Please help us understand the youth sports culture in the US

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:America's Pastime is baseball. Everyone gets a turn at bat, not just the biggest/fastest/strongest. The strike zone adjusts to the size of the batter. And the defense posseses the ball. It allows smaller, less athletic...but smart ballplayers to thrive. More kids play and that leads to more kids playing other sports as well.

I think sports are great because it's working really hard at something very difficult. And failing (a lot!) in a public setting. Good life skills.

Baseball is a distant second to basketball in youth participation.

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Journal/Issues/2022/09/26/Portfolio/Sports-participation.aspx

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:America's Pastime is baseball. Everyone gets a turn at bat, not just the biggest/fastest/strongest. The strike zone adjusts to the size of the batter. And the defense posseses the ball. It allows smaller, less athletic...but smart ballplayers to thrive. More kids play and that leads to more kids playing other sports as well.

I think sports are great because it's working really hard at something very difficult. And failing (a lot!) in a public setting. Good life skills.

LOL what?! Maybe through age 12 in rec ball. After that…not really. Baseball is absolutely cutthroat. Most kids quit by age 12-13.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well this is all quite interesting but what’s even more interesting is that the international sports in college are primarily dominated by international students so they must be practicing somewhere somehow 🤔

That’s because many international kids see sports as a way to get recruited by US colleges . For instance , the ivies and several top 50 colleges recruit heavily for squash from Egypt. As a result, some kids in Egypt are very intense about squash training because they see it as their ticket to a free college education in the US.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:America's Pastime is baseball. Everyone gets a turn at bat, not just the biggest/fastest/strongest. The strike zone adjusts to the size of the batter. And the defense posseses the ball. It allows smaller, less athletic...but smart ballplayers to thrive. More kids play and that leads to more kids playing other sports as well.

I think sports are great because it's working really hard at something very difficult. And failing (a lot!) in a public setting. Good life skills.

Where we live baseball is the rec sport for the out of shape, can't run kids. Until they get old enough for tackle.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Immigrant mom nerd again:

The other thing is that the schools know these kids have very supportive and wealthy parents if they are in travel sports.

It’s is very very very time consuming to do these sports and it takes a ton of money (hotels every weekend for games sometimes) and a ton of time management from the parents and the kids. Do not assume these kids are “dumb athletes” - they probably would do as well as your kid in school if they weren’t at practice 3 hours a day.

So it’s not just that your kid got passed over because they weren’t sporty. It’s because if they are in travel sports (which kinda needs to happen to even get onto high school teams now) they are wealthy, very involved parents. It might not appear that way, but my experience we are talking 7 figures in secret.

NP. The bolded is making the point it's tdying to debunk.
If my kid spends 3 hours a day deep diving into a brainy academic topic (well, when not if), they grow smarter than yours, every time. Sprinkle on top some rec level sports and they are well-rounded and healthy.

OP is absolutely right that it's an American cultural quirk.

I don't agree with the smarter than the athletic kid every time narrative. I was a full scholarship guy and NCAA D1 All American. If I learned anything in college, it was to manage my time. And if I picked up a skill, it was the ability to handle strenuous academic competition with out batting an eye. I wasn't ever really stressed - heck - it was just school. Competition was second nature. I went to a top 10 law school, was not as smart as your brainy kid deep diving into an academic topic, but did really well on very little work (like 18 hours a week including classroom time). Second in the class and law review editor. I had an intense system which was not reliant on hours spent. Yes, i should have worked harder but I knew when I hit the right level of preparation. My brother had similar academic and athletic credentials, and earned a Phd in Econ from that private school which sits on the lake in Hyde Park in Chicago. Your brainy kid likely couldn't touch him academically. I know posts like infuriate DCUM anti-athlete types (which abound here) but I wouldn't have been nearly as effective in academic pursuits without athletics. Reaching the top level of athletics is really hard unless you have one in a billion talent (I did not), and the advantages obtained are real if you focus on applying them. I don't think the pursuit of athletics and athletics is only an American cultural quirk. Laura Muir of Scotland became an Olympic medal winner in middle distances while engaging full time in veterinary study. She is a vet now. You can bet she knows the value of athletic competition. I am also pleased to see that India did well in the world track championships, with a runner setting a very impressive Asian record and being the first non-East African in a distance event, and their javelin thrower winning the gold medal, following up on a prior Olympic gold medal. It is no small feat to throw a javelin 90 meters. I don't like stereotypes in sports and indeed globally performances are becoming more diverse. Every time someone tells me East Asians are not good at athletics I ask them to look up the Japanese track and field records. They are for the most part very, very good, even in the sprints. Heck, even their pole vault records tops 19 feet. By and large they are impressive people both athletically and academically and professionally.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Immigrant mom nerd again:

