Mindset of Travel Sport Parents

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not OP, but wouldn't it be better for the future of the country if instead of encouraging your kids to compete and use all of their energy for something that is highly probable to be nothing more than a hobby in their lives, you have them learn to be aggressive and competitive academics and voracious readers? Just saying, studying is a learned skill. A PP asked how we use our weekends if not travel sports...um, our kid in elementary school is learning a second language, going to museums, reading...things that will make a difference to them and to our country.

Right, because being an academic scholar and a competitive athlete are mutually exclusive.

When in reality, the habits learned on the field or the court translate to the classroom, and visa versa.

I'm raising my son to be a renaissance man. The honor roll student and the captain of the team

Renaissance mom 😂

[Anonymous]

Our kids love their sports. They have gotten better at the activities they love, made good friends, learned how to be good teammates and so much more. And we love watching them play and grow and develop and have become good friends with some of the families.

I agree, it’s not for everyone. But that’s the great thing about America! You do what gives you joy, and my family will do what gives us joy. ✌️

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know about others but for us it is quite simple. Our kid loves her sport and we love our kid.
She has too much skill to play rec level as it is frustrating for her. The travel level provides her with the challenge she craves.
She sets the pace and as her parents we want to support her. Nothing more, nothing less.

The dc metro area has a ton of the same level players as your kid—why does she need to travel to Delaware and North Carolina when there are players around here at her level? I get not wanting to do rec, but why do the “travel” teams have to travel so far they need hotels? You are ALL leaving the area when you can play each other here.

The one year we did a travel sport, DS's team flew to Nashville to compete against a team from Silver Spring. Stupidest thing ever.
A lot of adults are making a lot of money of these stupid tournaments and teams... it makes me irate if I thikn about it too much.

[Anonymous]

All of the above OP, also, parents don't like the idea of kids having free time anymore.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know about others but for us it is quite simple. Our kid loves her sport and we love our kid.
She has too much skill to play rec level as it is frustrating for her. The travel level provides her with the challenge she craves.
She sets the pace and as her parents we want to support her. Nothing more, nothing less.

The dc metro area has a ton of the same level players as your kid—why does she need to travel to Delaware and North Carolina when there are players around here at her level? I get not wanting to do rec, but why do the “travel” teams have to travel so far they need hotels? You are ALL leaving the area when you can play each other here.

Lots of DC area travel teams do play the bulk of their games in the local area.

In high school there are certain tournaments that are well attended by college coaches. If you’re looking to be recruited it is easier to be seen that way, or in some sports basically a necessity to be taken seriously.

[Anonymous]

Sadly, OP, these activities have taken the place of a traditional childhood. Parents are afraid of letting their kids have freedom.

[Anonymous]

Because without playing travel/club or other intensive lessons and training- kids have no chance to make their high school teams. Unless you send your kid to small school somehow. Public high schools are huge these days.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not OP, but wouldn't it be better for the future of the country if instead of encouraging your kids to compete and use all of their energy for something that is highly probable to be nothing more than a hobby in their lives, you have them learn to be aggressive and competitive academics and voracious readers? Just saying, studying is a learned skill. A PP asked how we use our weekends if not travel sports...um, our kid in elementary school is learning a second language, going to museums, reading...things that will make a difference to them and to our country.

Right, because being an academic scholar and a competitive athlete are mutually exclusive.

When in reality, the habits learned on the field or the court translate to the classroom, and visa versa.

I'm raising my son to be a renaissance man. The honor roll student and the captain of the team

Renaissance mom 😂

Can cook a gourmet dinner, quote poetry, AND explain the infield fly rule. lol

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:BC around 9 or 10, if you're kid likes the game, rec gets boring AF.

In rec, there are kids that don't care or don't want to be there. And that is so frustrating for the kid that wants to play and compete and learn.

Yeah, sometimes it sucks getting up at 5:30 to drive to a softball game on a saturday morning. But when your 10yo DD already set her alarm, put her uniform on, made her water and is waiting for you in the garage, you know its something she really loves

We’ve always done more “local travel” travel teams, but quite frankly in some sports (eg baseball) it becomes downright dangerous to have a highly skilled player continuing to play in rec leagues.

