Wussification of America: Arlington Parks and Rec edition

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP is intense of course. overly so. But he has a point about the wussifying of our kids. Kids can play sports in mild rain and 45 degrees. We used to do it all the time growing up. Just another lesson in dealing with adversity. It builds character.

Sports these days are increasingly removing perseverance for the sake of kids and their parents feeling "comfortable" or "safe."
Truth is the world is not comfortable nor safe. People have to deal with shit. Even at a young age.

I have the opposite experience.

Things used to get called for weather much more when I was a kid (70s/80s) because we didn't have turf fields. I played very competitive soccer--but practices got cancelled for heavy rain, etc.

Now my 7 and 10-year old play solely on turf and unless it's a lightning storm nothing gets cancelled. This is not about the kids though. This is about clubs not wanting the headache of having to reschedule things.

[Anonymous]

If it is a grass field and there is enough rain they close the fields to protect them. Soggy fields get diatribes very quickly and fields I. This area are already over used. If there is snow on turf, that is more of a liability issue for the safety of the players.

Also - kids should really be learning and "getting reps" during practice/training, games should be for fun and seeing how they respond to a bit of pressure.

Now go run a few miles, take some deep breaths and calm down. Your getting all wound up about kids sports (which few people care about), and baseball especially (which even fewer care about), with the impending consequence of an eventual potential impact high school baseball game (which absolutely no one cares about, then or now). You could be worried about the condition of leftover coleslaw at Golden Corral and more people would care.

[Anonymous]

In middle school I used to play ball in 45 degree weather in Chicago in parks right on Lake Michigan. I was a pitcher. The wind was so bad our fingers wouldn't open in time, and even once we did get the timing down the wind would still push balls all over the place. Result? Wild pitches, overthrows, errors. It didn't make us better players in any way. It didn't make us better people. It was just miserable and it hurt our stats. (not that we thought about such things, but OP seems like he might)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP is intense of course. overly so. But he has a point about the wussifying of our kids. Kids can play sports in mild rain and 45 degrees. We used to do it all the time growing up. Just another lesson in dealing with adversity. It builds character.

Sports these days are increasingly removing perseverance for the sake of kids and their parents feeling "comfortable" or "safe."
Truth is the world is not comfortable nor safe. People have to deal with shit. Even at a young age.

Ha ha ha. 45 degrees and mild rain is beach weather where I'm from (Maine). We played outside until the wind chill is 30 below. But I bet no kid in Arizona has ever played in the rain. Are they wusses for not doing that? Or are your kids wusses for not playing in 100 degree heat?

These comparisons to "the good old days," or "where I grew up," or "kids on the travel teams" or "kids on the rec teams" are just dumb. Anyone can cherry pick two pieces of information and draw a meaningless comparison.

[Anonymous]

Wow OP just wow. Some real first world problems you have there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Nice job, Arlington Parks and Rec. Great job, great effort

We had a game this afternoon, and the snow stopped around noon. Yet Parks and Rec went ahead and canceled all games today by 11:00 AM.

Thanks fellas. Our boys have got to get reps against live pitching, but they won't because a bureaucrat says no. They desperately need experience fielding in live game conditions, and when you don't know where the ball's going to go. But no, Arlington Parks and Rec doesn't see it that way because "families need to plan their days".

I wrote about this earlier this week, how our travel teams and eventually the high school programs suffer because adults make bad decisions.

Today's canceled game is gone. Coach pitch is about kids learning to hit and field. You need to learn how much to get the job done not just when it's sunny and 75 degrees, but also when it's drizzling and struggling to climb over 40.

Coaches Doug Grove and John Skaggs, at W-L and Yorktown, respectively, are a game UNDER .500 this season. They're paying now for the missed reps from cancelling Coach pitch games ten years ago...games they played out in Fairfax County!

This is where we fall behind. A kid in House league may catch the sniffles playing today. Maybe some South Lakes kid will come down with lymphoma in 20 years after getting reps in on crumb rubber turf.

