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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Recent article in this s subject:

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/11/income-inequality-explains-decline-youth-sports/574975/

Too much money in kids’ sports. [/quote]

This story is stupid. You can't just "write a check" to get your kid on a travel "superteam". Your kid has to try out, and not suck.

“When these kids move to the travel team, you pull bodies out of the local town’s recreation league, and it sends a message [to those] who didn’t get onto that track that they don’t really have a future in the sport.”

Which is true. But also, most of the kids on a travel team don't really have a future in that sport, either. They will not get college scholarships or play in college. And nothing stops you from playing rec if you enjoy it.

"the American system of youth sports—serving the talented, and often rich, individual at the expense of the collective—has taken a metal bat to the values of participation and universal development."

No. Stupid. Nothing is stopping you from participating in rec sports.

"Youth sports has become a pay-to-play machine."

Bullshit. If you suck, you won't get to play no matter how much you pay.

"Declining athletic participation is a prime example of how the choices even benevolent rich households make can hurt poorer families—especially their children."

Fvck off. My kid playing travel is NOT hurting anybody.

“But they don’t think about the kids they’re leaving behind. They’re not thinking about what makes sense for the whole community.”

Fvck off. The whole community can go play rec ball. I'm not stopping them.

"Derek Thompson is a staff writer at The Atlantic,"

He is also a pencil-necked geek who obviously got chosen last for grade-school kickball and never got over it.[/quote]

Wow...you are angry and super defensive.  Participation in youth sports is down across the country...that's a fact.  I've read it in several other articles, not just this Atlantic piece, which I thought was well written.  I don't really have any skin in this game because my kids are swimmers, and swimming has always been year-round and club focused.  But other sports were different.  People didn't play baseball, basketball, and soccer year-round when I was a kid.  They played in rec leagues during the appropriate season and then in high school.  And guess what??  Many kids I grew up with went on to play at the college and professional level.

You say that people don't have to play travel, they can play rec.  But rec leagues are dying...especially baseball leagues.  I'm sure you're judging everything from your UMC perspective thinking, "we have plenty of rec leagues.  Tons of kids play sports, etc."  But that is not the reality among less affluent people.  Obviously you don't care -- as long as your kid is doing well on his/her travel team, all is good, right?  [/quote]

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