Unless some people think it’s a good idea for kids who throw the ball 70+mph to be on a field with kids picking daisies or who literally just can’t reliably catch a ball.

[Anonymous]

We do travel sports because our kid was tired of terrible coaching and uninterested teammates.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Because my kid has been really intense about sports from a young age (DH and I are reasonably athletic/played competitive sports when we were younger).

He was getting frustrated with rec baseball because some kids are still digging in the dirt even at age 9/10. And unfortunately where we live there isn’t an intermediate league in between rec and travel (I think there is a huge untapped market of families who want more competition than rec without travel commitment, but I digress).

DS really wanted to try out for travel and made it his first year. From talking with others it seems like there is an advantage getting in at an early age because there does seem to be an edge for returning players vs new kids trying out. Maybe we’ve lucked out, but practices are 15 min from home max (sometimes right down the street) and even scrimmages/non-tournament games haven’t been too far. Even travel tournaments are often driveable from home or we make a family trip of it. Financially we can afford this without it making a huge dent in our budget so I recognize we are lucky in that regard.

If all my kid ever gets out of this is experiencing camaraderie, a love of physical fitness, and practice toward setting and reaching goals I think that is worth it. He has a 529 and we plan to pay for college, so not banking on any scholarship. Don’t care about keeping up with the Joneses either, we live a pretty low key life (modest house, non-fancy cars, etc.)

I’m curious why anyone whose kid isn’t into travel sports remotely cares about this?

Just FYI...if your kid plays on a program that gets a lot of kids recruited by college, this probably won't apply at 17u. My kid joined a team at 17u that cut the majority of the team at the 17u year and replaced them with better players...these were kids that had been playing for years, some since 10u.

This team prides itself on getting kids recruited for college and the summer of 16u, and then Fall/Summer of 17u are the most critical time. If they don't think your kid is college recruitable, then they don't keep them.

My only advice is pay attention to the 16u (again, they make changes between Fall and Summer) and 17u teams, and what the program does at those ages.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No expectation here of college sports at all. If it leads there I would be pleasantly surprised but I know it’s very, very unlikely. And that’s fine.

Here's the thing. Except for the very rare stud athlete or football if your kid isn't on a travel/club team, your kid is going to struggle to get on the field at most highly competitive high school programs or large HS. It stinks but kids that have been playing on a club/travel team will just be that more advanced than those that don't. Doesn't mean there aren't rare occasions where a rec player can't make the jump or that that there are some HSs or teams that they can't play but for your big sports - baseball, basketball, soccer, etc., you better have more than rec sports in your kid's history. This is especially true if your kid is a boy. For girls there is more lee way.

This is a great point. Unless your kid really desires to do not cut sport like XC, there's a slim chance of making any HS team if you don't switch to club around 10.

Our HS had over 100 kids try out for the baseball team. The poor rec kids had no idea what the level of play was going to be.

+1

This is how it is at our HS too, for pretty much every cut sport.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The parents I know on our clubs ECNL 2012 team are almost all prior college athletes. There’s probably an expectation that their kids will play something in college too.

Almost none of these kids make it to high school varsity never mind college.

[Anonymous]

We should do a post about the mindset of rec player parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not OP, but wouldn't it be better for the future of the country if instead of encouraging your kids to compete and use all of their energy for something that is highly probable to be nothing more than a hobby in their lives, you have them learn to be aggressive and competitive academics and voracious readers? Just saying, studying is a learned skill. A PP asked how we use our weekends if not travel sports...um, our kid in elementary school is learning a second language, going to museums, reading...things that will make a difference to them and to our country.

Right, because being an academic scholar and a competitive athlete are mutually exclusive.

When in reality, the habits learned on the field or the court translate to the classroom, and visa versa.

I'm raising my son to be a renaissance man. The honor roll student and the captain of the team

Renaissance mom 😂

Can cook a gourmet dinner, quote poetry, AND explain the infield fly rule. lol

Wow