Get yourself to grade school.

[Northball]

Where were you living...in the 90s...where kids were being fed lead and asbestos? I grew up in the 70s, and that was never on the dinner menu.

So you probably remember when you could choose leaded or unleaded gasoline... Maybe not directly on the dinner menu.

 

[CoachCeetar]

Where were you living...in the 90s...where kids were being fed lead and asbestos? I grew up in the 70s, and that was never on the dinner menu.

one of the elementary schools in the district was literally closed for asbestos remediation and they bussed the kids to our school, mid-late 80s. They didn't fully phase out leaded gas until 1996 in the US. There's lot of evidence that kids were lead-poisoned.

Really...how do we know this? Persistent obesity in kids/teens all but guarantees health problems approaching middle-age, if not sooner.

well, studies. Science. essentially, obesity (And what we call obesity has many gradients) is a symptom, not the cause. You can be 40lb overweight and still have a healthy diet and low cholesterol, etc.

We do know that BMI is a pretty poor statistic to use, and that's essentially how obesity is defined. But a muscular teen may fit the strict definition of obesity, due to body size, muscles, etc. Bodies come in many types.

That's not to say there's not an overall sugar/fat problem in America in general, just that "waah, kids are fat these days" is hardly a useful argument. And regardless of what's going to happen if they stay overweight for another 20 years, a 5'5" 170lb kid is not necessarily less healthy than the 5'5" 140lb one.

I just think we could do with less denigration of youth. I don't even know if I'd assert that the average grade school kid does less physical activity in general than 30-40 years ago. All that stuff feels purely anecdotal. "I ran around when I was a kid!" Did you? Or did you ride your bike at 50% effort half a mile to your friends house and spend 3 hours smoking and wandering around the woods?


In NJ there's a law requiring students grades 1-12 take at least 150 minutes of health/PE a week. You think they passed that because students were already doing that 40 years ago? nah.

You've got the NFL Play 60 initiative to get kids physically active more. Not because they were already doing it, because they _weren't_.

We've learned so much about health in the past few decades, and we're applying it. I bet more kids take vitamins, eat more balanced diets, etc, than they did in 1985.

 

[jdint]

Adapt or Perish!!!

 

[CoachCeetar]

Directly involved with ages of youth 9 to 18u,
From individual private lessons and groups/teams.
For over 35 years~
Reflecting on recent 8 years can tell communication skills of Youth have diminished.

The interactive part of listening and responding has diminished. The ability to form a full sentence and respond has diminished.

Which is also in alignment with several teachers I know who have been teaching for around the 20-year mark. To have commented also about attention span detachment.

maybe it's you that hasn't adapted. Why is it them?

 

[RADcatchers]

This post was started because it is a noticeable topic that coaches are experiencing changes in the softball community.

What I'm sharing is an observation. During positive softball sessions
Interacting with youth. Having many years experience.
It is definitely noticeable when you see kids with blank faces. Blank expression. Zero interaction is a noticeable thing.
___
Like this basic communication tool-
Asking young people if they had breakfast or lunch that day. How was dinner? Sometimes the most simplest form of how they can respond or dont respond to that question is a good clue of their personality type.

 

[Vertigo]

Science. essentially, obesity (And what we call obesity has many gradients) is a symptom, not the cause.

Obesity absolutely can “cause” type 2 diabetes, it can cause high blood pressure, it can cause heart issues.

Would it be better if we used “can lead to, can predispose, or can contribute to?”

 

[CoachCeetar]

Obesity absolutely can “cause” type 2 diabetes, it can cause high blood pressure, it can cause heart issues.

Would it be better if we used “can lead to, can predispose, or can contribute to?”

what does that have to do with their specific health at 5, 10, 15? It hasn't caused or contributed to any of those things yet.

 

[RADcatchers]

All right couldn't resist this humor moment

Would it be better if we used “can lead to, can predispose, or can contribute to?”

No cuz that has 'lead' in it


Have a great day everbody!

 

[LEsoftballdad]

one of the elementary schools in the district was literally closed for asbestos remediation and they bussed the kids to our school, mid-late 80s. They didn't fully phase out leaded gas until 1996 in the US. There's lot of evidence that kids were lead-poisoned.



well, studies. Science. essentially, obesity (And what we call obesity has many gradients) is a symptom, not the cause. You can be 40lb overweight and still have a healthy diet and low cholesterol, etc.