We can't know the unknown. What we DO KNOW is that great Arlington high school coaches are losing games NOW because their kids missed game reps ten years ago. Reps that can't be replaced. And thanks to Arlington County Parks and Rec, we're making the same mistake again, canceling Coach pitch games because it's cold (but ABOVE FREEZING) and it MIGHT rain this afternoon (but it's NOT)!!!

Hi coach - is tonight's practice still on?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nice job, Arlington Parks and Rec. Great job, great effort

We had a game this afternoon, and the snow stopped around noon. Yet Parks and Rec went ahead and canceled all games today by 11:00 AM.

Thanks fellas. Our boys have got to get reps against live pitching, but they won't because a bureaucrat says no. They desperately need experience fielding in live game conditions, and when you don't know where the ball's going to go. But no, Arlington Parks and Rec doesn't see it that way because "families need to plan their days".

I wrote about this earlier this week, how our travel teams and eventually the high school programs suffer because adults make bad decisions.

Today's canceled game is gone. Coach pitch is about kids learning to hit and field. You need to learn how much to get the job done not just when it's sunny and 75 degrees, but also when it's drizzling and struggling to climb over 40.

Coaches Doug Grove and John Skaggs, at W-L and Yorktown, respectively, are a game UNDER .500 this season. They're paying now for the missed reps from cancelling Coach pitch games ten years ago...games they played out in Fairfax County!

This is where we fall behind. A kid in House league may catch the sniffles playing today. Maybe some South Lakes kid will come down with lymphoma in 20 years after getting reps in on crumb rubber turf.

We can't know the unknown. What we DO KNOW is that great Arlington high school coaches are losing games NOW because their kids missed game reps ten years ago. Reps that can't be replaced. And thanks to Arlington County Parks and Rec, we're making the same mistake again, canceling Coach pitch games because it's cold (but ABOVE FREEZING) and it MIGHT rain this afternoon (but it's NOT)!!!

Hi coach - is tonight's practice still on?

OP here: Tonight we had a makeup game from the Saturday ppd. My kids KICKED A**!!! They hammered the other team from the first pitch I threw, taking the extra base at every opportunity. They also made great decisions in the field.

What's best, though, is that they showed the opposition players what an elite-level Coach pitch team looks like. They set the standard for what kids will need to make an 8u travel team here in summer 2017. No daydreaming in the outfield, no half-swings, full hustle on every pitch.

After the game, I just shook my head at the two dorks who "coached" our opponents. They're truly a joke, a couple of "it's all good", "good try" types who can't coach their team out of a paper bag. I feel really sad for a couple of their players who might have potential, but won't get challenged to be the best under these two bozos. The worst was when the one who "pitched" kept bouncing balls because his wrist flopped all over the place. Finally I went out and told him I'd pitch. It was the first time these kids faced actually GOOD pitches. I can't imagine what the high school coaches think, with losers like this failing to train their ball players. That's twelve kids down the drain because the coaches can't find their b*lls and DEMAND excellence.

I've thought about ordering my players to tell their opponents in the "good game" line that their coaches s**k. It's probably against the bylaws to do that, but Coach pitch is where you lock down your fielding skills. Can't do that if the other coach can't get it over the plate. Kids listen to each other, and kids should know who's a bad coach. The damage bad coaches do to our HS program is enormous. We can and will get it done, but we all gotta pull together.

[Anonymous]

OP, how old are you really? You sound like a HS troll.

[Anonymous]

He is a troll, but I know parents like this. They push their kid in one sport. Never let them try something else. By 8th grade, kid ends up hating the sport. They don't want to play, but parent(s) make them. By 10th grade they quit. Their heart is not in it. Players have caught up to them or surpassed them in terms of level, drive, commitment. It is sad. Let kids be who they want to be.

[Anonymous]

We were on Barcroft for a 9:30 a.m. game. Things started out cold but fine. But 15 minutes into it, conditions were getting really wet and dangerous in the base paths and the bases themselves. So we stopped after an inning.

Later, I was at a different field and it was still muddy. In fact, fields froze overnight.

I think Parks and Recs made the right call and I think you're a lazy, obnoxious prick for using the term "wussification."

