Are kids still doing it all? Rise of travel sports and scheduled kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't get why so many parents are signing their youth kids up for travel. Are rec and local teams terrible from 2nd grade and on? Does every halfway decent kid have to join a travel team if they want to play?

As a parent heavily involved in our rec league and with 3 kids playing rec, the answer is yes. When everyone good leaves for travel, it's hard on the kids who legitimately care and want to play who stay in rec for whatever reason. You find a unicorn team where the players are really working and the coaching is good, but so often it's something parents seem to view as extra babysitting. They aren't fun to sit on the sidelines with because they aren't even there, they don't help out with much (leading to burnout for the few volunteers who do step up), and they don't care if their kids don't care and take the whole team down with a bad attitude. Joy.

This is so accurate.

Travel (“travel”- they don’t actually go far) in our town is so close and so accessible in terms of distance, abilities accepted, and cost that almost everyone does it. Rec is just a few dedicated families who have always been coaches/volunteers in our town and some diehard crunchy families who are really gung-ho about community sports leagues. The rest of the people are:

-executive functioning-challenged parents- would never be able to commit to travel and rarely figure out the rec schedule. Their kids show up infrequently and often missing key items…like cleats and game jerseys. Everyone bends over backwards to make it work for the kids but the parents never improve

-parents who are really introverted/isolated and don’t want to carpool, volunteer, do snacks, etc. Rec is the outer limits of their ability to participate in community activities.

-parents who don’t want their kid to do the sport and their kid doesn’t want to do the sport, but they have other kids and need to have them in x place at y time, so the rec sport is easy babysitting.

I would add one more tier of people who play rec:

-parents of kids who play another sport on a travel team, but everyone is telling them early specialization is bad and it's important to play multiple sports when their kids are young, and their kids show an interest in the rec sport, even though their primary sport is their travel sport. They will compete hard when they show up, but will only attend practices and games that do not conflict with their primary sport. Some of them are great athletes and it may annoy the other kids/parents who show up consistently that the more talented players on the team aren't reliable or that they still get playing time in games despite their many absences.

Not always. My daughter plays a travel sport and a rec sport in what is technically her off season for her travel sport, though they train year round. She has never missed the rec sport. She misses off season travel practices for the rec sport games.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not travel, but I can't believe the 6th school basketball team plays three games per week during the season. If you add practices, how does a 6th grader have the time or energy to do another activity (like music or math) and still get homework done? With all these activities, when do kids even have the time to get addicted to phones and video games?

Basically the kids these days don’t know how to be bored. They’re either in their structured activities or on screens.

Actually it’s the other way around screens changed childhood if they are not in an activity they are on screens even if you are one of the families that limits screen time all of the families around you don’t. Therefore, you have three choices one let your kid be on screens all day, 2 be the parent that takes one for the whole neighborhood and gets the kids together for activities that you run or three drop your kid off at an activity for an hour or two (I guess there is a forth option to allow your kid the wander around the house for hours). I’ve done option 2&3 and I can tell you 3 is a hell of a lot easier.

What do your kids outside of structure activities and screens?

When they were little we did a lot - zoo, fishing, golf, canoeing, yard work, crafts minor repairs to the house. As they got older thet could run around with friends but it was frustrating because they would eventually go to a friend’s house and be back on screens. If you are trying to have a kid who has an experience with real life you have to be an intentional parent.

When i was a kids everything wasn’t adult led. We played with the kids on the street whether we liked them or not because it was better than being alone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not travel, but I can't believe the 6th school basketball team plays three games per week during the season. If you add practices, how does a 6th grader have the time or energy to do another activity (like music or math) and still get homework done? With all these activities, when do kids even have the time to get addicted to phones and video games?

Basically the kids these days don’t know how to be bored. They’re either in their structured activities or on screens.

Actually it’s the other way around screens changed childhood if they are not in an activity they are on screens even if you are one of the families that limits screen time all of the families around you don’t. Therefore, you have three choices one let your kid be on screens all day, 2 be the parent that takes one for the whole neighborhood and gets the kids together for activities that you run or three drop your kid off at an activity for an hour or two (I guess there is a forth option to allow your kid the wander around the house for hours). I’ve done option 2&3 and I can tell you 3 is a hell of a lot easier.