The other thing is that the schools know these kids have very supportive and wealthy parents if they are in travel sports.

It’s is very very very time consuming to do these sports and it takes a ton of money (hotels every weekend for games sometimes) and a ton of time management from the parents and the kids. Do not assume these kids are “dumb athletes” - they probably would do as well as your kid in school if they weren’t at practice 3 hours a day.

So it’s not just that your kid got passed over because they weren’t sporty. It’s because if they are in travel sports (which kinda needs to happen to even get onto high school teams now) they are wealthy, very involved parents. It might not appear that way, but my experience we are talking 7 figures in secret.

NP. The bolded is making the point it's tdying to debunk.
If my kid spends 3 hours a day deep diving into a brainy academic topic (well, when not if), they grow smarter than yours, every time. Sprinkle on top some rec level sports and they are well-rounded and healthy.

OP is absolutely right that it's an American cultural quirk.

I don't agree with the smarter than the athletic kid every time narrative. I was a full scholarship guy and NCAA D1 All American. If I learned anything in college, it was to manage my time. And if I picked up a skill, it was the ability to handle strenuous academic competition with out batting an eye. I wasn't ever really stressed - heck - it was just school. Competition was second nature. I went to a top 10 law school, was not as smart as your brainy kid deep diving into an academic topic, but did really well on very little work (like 18 hours a week including classroom time). Second in the class and law review editor. I had an intense system which was not reliant on hours spent. Yes, i should have worked harder but I knew when I hit the right level of preparation. My brother had similar academic and athletic credentials, and earned a Phd in Econ from that private school which sits on the lake in Hyde Park in Chicago. Your brainy kid likely couldn't touch him academically. I know posts like infuriate DCUM anti-athlete types (which abound here) but I wouldn't have been nearly as effective in academic pursuits without athletics. Reaching the top level of athletics is really hard unless you have one in a billion talent (I did not), and the advantages obtained are real if you focus on applying them. I don't think the pursuit of athletics and athletics is only an American cultural quirk. Laura Muir of Scotland became an Olympic medal winner in middle distances while engaging full time in veterinary study. She is a vet now. You can bet she knows the value of athletic competition. I am also pleased to see that India did well in the world track championships, with a runner setting a very impressive Asian record and being the first non-East African in a distance event, and their javelin thrower winning the gold medal, following up on a prior Olympic gold medal. It is no small feat to throw a javelin 90 meters. I don't like stereotypes in sports and indeed globally performances are becoming more diverse. Every time someone tells me East Asians are not good at athletics I ask them to look up the Japanese track and field records. They are for the most part very, very good, even in the sprints. Heck, even their pole vault records tops 19 feet. By and large they are impressive people both athletically and academically and professionally.

But honestly you know most athletes are pretty thick. For every one of you there are 1,000 that take the easiest courses offered and are barely literate.

My kid plays on a team where nearly everyone is either already committed or will be committed by this Summer (between Jr and Sr year of HS) to D1 programs and while they are good kids…they are mostly lunkheads. Let’s not pretend otherwise.

[Anonymous]

Op I don't get it either...I am not an immigrant but grew up in an upwardly striving immigrant community. Academics came first where I grew up and music and sports were tied for second. I don't get the obsession yet somehow my kids do...and now I'm the sucker toting them around to their travel team activities