If you really wanted to play, you could have gotten out there yourself and raked the field with some Turface and called the rover to come proclaim your field playable. Quit being such a whiny-ass bitch and do something about it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP is intense of course. overly so. But he has a point about the wussifying of our kids. Kids can play sports in mild rain and 45 degrees. We used to do it all the time growing up. Just another lesson in dealing with adversity. It builds character.

Sports these days are increasingly removing perseverance for the sake of kids and their parents feeling "comfortable" or "safe."
Truth is the world is not comfortable nor safe. People have to deal with shit. Even at a young age.

What a stupid, prattling string of canards and baseless assertions.

[Anonymous]

Any man living in Arlngton who is nonmilitary has already lost the wussfication battle, bro.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nice job, Arlington Parks and Rec. Great job, great effort

We had a game this afternoon, and the snow stopped around noon. Yet Parks and Rec went ahead and canceled all games today by 11:00 AM.

Thanks fellas. Our boys have got to get reps against live pitching, but they won't because a bureaucrat says no. They desperately need experience fielding in live game conditions, and when you don't know where the ball's going to go. But no, Arlington Parks and Rec doesn't see it that way because "families need to plan their days".

I wrote about this earlier this week, how our travel teams and eventually the high school programs suffer because adults make bad decisions.

Today's canceled game is gone. Coach pitch is about kids learning to hit and field. You need to learn how much to get the job done not just when it's sunny and 75 degrees, but also when it's drizzling and struggling to climb over 40.

Coaches Doug Grove and John Skaggs, at W-L and Yorktown, respectively, are a game UNDER .500 this season. They're paying now for the missed reps from cancelling Coach pitch games ten years ago...games they played out in Fairfax County!

This is where we fall behind. A kid in House league may catch the sniffles playing today. Maybe some South Lakes kid will come down with lymphoma in 20 years after getting reps in on crumb rubber turf.

We can't know the unknown. What we DO KNOW is that great Arlington high school coaches are losing games NOW because their kids missed game reps ten years ago. Reps that can't be replaced. And thanks to Arlington County Parks and Rec, we're making the same mistake again, canceling Coach pitch games because it's cold (but ABOVE FREEZING) and it MIGHT rain this afternoon (but it's NOT)!!!

Hi coach - is tonight's practice still on?

OP here: Tonight we had a makeup game from the Saturday ppd. My kids KICKED A**!!! They hammered the other team from the first pitch I threw, taking the extra base at every opportunity. They also made great decisions in the field.

What's best, though, is that they showed the opposition players what an elite-level Coach pitch team looks like. They set the standard for what kids will need to make an 8u travel team here in summer 2017. No daydreaming in the outfield, no half-swings, full hustle on every pitch.

After the game, I just shook my head at the two dorks who "coached" our opponents. They're truly a joke, a couple of "it's all good", "good try" types who can't coach their team out of a paper bag. I feel really sad for a couple of their players who might have potential, but won't get challenged to be the best under these two bozos. The worst was when the one who "pitched" kept bouncing balls because his wrist flopped all over the place. Finally I went out and told him I'd pitch. It was the first time these kids faced actually GOOD pitches. I can't imagine what the high school coaches think, with losers like this failing to train their ball players. That's twelve kids down the drain because the coaches can't find their b*lls and DEMAND excellence.

I've thought about ordering my players to tell their opponents in the "good game" line that their coaches s**k. It's probably against the bylaws to do that, but Coach pitch is where you lock down your fielding skills. Can't do that if the other coach can't get it over the plate. Kids listen to each other, and kids should know who's a bad coach. The damage bad coaches do to our HS program is enormous. We can and will get it done, but we all gotta pull together.

Well, that made me laugh - what're we talking about 6 - 7 year olds? Hey coach, you're a massive tool! I guess you fall short somewhere so you overcompensate with an over intense focus on "professional level" kids sports. Loser!

I know what an excellent high school athletic program looks like. I'm a graduate of one. Look up Smith, George and St. Thomas Aquinas High School.

[Anonymous]

Wow, this dude is a piece of work. I'm glad I don't have my kid in this sport or anywhere near him.

[Anonymous]

Everyone on this thread needs to watch this movie:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3113448/

It''s about girls' softball nominally. But really it's about youth sports parents in general.