What do your kids outside of structure activities and screens?

When they were little we did a lot - zoo, fishing, golf, canoeing, yard work, crafts minor repairs to the house. As they got older thet could run around with friends but it was frustrating because they would eventually go to a friend’s house and be back on screens. If you are trying to have a kid who has an experience with real life you have to be an intentional parent.

When i was a kids everything wasn’t adult led. We played with the kids on the street whether we liked them or not because it was better than being alone.

We loved playing with the kids in our neighborhood, but it wasn't out of necessity, we really enjoyed it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't get why so many parents are signing their youth kids up for travel. Are rec and local teams terrible from 2nd grade and on? Does every halfway decent kid have to join a travel team if they want to play?

If you have a dedicated athlete, then yes, you really do need to go to travel and club to get the training you need and yes for some kids, for some sports and in some areas, that would mean a transition in 2nd grade.

In what sport would a child need to “transition” into the more expensive and more hours program?

Depends on where you live and what sport it is. In some areas, rec lacrosse might be really strong and in others, even at age 10 they are still learning to cradle. In others, you might have a powerful rec program that gets you nearly to middle school.

In something like fencing, you really need to be getting private training from the very beginning if you want to compete.

Lacrosse used to be a high school sport that pretty much began in high school. It’s a good thing that younger kids are able to play now but to be so serious about it in elementary school is disturbing.

[Anonymous]

I think it depends on the sport. Basketball, for example, still has a robust rec league in NOVA. I think it's because 1) making HS basketball team is really difficult because of the small rosters and 2) a lot of the kids play it as a second sport. You have a lot of high schoolers playing rec basketball. A sport like baseball or softball, is totally different at the rec level. You have kids who've never played before or really have no interest, but are being pushed into trying the sport by parents. By HS, all the decent baseball/softball players have peeled off for travel.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't get why so many parents are signing their youth kids up for travel. Are rec and local teams terrible from 2nd grade and on? Does every halfway decent kid have to join a travel team if they want to play?

As a parent heavily involved in our rec league and with 3 kids playing rec, the answer is yes. When everyone good leaves for travel, it's hard on the kids who legitimately care and want to play who stay in rec for whatever reason. You find a unicorn team where the players are really working and the coaching is good, but so often it's something parents seem to view as extra babysitting. They aren't fun to sit on the sidelines with because they aren't even there, they don't help out with much (leading to burnout for the few volunteers who do step up), and they don't care if their kids don't care and take the whole team down with a bad attitude. Joy.

This is true.

DD is "pretty good" at basketball. But we keep her in rec because of other activities (band & theater).

This is exactly the child who should be in rec basketball.
But for a kid that wants to play at a higher level, who plays year round, who lives and breathes the sport with a passion - no offense, but she doesn’t want to play with your daughter. She wants to play with other kids who feel the same about basketball.

Totally agree. But honestly, those kids are pretty rare. Instead, the kids who are average, get pulled into the travel world. And those kids would often be better served on rec. "Travel" used to mean elite. Now, it means whatever parent is willing to cut the check

And even though my daughter plays rec, she's probably better than 30-50% of the travel players we've seen. That's not to say that she should be playing travel; its that those other girls should be playing rec.

Or, some sort of level in between.

Rec is often a disaster and parents are willing to pay more to avoid it.

Right, but its a chicken and egg / Catch-22 thing.

IMO, probably 25-35% of kids on travel don't have the skills to be there.

If those kids played rec, rec would be less of a disaster. So they returned to rec, they'd get more playing time, have more fun, spend less money, travel less, and potentially even grow more as a player.

Essentially, rec would be less of a disaster, if "okay" kids didn't try to move up to travel.

BTW, my daughter, who I said is "pretty good" at basketball, is also on an B-level softball team. So I see both sides of it. She probably couldn't even do travel basketball bc of her softball committments. But I see it that sport too. You watch some C-level teams and think "half of these girls would be better served in rec", but the families won't do rec because the only ones left in rec and the true beginners.

