it doesn’t necessarily mean the kids will be good. Are you seriously debating this

Are you kidding? You need money to get good in tennis or golf. Even Francis Tiafoe needs serious training that JTCC provided him for FREE due to his family situation. Scott Scheffler wouldn't be the best golfer in the world had his family was poor.

If you have kid A and B with the same athletic ability, but kid A has wealth and kid B is poor, kid A will come out ahead in athletic because kid A gets the best training money can buy.

You’re forgetting about the genetics that are needed to create an elite athlete. You can bring the kid to reach his full potential by hard work, good nutrition and training but without certain genetics his full potential won’t be good enough.

Look at the Olympic sprinters. Do you think money would allow your child to be that fast? The ACTN3 gene, is sometimes referred to as the “athlete gene”. In our muscles, the two main types of muscle fibres are slow-twitch and fast-twitch fibres. These are the easily identified genes that can found on a DNA saliva test.

My family is middle class with a lot of athletes including pro athletes. Nobody needed crazy excessive training, no private coaches.

Both your lies about your family and your lack of understanding about how much training even the kid with great genetics undergo are comical.

Caleb Williams had a QB coach starting in 8th grade, Quincy Wilson has had professional coaching since 6th grade…the list goes on and on…

I don’t know, I think you have a pretty compelling list there of (let me count again) TWO examples of athletes who has professional coaching as kids. I think two gets you fully out of the realm of “anecdote” doesn’t it?

It’s everyone…considering you didnt even list your fake family pro athletes that’s infinitely more than your zero.

Name me one recent pro athlete that fits your description.

DP but are you asking for someone to name a professional athlete who got there not due to expensive private coaching but rather due to having superior genetics even though they were only middle class growing up?

You can’t be serious.

How can you possibly separate the two..even the ones with superior genetics all have private coaching. Everyone…they may get it for free or low cost…but they all get it.

So, yes name one that had no private coaching and turned pro.

I mean… I would think technically anyone who is on a high school team gets some form of private coaching (professional high school coaches are only going to coach the kids they personally select for their team, right?).

Maybe you need to define your terms here.

And if they’re getting extra private coaching for free, that’s because they have superior athletic ability and has nothing whatsoever to do with their family’s wealth or resources, so you are basically proving a PP’s point that if you’re athletic you don’t need money to make it…

I certainly don’t think some random Joe who has literally never been coached before is going to walk onto an NFL team.

I am uncertain as to the point you think you are making.

You don’t think there are kids blessed with great genetics that go nowhere in sports because they didn’t have money or connections to people that could help them? That’s most of them.

One of the best AAU travel teams in the DMV is Team Durant. Every kid on the team has multiple D1 offers. Every kid is actually UMC including the JR kid…and yes the Sidwell, O’Connell and other players.

Go look at the best NHL stars…outside of the Canadians they all come from elite boarding and private schools.

The best HS baseball players are primarily UMC including Ethan Holliday and basically every player on the U18 team that just won the international baseball championship in Panama. SJC has a kid that may go high in the 2026 draft and he is from Great Falls…who BTW has been getting training since a middle schooler. Bryce Eldridge trained at R&D privately for years even though he also had great coaches at Madison.

Once more…just name one player that fits your profile…you can’t even do that. That’s not how things work anymore.

You’re out of your mind. Seriously. Also, LOL to the “outside of the Canadians” comment re: the NHL (and you mean “outside of the Canadians… and the Europeans” anyway, so you know, most of the players in the NHL) but sure, I think ice hockey *in the US* is more of a rich kid sport. Happy?

So…you come back with nothing…other than I am out of my mind because I gave several specific examples across multiple sports.

That’s literally all you have. I thought so.

You can’t give one example. BTW, the European hockey players are all plucked for National Academies at a young age. Same for basketball and soccer…for soccer, you have kids as young as 5 getting tagged for talent.

Ignorance is bliss.

What you are failing to understand is the talented kids *aren’t paying* for their “elite” training. Parents like you, with no athletic ability and no size and no skill but with plenty of money, are paying to “train” your kids at these facilities… because they need your money to train the kids who actually have potential.

IMG academy costs 90K a year. You know who’s not paying that? Most of the kids who are going to turn pro. But the academy (which ultimately is only interested in training those kids) needs funding, and that’s where rich parents like you come in. Then they can lure in the next generation of suckers by touting how many of their alumni turned pro! But that’s not going to be your kid, Dude. If you’re the one seeking out the opportunities, and you’re the one paying for the training, your kid probably doesn’t have it. Sorry.

This guy is spitting the truth