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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]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!  [/quote]

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?[/quote]

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.

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