You’re missing the quality of the instruction in all of this, which matters to kids who want to develop as a player. Rec varies a ton depending on where you live and the sport in question, but usually it’s coached by parents or other volunteers and that’s simply not what you are getting when you pay for club or travel. It’s night and day. In addition, those dedicated players aren’t improving in their sport by playing the best other players, and that matters and yes, even in the younger years. So sure, in your scenario you’d get your good players back at rec, but they won’t improve as much AS PLAYERS.

As a fellow softball parent, I'm with the PP who's kid is on a B-level team. The rec players peeling off to C-level teams are not, with one notable exception in my area, leaving for a professional coach C-level team. It's them and their existing rec coach deciding to make a C level travel team. Same mom/dad would be in rec teaching kids how to play, but they get sick of all the other rec parents and players who don't care and so they spin up more and more travel teams. It waters down the quality of both travel and rec when the good coaches and players leave, but aren't quite good enough to be B or A level.

I get the sense that the area baseball Little Leagues manage to do a little better, because even when younger baseball players do "travel" many of them are also still in Little League. So maybe if every rec league had as many dedicated parents as the more amazing local Little Leagues this would be less of an issue?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not travel, but I can't believe the 6th school basketball team plays three games per week during the season. If you add practices, how does a 6th grader have the time or energy to do another activity (like music or math) and still get homework done? With all these activities, when do kids even have the time to get addicted to phones and video games?

Basically the kids these days don’t know how to be bored. They’re either in their structured activities or on screens.

Actually it’s the other way around screens changed childhood if they are not in an activity they are on screens even if you are one of the families that limits screen time all of the families around you don’t. Therefore, you have three choices one let your kid be on screens all day, 2 be the parent that takes one for the whole neighborhood and gets the kids together for activities that you run or three drop your kid off at an activity for an hour or two (I guess there is a forth option to allow your kid the wander around the house for hours). I’ve done option 2&3 and I can tell you 3 is a hell of a lot easier.

What do your kids outside of structure activities and screens?

When they were little we did a lot - zoo, fishing, golf, canoeing, yard work, crafts minor repairs to the house. As they got older thet could run around with friends but it was frustrating because they would eventually go to a friend’s house and be back on screens. If you are trying to have a kid who has an experience with real life you have to be an intentional parent.

When i was a kids everything wasn’t adult led. We played with the kids on the street whether we liked them or not because it was better than being alone.

That’s great but the reality is that now we live in an era of highly addictive screens. That’s something our parents didn’t have to deal with. We aren’t going back in time so unfortunately we have to deal with the era we are living in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not travel, but I can't believe the 6th school basketball team plays three games per week during the season. If you add practices, how does a 6th grader have the time or energy to do another activity (like music or math) and still get homework done? With all these activities, when do kids even have the time to get addicted to phones and video games?

Basically the kids these days don’t know how to be bored. They’re either in their structured activities or on screens.

Actually it’s the other way around screens changed childhood if they are not in an activity they are on screens even if you are one of the families that limits screen time all of the families around you don’t. Therefore, you have three choices one let your kid be on screens all day, 2 be the parent that takes one for the whole neighborhood and gets the kids together for activities that you run or three drop your kid off at an activity for an hour or two (I guess there is a forth option to allow your kid the wander around the house for hours). I’ve done option 2&3 and I can tell you 3 is a hell of a lot easier.

What do your kids outside of structure activities and screens?

When they were little we did a lot - zoo, fishing, golf, canoeing, yard work, crafts minor repairs to the house. As they got older thet could run around with friends but it was frustrating because they would eventually go to a friend’s house and be back on screens. If you are trying to have a kid who has an experience with real life you have to be an intentional parent.

When i was a kids everything wasn’t adult led. We played with the kids on the street whether we liked them or not because it was better than being alone.

That’s great but the reality is that now we live in an era of highly addictive screens. That’s something our parents didn’t have to deal with. We aren’t going back in time so unfortunately we have to deal with the era we are living in.

That's true things are differebt, but I don't think that means that parents should just throw in the towel. I don't know the solution is exactly, but something needs to change.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't get why so many parents are signing their youth kids up for travel. Are rec and local teams terrible from 2nd grade and on? Does every halfway decent kid have to join a travel team if they want to play?

