Are we all getting less girls playing?

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Nov 26, 2010
4,784
113
Michigan
Baseball/softball and basketball are the two sports which are the most difficult to be good at IMO (I guess golf too but I am talking about sports sane people play..) and playing a sport you are good at is a lot more fun ..šŸ¤·šŸ½ā€ā™‚ļø I didnā€™t play football growing up outside of with my friends but I am pretty sure I could have tried out for my HS team and been the starting wide receiver..

The difference between the two is it is lot easier to develop your skills to become good in basketball without parental involvement. Yeah you can do tee work, wall ball, throw into a net etc. in softball but in terms of development they are not equal to what you can do in basketball by yourself.

Kids donā€™t play baseball/softball with their friends anymore so the onus is placed on parents to play catch, throw front toss, hit grounders, take the kid to lessons (they do have skill lessons in basketball which I think is a crock..) etc and in 2022 people have a lot going on ..itā€™s tough. In the summer I probably spend 10 hours a week playing/working with my kids. Most of the time I enjoy it but my job is such that I can pretty much come and go as I please as long as I am in my class to lecture when I am supposed to. Many people donā€™t have that luxury.
This is a chicken and egg discussion. Do kids not play ball together because parents got involved. Or did parents get involved because the kids donā€™t play together?

When I was 8 we would walk to the local elementary school and hit balls in the playground or pitch up against the school wall with rubber balls. Now days if an 8 year old walked half a mile to meet friends to play ball people would call the police.
 
Jun 8, 2016
16,118
113
This is a chicken and egg discussion. Do kids not play ball together because parents got involved. Or did parents get involved because the kids donā€™t play together?
Not sure..I would lean towards the first scenario but it is also not a binary situation. Growing I did both. My father worked with me and I played with my friends.
 
Jul 29, 2013
6,782
113
North Carolina
When I was 8 we would walk to the local elementary school and hit balls in the playground or pitch up against the school wall with rubber balls. Now days if an 8 year old walked half a mile to meet friends to play ball people would call the police.
Think it was Monday? I was pulling out of my neighborhood to go back to work after lunch, two 10 to 12 year old boys were coming from the neighborhood across from ours into our neighborhood riding bicycles, yes you read that right, actually riding bikes!
 
Jun 8, 2016
16,118
113
Think it was Monday? I was pulling out of my neighborhood to go back to work after lunch, two 10 to 12 year old boys were coming from the neighborhood across from ours into our neighborhood riding bicycles, yes you read that right, actually riding bikes!
Monday? Truants!! šŸ˜‚ Funny story. When I was playing AAU basketball there was this kid who skipped school all the time. Me being naive I asked the coach what he did when he skipped. Coach said ā€œHeā€™s a basketball player, he plays basketballā€ As an aside, this coach was a piece of work..got thrown in jail for molesting a teenage boy. He used to force us to shower after practice in a communal shower so he could shower with us. We all knew he was ā€œoffā€ so we would all shower in one corner as far away from him as possible..Never said anything to my parents. My old man wasnā€™t pleased when he found out about that after the guy got arrested šŸ˜‚.

I kick my sons out of the house. Tell them to come back in when the streetlights are on. I usually have to go get them. When I was a kid we didnā€™t have video games and we didnā€™t get cable tv until I was in HS. There was nothing to do in the house. If parents forced kids to go outside and play they would figure out things to do.
 
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Jul 29, 2013
6,782
113
North Carolina
There was nothing to do in the house. If parents forced kids to go outside and play they would figure out things to do.
Absolutely! And same here, go outside and play and don't come home until you hear your Dad whistle, and man my Dad could whistle!

But we wanted to be outside, bikes, BB guns, slingshots, and anything else destructive we could get our hands on, wouldn't trade my childhood for anything. I used to ride my bike 10 miles to LL practice, get run to death at practice, ride 10 miles home, it was normal, just what we did!
 
Nov 26, 2010
4,784
113
Michigan
Think it was Monday? I was pulling out of my neighborhood to go back to work after lunch, two 10 to 12 year old boys were coming from the neighborhood across from ours into our neighborhood riding bicycles, yes you read that right, actually riding bikes!
Some of my best childhood memories at that age was riding my bike to the Detroit River and fishing. I could spend a whole day there.
 

LEsoftballdad

DFP Vendor
Jun 29, 2021
2,838
113
NY
Let's face it, fellas. The world we grew up in no longer exists.

We had one AC in our house, and it was in my parents bedroom. All nine of us could cram in there on hot summer nights to sleep. It was hot in the house, so we didn't want to be inside. We had an aboveground pool, so our house was popular in the summer. We were in that pool every day. I think my kids went in our pool 4-5 times last summer.

We played baseball, basketball, and manhunt with our friends until it was dinnertime. Our bikes had more miles than some low-mileage leases these days. We drank from the hose, and ran through the sprinkler. We were kids having fun and making memories. I wouldn't trade what I grew up with for any of the stuff my kids have today.
 

radness

Possibilities & Opportunities!
Dec 13, 2019
7,270
113
Baseball/softball and basketball are the two sports which are the most difficult to be good at IMO (I guess golf too but I am talking about sports sane people play..) and playing a sport you are good at is a lot more fun ..šŸ¤·šŸ½ā€ā™‚ļø I didnā€™t play football growing up outside of with my friends but I am pretty sure I could have tried out for my HS team and been the starting wide receiver..

The difference between the two is it is lot easier to develop your skills to become good in basketball without parental involvement. Yeah you can do tee work, wall ball, throw into a net etc. in softball but in terms of development they are not equal to what you can do in basketball by yourself.

Kids donā€™t play baseball/softball with their friends anymore so the onus is placed on parents to play catch, throw front toss, hit grounders, take the kid to lessons (they do have skill lessons in basketball which I think is a crock..) etc and in 2022 people have a lot going on ..itā€™s tough. In the summer I probably spend 10 hours a week playing/working with my kids. Most of the time I enjoy it but my job is such that I can pretty much come and go as I please as long as I am in my class to lecture when I am supposed to. Many people donā€™t have that luxury.
Just a little something to add

I learned yesterday that golf now has a golf club that using the technology where you can go in swing and see the trajectory of the ball on a screen.
If it is pulling left or shanking right instead of the person having to adjust their mechanics to get ball to go straight. Can now just adjust the head of the golf club to align the trajectory of the ball to go straightforward.
 
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