Anonymous wrote:IMO the underlying mechanism too few facilities, gyms, fields, courts, pools, etc. In my area there are several "great" schools that have graduating classes of six hundred plus students three times the size of my graduating class.

The manifestation is that parents employ hired guns to train their kids to ensure that the kids will have spots. These hired guns use all kinds of techniques to ensure parents get what they pay for including, teaching unsafe or dirty play. These hired guns often monopolize public resources. Contracting soccer fields near schools or contracting pools and control both the access to teams and training reducing the game to a pay for play scheme.

The unsuspecting kids from families that aren't familiar with a sport trying to have fun are literally driven off the field.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't believe this is even a NOVA issue since it is happening all over America, whether it is California, Texas, Massachusetts, and so on. You have to put your kid in competitive sports at a young age to even have a chance of playing at the high school level. There aren't many rec options once you get to the middle school level, and every school team by then has competitive tryouts. There is no way to pick up a new sport by late elementary or middle school. Kids have to determine their interests at their young age or else it is too late. I don't want to encourage my kids to get into sports because I know it is going to suck for them in the end.

It is especially frustrating when there is basically nothing you get in return for investing so much into youth sports. Most kids will never play in the NCAA, and varsity sports don't matter much for college admissions. I don't know how it is reasonable for any family to invest so much time and money and risking their health for basically nothing.

Lol. Wow. Most people who play sports from pickup at the local park to pronhall of famers play because it is fun. And exercise. Also some people do go far sstarting late. Why not just do rec for a couple of sports and have fun meeting people and exercising

what a terrible attitude

The rec experiences in many sports aren't all that great. It's part of the hired gun problem. You would expect that the kids that are in competitive programs would seek better competition, but nope there they are swimming in summer leagues playing in rec tournaments, practicing their slide tackles on kids. So, you have kids practicing three or more times per week all year long with professional coaches playing against kids that have had maybe a dozen practices in the year. See what I mean, driven from the field.

Then most of the rec leagues have reduced scope of play. We did rec league basketball four practices four games. Yeah, it was fun, but not enough. Most of the rec kids just don't want to keep doing if after a season or two.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't believe this is even a NOVA issue since it is happening all over America, whether it is California, Texas, Massachusetts, and so on. You have to put your kid in competitive sports at a young age to even have a chance of playing at the high school level. There aren't many rec options once you get to the middle school level, and every school team by then has competitive tryouts. There is no way to pick up a new sport by late elementary or middle school. Kids have to determine their interests at their young age or else it is too late. I don't want to encourage my kids to get into sports because I know it is going to suck for them in the end.

It is especially frustrating when there is basically nothing you get in return for investing so much into youth sports. Most kids will never play in the NCAA, and varsity sports don't matter much for college admissions. I don't know how it is reasonable for any family to invest so much time and money and risking their health for basically nothing.

Lol. Wow. Most people who play sports from pickup at the local park to pronhall of famers play because it is fun. And exercise. Also some people do go far sstarting late. Why not just do rec for a couple of sports and have fun meeting people and exercising

what a terrible attitude

Anonymous wrote:I don't believe this is even a NOVA issue since it is happening all over America, whether it is California, Texas, Massachusetts, and so on. You have to put your kid in competitive sports at a young age to even have a chance of playing at the high school level. There aren't many rec options once you get to the middle school level, and every school team by then has competitive tryouts. There is no way to pick up a new sport by late elementary or middle school. Kids have to determine their interests at their young age or else it is too late. I don't want to encourage my kids to get into sports because I know it is going to suck for them in the end.

It is especially frustrating when there is basically nothing you get in return for investing so much into youth sports. Most kids will never play in the NCAA, and varsity sports don't matter much for college admissions. I don't know how it is reasonable for any family to invest so much time and money and risking their health for basically nothing.

Anonymous wrote:IMO the underlying mechanism too few facilities, gyms, fields, courts, pools, etc. In my area there are several "great" schools that have graduating classes of six hundred plus students three times the size of my graduating class.

The manifestation is that parents employ hired guns to train their kids to ensure that the kids will have spots. These hired guns use all kinds of techniques to ensure parents get what they pay for including, teaching unsafe or dirty play. These hired guns often monopolize public resources. Contracting soccer fields near schools or contracting pools and control both the access to teams and training reducing the game to a pay for play scheme.

The unsuspecting kids from families that aren't familiar with a sport trying to have fun are literally driven off the field.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You asked what the point is, OP. The point is happiness! My kid just loves sports. He has done them all, some of them exceeding well and some of them terribly. He will play one of them in college but he is currently injured, so he picked up a new one that doesn’t hurt his injury. He is now obsessed with the new one, and though he has never played before this summer he is getting better and brings him joy. That is the point.

Secretive sally is silent on the sport

Not trying to be secretive, just didn’t think the point was the sport. He’s a baseball player who picked up golf.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You asked what the point is, OP. The point is happiness! My kid just loves sports. He has done them all, some of them exceeding well and some of them terribly. He will play one of them in college but he is currently injured, so he picked up a new one that doesn’t hurt his injury. He is now obsessed with the new one, and though he has never played before this summer he is getting better and brings him joy. That is the point.

Secretive sally is silent on the sport

Anonymous wrote:You asked what the point is, OP. The point is happiness! My kid just loves sports. He has done them all, some of them exceeding well and some of them terribly. He will play one of them in college but he is currently injured, so he picked up a new one that doesn’t hurt his injury. He is now obsessed with the new one, and though he has never played before this summer he is getting better and brings him joy. That is the point.