If you have a dedicated athlete, then yes, you really do need to go to travel and club to get the training you need and yes for some kids, for some sports and in some areas, that would mean a transition in 2nd grade.

In what sport would a child need to “transition” into the more expensive and more hours program?

Depends on where you live and what sport it is. In some areas, rec lacrosse might be really strong and in others, even at age 10 they are still learning to cradle. In others, you might have a powerful rec program that gets you nearly to middle school.

In something like fencing, you really need to be getting private training from the very beginning if you want to compete.

Lacrosse used to be a high school sport that pretty much began in high school. It’s a good thing that younger kids are able to play now but to be so serious about it in elementary school is disturbing.

How is it disturbing if the kid is loving it? That’s like saying no elementary school kid should be practicing their instrument intensively or dancing ballet multiple classes a week. Some children can be really passionate about a hobby or interest and that’s ok so long as it’s not something pushed on them by the parent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not travel, but I can't believe the 6th school basketball team plays three games per week during the season. If you add practices, how does a 6th grader have the time or energy to do another activity (like music or math) and still get homework done? With all these activities, when do kids even have the time to get addicted to phones and video games?

Basically the kids these days don’t know how to be bored. They’re either in their structured activities or on screens.

Actually it’s the other way around screens changed childhood if they are not in an activity they are on screens even if you are one of the families that limits screen time all of the families around you don’t. Therefore, you have three choices one let your kid be on screens all day, 2 be the parent that takes one for the whole neighborhood and gets the kids together for activities that you run or three drop your kid off at an activity for an hour or two (I guess there is a forth option to allow your kid the wander around the house for hours). I’ve done option 2&3 and I can tell you 3 is a hell of a lot easier.

What do your kids outside of structure activities and screens?

When they were little we did a lot - zoo, fishing, golf, canoeing, yard work, crafts minor repairs to the house. As they got older thet could run around with friends but it was frustrating because they would eventually go to a friend’s house and be back on screens. If you are trying to have a kid who has an experience with real life you have to be an intentional parent.

When i was a kids everything wasn’t adult led. We played with the kids on the street whether we liked them or not because it was better than being alone.

That’s great but the reality is that now we live in an era of highly addictive screens. That’s something our parents didn’t have to deal with. We aren’t going back in time so unfortunately we have to deal with the era we are living in.

That's true things are differebt, but I don't think that means that parents should just throw in the towel. I don't know the solution is exactly, but something needs to change.

Your last sentence is the problem. Parents are doing what we can NOW with the reality of how we live.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When I was growing up in the 90s, kids around me did an instrument plus orchestra or band, maybe math or other tutoring, and sports. But these were rec sports. If you were particularly athletic, you'd maybe do two sports per season. Even for middle and high school, I don't remember kids really going off for travel teams. When did travel sports really take off?

I have an elementary schooler now and am really surprised at the number of kids on travel teams. Are these kids just leaning hard into that one sport? They haven't hit puberty yet. What if things don't work out... do they just go back to rec for that sport? And how do they balance that with other commitments? Even with kids who aren't particularly athletic, 7-8 year olds are signing up for basketball drill classes for 2 or 3 seasons, doing travel soccer, travel hockey, in the school's music program... Are these kids still able to do it all? How? Are they skipping some of their commitments?

How is high school different in terms of activities? Are seniors in high school applying for college as the 2 sport superstar who also learned 2 languages and plays in the regional youth orchestra, while maintaining an above 4 point GPA and setting up their own charity? And then getting rejected from all the Ivys? I'm getting sort of depressed about all the early pressure around me, and college apps are still a decade away!

Re drill classes and coaches and specialty classes for 7 and 8 year olds. Has this been happening for long enough for us to be able to see if this consistently pays off long term? Anyone have real or anecdotal stats about what happens in middle, high school, and beyond? Do these kids get sick of these sports and never play even recreationally as adults? Does all the drilling lead to injury or early burnout? Or are parents by and large right to push early and have their kids reach the top?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think it depends on the sport. Basketball, for example, still has a robust rec league in NOVA. I think it's because 1) making HS basketball team is really difficult because of the small rosters and 2) a lot of the kids play it as a second sport. You have a lot of high schoolers playing rec basketball. A sport like baseball or softball, is totally different at the rec level. You have kids who've never played before or really have no interest, but are being pushed into trying the sport by parents. By HS, all the decent baseball/softball players have peeled off for travel.

