For my own kids, I noticed it's been very hard to find decent teams for my younger child who was just starting school when the pandemic hit. For whatever reason all of the teams that they've been placed on have been immature and hard to coach.

This is compared to their older sibling, just a couple of years older, where the teams that they've been on have always had great athletes who were focused on the sport.

To some degree I might be guilty of comparing the two groups currently. ie watching the older sibling's team play and then seeing the different level when watching the younger sibling's team.

But at the same time I still see this as the case when comparing their teams/experiences from the same grade level. ie older sibling's third grade team compared to younger sibling's third grade team. And the levels of play are really different.

For our own kids, I think the younger sibling missed out on some of the experiences that the older sibling did due to the shutdown with the pandemic which helped with their development. And am not sure if the same thing is applicable to other kids in the same age range or that year off might have affected them other ways.

Very few kids showed up for 9th grade tryouts in Nov. 2020 for high school basketball. The freshman teams were really weak, but some kids got a chance that in normal years wouldn't have. So now these kids are seniors, and it's interesting to me who is on Varsity compared to my expectations in middle school.

Anonymous wrote:I think some people learned during the pandemic that time is precious and running your kid all over the place for travel anything is a fools errand and counterproductive to a good life.

That’s your lesson!!! Kids love their sports and while it is painful for parents, I’d never stop doing that for them.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids are 14, 11, and 8 and honestly I haven't really noticed any major differences relating to the pandemic, expect in terms of marching bands #s for this year's freshman class (lower than usual - probably due to kids quitting rather than do virtual band in 6th grade during the pandemic).

Marching band and band in general is a good point! Definitely hurting for numbers in my school.

DD’s middle school band teacher said this year is the first year the numbers are back to pre-pandemic levels. He’s so excited!

My 10 yo took two years off of swim lessons for COVID and is still catching up to where she would have been.

Her rec basketball team also took a hit with COVID. They had their first season as 4th graders, instead of as 2nd graders. They ended up okay by the end of the season, but the beginning was pretty hilarious as kids tried to learn the rules. A lot of those wrinkles would have been learned sooner, if things had been open.

I would expect the indoor, high-transmission sports to have suffered: gymnastics, wrestling, hockey. Outdoor stuff with lots of space tended to see huge growth, but maybe now is falling back closer to normal: baseball, tennis, horseback riding.

Curious about the skill levels in things like soccer and basketball. Kids may have wanted to avoid contact, but had lots of time to perfect their individual skills. Have those improved post-Covid?

Anonymous wrote:Tackle football is having a resurgence post-pandemic

I think people realized there's a brief window for some of these things and to take advantage when they can

Youth participation in tackle football has been decreasing for over a decade since its peak in 2008. I read somewhere that there was a year-over-year increase of .01% in 2022 but that's hardly what you could call a "resurgence", just statistical noise along the steady arc of decline.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:right, why won't people ever say what the dang thing is.

Because we mihhh be able to pinpoint the poster from bumfock Ohio asking about gymnastics

LOL, because I don't think it matters in this context, it's happening in a lot of sports, my only point.

I think the kids and their deteriorating social skills have something to do with it, too. At our school, the hot sports are still hot -- soccer and lacrosse. Everything else, numbers are way down. A lot of teens seem reluctant to join ANYTHING.