We do know that BMI is a pretty poor statistic to use, and that's essentially how obesity is defined. But a muscular teen may fit the strict definition of obesity, due to body size, muscles, etc. Bodies come in many types.

That's not to say there's not an overall sugar/fat problem in America in general, just that "waah, kids are fat these days" is hardly a useful argument. And regardless of what's going to happen if they stay overweight for another 20 years, a 5'5" 170lb kid is not necessarily less healthy than the 5'5" 140lb one.

I just think we could do with less denigration of youth. I don't even know if I'd assert that the average grade school kid does less physical activity in general than 30-40 years ago. All that stuff feels purely anecdotal. "I ran around when I was a kid!" Did you? Or did you ride your bike at 50% effort half a mile to your friends house and spend 3 hours smoking and wandering around the woods?


In NJ there's a law requiring students grades 1-12 take at least 150 minutes of health/PE a week. You think they passed that because students were already doing that 40 years ago? nah.

You've got the NFL Play 60 initiative to get kids physically active more. Not because they were already doing it, because they _weren't_.

We've learned so much about health in the past few decades, and we're applying it. I bet more kids take vitamins, eat more balanced diets, etc, than they did in 1985.

I don't know where to start picking this post, but I will give it my best.

I grew up in the '70s and '80s. I rode my bicycle everywhere all the time. No, I didn't smoke with the kids in the woods. I didn't have an electric bike or scooter like today's kids. Our gym classes involved running around the whole period. When I got to JHS, gym class consisted of playing different sports, such as football, wrestling, hockey, basketball, and European handball. My girls' HS offered two types of gym classes. One was called Adventure Gym, where they would play a few games in the gym. If the weather were nice outside, they'd walk the track. They could take a yoga class if they didn't want to go to the gym.

Balanced diets? Have you seen the portion sizes offered anywhere now? Kids have way more sugar in their diets than ever before, which is horrible for you, yet it's available everywhere. Our local HS has vending machines with snacks and sugary drinks available to anyone. We never had bags of chips or sodas available to us in my time in school.

Kids don't know how to socialize anymore. Between video games, smartphones, and social media, the days of conversing with someone are dead.

Are there some things better about today than when we grew up? Of course. But it's not all roses these days.

And if you don't think obesity is a problem, I suggest you try and apply for life insurance when you're morbidly obese and compare the rates to someone who is physically fit.

 

[CoachCeetar]

I don't know where to start picking this post, but I will give it my best.

I grew up in the '70s and '80s. I rode my bicycle everywhere all the time. No, I didn't smoke with the kids in the woods. I didn't have an electric bike or scooter like today's kids. Our gym classes involved running around the whole period. When I got to JHS, gym class consisted of playing different sports, such as football, wrestling, hockey, basketball, and European handball. My girls' HS offered two types of gym classes. One was called Adventure Gym, where they would play a few games in the gym. If the weather were nice outside, they'd walk the track. They could take a yoga class if they didn't want to go to the gym.

Balanced diets? Have you seen the portion sizes offered anywhere now? Kids have way more sugar in their diets than ever before, which is horrible for you, yet it's available everywhere. Our local HS has vending machines with snacks and sugary drinks available to anyone. We never had bags of chips or sodas available to us in my time in school.

Kids don't know how to socialize anymore. Between video games, smartphones, and social media, the days of conversing with someone are dead.

Are there some things better about today than when we grew up? Of course. But it's not all roses these days.

And if you don't think obesity is a problem, I suggest you try and apply for life insurance when you're morbidly obese and compare the rates to someone who is physically fit.

That's your own experience. Not all kids have electric bikes or scooters now either. My gym experience was very similar to what I see in grade schools today. I frequently see the kids at the high school running the track in gym when I drive by sometimes. They don't seem sedentary.

They didn't even teach health or nutrition in most schools. I just read a study from 1986 that interviewed teachers in 1981 and reported only about half of them did any nutrition lessons. Red meat consumption is down.

Kids socialize just fine. Video games, smartphones, and social media ARE socializing. They communicate just fine. They are even actually _taught_ communication in many places.

I think the kids are just fine. I am not worried. All the criticisms read exactly like every criticism of youth going back to before there was even really a 'youth' category. "Teenagers" didn't even exist as a concept until like the 40s.