This is true. A lot of the field sport athletes just use rec basketball as a way to stay fit in the winter. Which can raise the level of athleticism in the rec leagues

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When I was growing up in the 90s, kids around me did an instrument plus orchestra or band, maybe math or other tutoring, and sports. But these were rec sports. If you were particularly athletic, you'd maybe do two sports per season. Even for middle and high school, I don't remember kids really going off for travel teams. When did travel sports really take off?

I have an elementary schooler now and am really surprised at the number of kids on travel teams. Are these kids just leaning hard into that one sport? They haven't hit puberty yet. What if things don't work out... do they just go back to rec for that sport? And how do they balance that with other commitments? Even with kids who aren't particularly athletic, 7-8 year olds are signing up for basketball drill classes for 2 or 3 seasons, doing travel soccer, travel hockey, in the school's music program... Are these kids still able to do it all? How? Are they skipping some of their commitments?

How is high school different in terms of activities? Are seniors in high school applying for college as the 2 sport superstar who also learned 2 languages and plays in the regional youth orchestra, while maintaining an above 4 point GPA and setting up their own charity? And then getting rejected from all the Ivys? I'm getting sort of depressed about all the early pressure around me, and college apps are still a decade away!

Re drill classes and coaches and specialty classes for 7 and 8 year olds. Has this been happening for long enough for us to be able to see if this consistently pays off long term? Anyone have real or anecdotal stats about what happens in middle, high school, and beyond? Do these kids get sick of these sports and never play even recreationally as adults? Does all the drilling lead to injury or early burnout? Or are parents by and large right to push early and have their kids reach the top?

The answer to all of your questions are "yes" or "it depends". It depends on a lot of factors. Personalized training at an early age works, but it'll only work for a very limited number of kids if you're talking about playing at a high level in high school and/or beyond. I'll try to add additional context as someone who played high level sports (Div. 1 basketball), currently works with professional and collegiate athletes, is raising kids, and has numerous friends that have kids that are elite athletes.

There have been documented studies of increased overuse injuries (largely because kids specialize in sports at an early age and don't take sufficient time off or do other things) and an increase in athletes that mentally burnout or suffer from depression, anxiety, etc. (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4210977/)

However, it depends on the kid, the parents, and expectations. I think youth sports are in a horrible space and broken beyond repair. There's too much money to be made and spent, and it does a great disservice to children and families. There are a lot of benefits (physical and mental) from PLAYING sports, but now sports are a system where adults are either looking to profit (leagues, coaches, trainers, etc.) or pursue a mistaken belief that they can will their kid to becoming elite athletes by forcing them to pick a sport at an early age, specialize, train daily, and pay thousands of dollars/year to leagues and trainers. Unfortunately, this results in it now being necessary to do all of that just so a kid can hope to play at a competitive level in high school (either varsity teams or high level club/travel).

The problem is that too many parents are participating in this broken system (including me as an reluctant participant) because we want what's best for our kids even if it's not realistic. Every parent of a high schooler who thinks their kid will play sports in college needs to realize that their child has about a 2% chance of playing at the highest level in college (Div. 1) and about 7% at playing NCAA at all (it's much lower compared to kids that start playing in elementary school). So you end up with a very large number of parents that start pushing their kids to be in the 2% and it's just not going to happen. The problem is that those kids are all pursuing a path for elite athletes, when they'd benefit far more from playing sports for fun and without the added pressure of doing it for a resume to try to reach a goal that they just won't reach. Rec leagues end up suffering because it ends up being filled with kids whose parents know their kids don't have a future in sports but want them to play sports casually, even though this where the overwhelming majority of people belong. And kids are practicing and playing one sport way too often, with the hope to keep up with athletes they'll never catch while facing too much parental pressure to keep going. This leads to unnecessary physical injuries, stress, and "falling out of love" with a sport because it's business and not pleasure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't get why so many parents are signing their youth kids up for travel. Are rec and local teams terrible from 2nd grade and on? Does every halfway decent kid have to join a travel team if they want to play?

