Commitment issues/overextended kids

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Aug 19, 2015
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Atlanta, GA
I think a big part of sports, even in 10U rec, is learning about commitment. It's one thing to miss an occasional practice or game, it's another to sign up for an activity knowing you're only going to be there half the time. We'll have to agree to disagree.

I do understand what you're saying, but let's go back to the whole "we love multi-sport athletes" argument that we hear so often. How can kids become multi-sport athletes if they're expected to specialize at age 10? You can't have it both ways...
 
Aug 12, 2014
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I do understand what you're saying, but let's go back to the whole "we love multi-sport athletes" argument that we hear so often. How can kids become multi-sport athletes if they're expected to specialize at age 10? You can't have it both ways...

I'm not saying they have to specialize, I'm saying they should play one sport at time. Play soccer in the fall, basketball in the winter, softball in the spring, swim team in the summer or whatever they want to play.

We all see things through the lenses of our own experiences. My experience is that I've had too many times coaching baseball and softball where we only had 7 or 8 players and had to scramble to pick up an extra player or two because parents felt their kids' other teams were more important. Since I coach rec, I usually get the short end of the stick when kids are playing travel soccer at the same time.
 
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Nov 16, 2015
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I'm not saying they have to specialize, I'm saying they should play one sport at time. Play soccer in the fall, basketball in the winter, softball in the spring, swim team in the summer or whatever they want to play.

I would love to go back to this, but unfortunately that time is gone. The offseason expectations for kids is ridiculous (different thread).

Where we live (NW Iowa) our little league programs dont start until school is out. Its teh first of June and a 5 week season. Many of us want more so parents stepped in and started running our own stuff around that. We started practice in March. It conflicts with Spring Soccer. Its 10u, we make it work. I also coach basketball at this age level. We try to balance our schedules with the wrestling coaches so that they can do both if they want. I have fought for this with all my kids in that i dont want them having to choose a sport this young.

Here are the schedules for my 2 older daughters.

Lifting 2-3 times per week during the year. Summer is 5 days a week including speed work.

Volleyball: (school only) start practice first of August and goes mid October. then a 4 week stretch in February and March for AAU. Open gym twice a week in the summer
Basketball: (school only) start practice in November and season goes through February. Coach start open gyms in March (complete BS, IMO) and goes all the way through till season starts. Its become an 11 month commitment.
Track/Golf: One runs track and one golfs. Starts mid January and ends in May. Least amount of time
Softball: Iowa season starts on may 6 and ends around the 4th of July. We start offseason pitching once a week in December and gears up to twice a week in march. Game season is about 7 weeks long. This is their favorite sport. they wanted more. So we found a travel team that plays spring and fall. Usually play 4 tournaments before iowa season and then 3-4 in the fall.

The time commitment is huge, but i guess it keeps them out of trouble. We put so much empasis on winning and pressure on our coaches to win that they feel the need to add the offseason stuff to even compete because its what everyone else is doing

i wish it was as simple as it used to be to play the inseason sport. much simpler times back then
 
Jun 8, 2016
16,118
113
Basketball: Coach start open gyms in March (complete BS, IMO) and goes all the way through till season starts. Its become an 11 month commitment.
I have no issue with this as long as they are not mandatory. You speak of simpler times when kids only played sports 1 season at a time..but that really (for me at least) was only true with regards to organized activities. I played pickup basketball at the park/YMCA/Boys Club pretty much all year round when I had no conflicts with baseball.
 
Nov 16, 2015
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I have no issue with this as long as they are not mandatory. You speak of simpler times when kids only played sports 1 season at a time..but that really (for me at least) was only true with regards to organized activities. I played pickup basketball at the park/YMCA/Boys Club pretty much all year round when I had no conflicts with baseball.

Very true and completely agree. We didnt want open gyms because we lived in the park and community center playing on our own. Nothing organized, just kids being kids and playing
 
Aug 12, 2014
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I agree with pretty much everything you guys said. The extension of sport seasons, the rise of travel/comp teams, and the pressure to play year-round has been a negative change to youth sports. It makes it really hard for kids to play multiple sports. It's hurt rec leagues by drawing players away. And then as we've discussed, a lot of kids join rec leagues to play another sport, and then they aren't fully committed, which makes it harder for the kids who are.
 

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