WWYD: youth sports coaching question

[Anonymous]

A lot of rec basketball and soccer leagues do not allow kids who play travel basketball/soccer to play in their leagues, for this reason. Its unfair to the rec kids and coaches to have to deal with kids who register and never plan on showing up to practice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sad that you aren't teaching your kid to respect his commitments, coach and teammates .

If you insist on going to every practice of a team, you can only play one sport/team per season, bc your kid doesn’t get to pick their practice times. You sign up and get to as many as you can. Sometimes you get lucky with no conflicts and sometimes you don’t. These people who keep insisting that a kid has to be at every practice for a rec team have kids that only play rec and just don’t get it.

The kids who play travel sports are talented and other kids and many coaches want them on their rec teams. It’s fun to play with your buddy who is really good at basketball, and it’s more fun to win than lose.

You can request to be moved to a rec team with a practice that doesn't conflict with your travel team.

Maybe in some leagues. But, in CYO, for example, you are playing for your parish/school team with friends. Even if it’s a bigger league, most kids want to play with their friends, and if the conflict is with that practice, they don’t want to change. A travel player is not playing rec to be on a random team - they are on the rec team with their friends.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sad that you aren't teaching your kid to respect his commitments, coach and teammates .

If you insist on going to every practice of a team, you can only play one sport/team per season, bc your kid doesn’t get to pick their practice times. You sign up and get to as many as you can. Sometimes you get lucky with no conflicts and sometimes you don’t. These people who keep insisting that a kid has to be at every practice for a rec team have kids that only play rec and just don’t get it.

The kids who play travel sports are talented and other kids and many coaches want them on their rec teams. It’s fun to play with your buddy who is really good at basketball, and it’s more fun to win than lose.

Wrong. All 3 of my kids played travel - when they signed up for rec, we indicated their practice conflicts. If rec league worked out, they went to every practice. If rec league didn't work out, then just played travel. What they did not do is stay on rec team, miss most of the practices and still expect to play in all the games. Most rec leagues have player drafts anyway so this idea of just "playing with friends" is wrong to begin with....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sad that you aren't teaching your kid to respect his commitments, coach and teammates .

If you insist on going to every practice of a team, you can only play one sport/team per season, bc your kid doesn’t get to pick their practice times. You sign up and get to as many as you can. Sometimes you get lucky with no conflicts and sometimes you don’t. These people who keep insisting that a kid has to be at every practice for a rec team have kids that only play rec and just don’t get it.

The kids who play travel sports are talented and other kids and many coaches want them on their rec teams. It’s fun to play with your buddy who is really good at basketball, and it’s more fun to win than lose.

You can request to be moved to a rec team with a practice that doesn't conflict with your travel team.

Maybe in some leagues. But, in CYO, for example, you are playing for your parish/school team with friends. Even if it’s a bigger league, most kids want to play with their friends, and if the conflict is with that practice, they don’t want to change. A travel player is not playing rec to be on a random team - they are on the rec team with their friends.

Then they shouldn't let their friends down by only showing up for games.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sad that you aren't teaching your kid to respect his commitments, coach and teammates .

If you insist on going to every practice of a team, you can only play one sport/team per season, bc your kid doesn’t get to pick their practice times. You sign up and get to as many as you can. Sometimes you get lucky with no conflicts and sometimes you don’t. These people who keep insisting that a kid has to be at every practice for a rec team have kids that only play rec and just don’t get it.

The kids who play travel sports are talented and other kids and many coaches want them on their rec teams. It’s fun to play with your buddy who is really good at basketball, and it’s more fun to win than lose.

Wrong. All 3 of my kids played travel - when they signed up for rec, we indicated their practice conflicts. If rec league worked out, they went to every practice. If rec league didn't work out, then just played travel. What they did not do is stay on rec team, miss most of the practices and still expect to play in all the games. Most rec leagues have player drafts anyway so this idea of just "playing with friends" is wrong to begin with....

Yeah that’s the way it was 40 years ago

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sad that you aren't teaching your kid to respect his commitments, coach and teammates .

If you insist on going to every practice of a team, you can only play one sport/team per season, bc your kid doesn’t get to pick their practice times. You sign up and get to as many as you can. Sometimes you get lucky with no conflicts and sometimes you don’t. These people who keep insisting that a kid has to be at every practice for a rec team have kids that only play rec and just don’t get it.