As a parent heavily involved in our rec league and with 3 kids playing rec, the answer is yes. When everyone good leaves for travel, it's hard on the kids who legitimately care and want to play who stay in rec for whatever reason. You find a unicorn team where the players are really working and the coaching is good, but so often it's something parents seem to view as extra babysitting. They aren't fun to sit on the sidelines with because they aren't even there, they don't help out with much (leading to burnout for the few volunteers who do step up), and they don't care if their kids don't care and take the whole team down with a bad attitude. Joy.

This is true.

DD is "pretty good" at basketball. But we keep her in rec because of other activities (band & theater).

This is exactly the child who should be in rec basketball.
But for a kid that wants to play at a higher level, who plays year round, who lives and breathes the sport with a passion - no offense, but she doesn’t want to play with your daughter. She wants to play with other kids who feel the same about basketball.

Totally agree. But honestly, those kids are pretty rare. Instead, the kids who are average, get pulled into the travel world. And those kids would often be better served on rec. "Travel" used to mean elite. Now, it means whatever parent is willing to cut the check

And even though my daughter plays rec, she's probably better than 30-50% of the travel players we've seen. That's not to say that she should be playing travel; its that those other girls should be playing rec.

Or, some sort of level in between.

Rec is often a disaster and parents are willing to pay more to avoid it.

Right, but its a chicken and egg / Catch-22 thing.

IMO, probably 25-35% of kids on travel don't have the skills to be there.

If those kids played rec, rec would be less of a disaster. So they returned to rec, they'd get more playing time, have more fun, spend less money, travel less, and potentially even grow more as a player.

Essentially, rec would be less of a disaster, if "okay" kids didn't try to move up to travel.

BTW, my daughter, who I said is "pretty good" at basketball, is also on an B-level softball team. So I see both sides of it. She probably couldn't even do travel basketball bc of her softball committments. But I see it that sport too. You watch some C-level teams and think "half of these girls would be better served in rec", but the families won't do rec because the only ones left in rec and the true beginners.

You’re missing the quality of the instruction in all of this, which matters to kids who want to develop as a player. Rec varies a ton depending on where you live and the sport in question, but usually it’s coached by parents or other volunteers and that’s simply not what you are getting when you pay for club or travel. It’s night and day. In addition, those dedicated players aren’t improving in their sport by playing the best other players, and that matters and yes, even in the younger years. So sure, in your scenario you’d get your good players back at rec, but they won’t improve as much AS PLAYERS.

As a fellow softball parent, I'm with the PP who's kid is on a B-level team. The rec players peeling off to C-level teams are not, with one notable exception in my area, leaving for a professional coach C-level team. It's them and their existing rec coach deciding to make a C level travel team. Same mom/dad would be in rec teaching kids how to play, but they get sick of all the other rec parents and players who don't care and so they spin up more and more travel teams. It waters down the quality of both travel and rec when the good coaches and players leave, but aren't quite good enough to be B or A level.

I get the sense that the area baseball Little Leagues manage to do a little better, because even when younger baseball players do "travel" many of them are also still in Little League. So maybe if every rec league had as many dedicated parents as the more amazing local Little Leagues this would be less of an issue?

There are some travel teams associated with Little Leagues who require that their travel players also play LL. I think the reasons given are so that kids don’t decimate LL by leaving for travel and to deconflict practices/games between rec and travel.

[Anonymous]

This is a very interesting thread. I have 4th grade boys. They have done tennis, rock climbing, swim team. They are now doing rec basketball and rec baseball this year. They also have been playing an instrument since they were 4 and are in orchestra now: so that's two days a week we go to their music class. They also play chess competitively. They love everything I have introduced them too, but are not yet passionate about one sport. I am glad they have been exposed to many different activities.

But it seems people are saying by age 12 at the latest they will have to choose one sport, get on a good travel team, and get expert coaching/training in order to make the high school team. I had no idea making the high school team was so competitive!