The kids who play travel sports are talented and other kids and many coaches want them on their rec teams. It’s fun to play with your buddy who is really good at basketball, and it’s more fun to win than lose.

Wrong. All 3 of my kids played travel - when they signed up for rec, we indicated their practice conflicts. If rec league worked out, they went to every practice. If rec league didn't work out, then just played travel. What they did not do is stay on rec team, miss most of the practices and still expect to play in all the games. Most rec leagues have player drafts anyway so this idea of just "playing with friends" is wrong to begin with....

Yeah that’s the way it was 40 years ago

Ah ok so current parents don't care about teaching kids commitment and responsibility. Got it.

[Anonymous]

What leagues are these that let kids sign up for teams where the practices work with their schedule and then switch when they don’t, bc we’ve never been given that option! It’s take it or leave it!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What leagues are these that let kids sign up for teams where the practices work with their schedule and then switch when they don’t, bc we’ve never been given that option! It’s take it or leave it!

Not switch when it doesn’t but get refund if they can’t make practices.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What leagues are these that let kids sign up for teams where the practices work with their schedule and then switch when they don’t, bc we’ve never been given that option! It’s take it or leave it!

In all fairness if you contact the league organizers, they'll do their best to make it work. Your kid might not get to play/practice at the closest school or their classmates.

And if there's no way it'll work, they'll usually give refunds.

I've had to send families to league organizers because of these types of conflicts, have seen other league organizers try to accommodate such requests, and have had to request them before for our family as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sad that you aren't teaching your kid to respect his commitments, coach and teammates .

If you insist on going to every practice of a team, you can only play one sport/team per season, bc your kid doesn’t get to pick their practice times. You sign up and get to as many as you can. Sometimes you get lucky with no conflicts and sometimes you don’t. These people who keep insisting that a kid has to be at every practice for a rec team have kids that only play rec and just don’t get it.

The kids who play travel sports are talented and other kids and many coaches want them on their rec teams. It’s fun to play with your buddy who is really good at basketball, and it’s more fun to win than lose.

Wrong. All 3 of my kids played travel - when they signed up for rec, we indicated their practice conflicts. If rec league worked out, they went to every practice. If rec league didn't work out, then just played travel. What they did not do is stay on rec team, miss most of the practices and still expect to play in all the games. Most rec leagues have player drafts anyway so this idea of just "playing with friends" is wrong to begin with....

+1

Yes, *sometimes* there are conflicts. *Sometimes* a kid needs to miss practice.

OP is talking about an extreme example of a kid NEVER intending to make a practice. That’s not okay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sad that you aren't teaching your kid to respect his commitments, coach and teammates .

If you insist on going to every practice of a team, you can only play one sport/team per season, bc your kid doesn’t get to pick their practice times. You sign up and get to as many as you can. Sometimes you get lucky with no conflicts and sometimes you don’t. These people who keep insisting that a kid has to be at every practice for a rec team have kids that only play rec and just don’t get it.

The kids who play travel sports are talented and other kids and many coaches want them on their rec teams. It’s fun to play with your buddy who is really good at basketball, and it’s more fun to win than lose.

Wrong. All 3 of my kids played travel - when they signed up for rec, we indicated their practice conflicts. If rec league worked out, they went to every practice. If rec league didn't work out, then just played travel. What they did not do is stay on rec team, miss most of the practices and still expect to play in all the games. Most rec leagues have player drafts anyway so this idea of just "playing with friends" is wrong to begin with....

+1

Yes, *sometimes* there are conflicts. *Sometimes* a kid needs to miss practice.

OP is talking about an extreme example of a kid NEVER intending to make a practice. That’s not okay.

Kids get maybe 9 week seasons. Rec league is 1 practice per week. I imagine the kid comes to 1 or two practices maybe more

[Anonymous]

I've seen this come up a lot in youth sports. I used a simple anonymous check-in tool so parents and players could share feedback without it turning into a conversation or creating tension. It helped surface things I wouldn’t have heard otherwise.

If it helps anyone, this is what I used: https://huddlepulse.app

[Anonymous]

Well what kinds of things did people mention that surprised you? Curious.