re: Question about youth sports

Your son is developing. Setting screens, passing, rebounding, playing D are the foundation of basketball. If the other coaches have any clue they will go to a triangle and 2 and shut the coaches kid down. Unless he is a stud and you shoul consider yourself lucky.

A college coach had his son on the team. Another player came up to the coach and said, "I'm as good as your son, you should play me more!" The coach replied, "Yes, you are, but I love my son."

Even if your son was an equal, or maybe even just a little better, the coaches son will always play more. Get use to it early. Coaches give their time and energy.......its the only perk they have.

Jesusgod

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This is so pitiful it makes me laugh. I have a nephew who just finished his 2nd year on his school's middle school team. They started in February and played their last game a week ago. Last year he played travel ball, but is only going to play rec ball this year, but the travel ball thing. The inner workings of it all is pretty sad. He was asked to try out for this travel team and his parents asked if he was interested and he said yes. He tries out and makes the team, but evidently there were two or three kids who didn't make it. Of course their parents was pissed and the coach was talking to the parents and saying how some parents just can't come to terms their kids are not as good as they think they are, etc. Come to find out, the reason that team was started was because the coaches son didn't make a team in which he was telling people his kid was clearly the 3 or 4th best player and they cut him because this coach was friends with that's kid's daddy, etc.. Well.. and I hate to say this about 10 and 11 year olds, but his son was terrible. One of the games I went to.. there was this one black kid on the team who was probably the best player on the team. He was the smallest kid on the team but he was pretty fast and caught every ball that came to him in center field. The game I was at, he was diving and making catches... So what does the coach do? Takes that kid out of center, puts his son out there and puts the little dude pitching.. Although he never really even pitched at practice. It was as if the coach was thinking "well he is a good athlete, he can probably do it all". The kid was a horrible pitcher. His skill set wasn't for pitching. After he gave up like 4 runs, he puts him at first, sits the kid who normally plays first and put in another pitcher. The next batter hits a fly ball behind 2nd base, the coach's kid in center field calls it. Drops the ball, he picks it up and launches it to first base and it goes over the smallest player on the team's head. 2 more runs score. The next inning was the last, the coach puts the regular 1st baseman back at first, puts the small black kid on the bench and leaves his kid in center. The only inning the other team scored was when the coach decided to put the kid who was catching everything coming to him in center field pitching and then first base. When we were leaving I saw the little black kid's daddy kneeling in front of him and I could hear him say "what do we practice at home? Fielding and batting. Its not your fault, you are not a pitcher and shouldn't have been pitching".. People pay for their kids to play and they are coached by retards who don't even know what positions these kids can or can't play. But his son plays short stop unless they playing a team who is hitting balls in a certain direction, then evidently he moves his kid so he can get in on the action.

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yute sports is another reflection of how much our society has sunk and how misplaced our priorities have become

I coached a similar aged team (8/9 year old) back in the day, while in college. My one play was the second best player setting a pick for my best player (point guard) and rolling to the basket. Otherwise, it’s mainly about spacing on offense/making sure they’re in the right position. Drills were mainly learning the “triple threat” position, proper bounce/chest passes, sliding your feet (not crossing) while playing defense, dribbling down court with right hand and back with left hand, layups, and free throws.

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All that to say: if you’re not signing up to be a coach, shut your mouth and get your arse on the sideline next season and make it better. Until then, thank your coach for volunteering their time to work with your kid while you sip mixed drinks out of your yeti cup.

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There’s a lot of truth to this. Here’s the deal. If you want your kid to get a fair shake in youth sports, then you need to coach. Period. End of story. That doesn’t mean that you need to make your kid the team’s superstar, but you can control the playing time and ensure that it’s fair.

There are people out there who assign playing time unfairly, and there’s no shortage of them. Their qualifications for coaching, most of the time, are no better than yours. You can learn to coach. Rather than let them affect your kid’s finite sports career, you go and take charge of that instead. And also keep it fair for the other kids.

One last point… every time I see this kind of thread (and it’s a lot) there are people disparaging “daddy ball” and saying how terrible rec leagues are for skill building. There are bad rec coaches, but there are plenty of good ones, too. I coached rec baseball for 16 years, and I can honestly say that my players were taught well, and many of the other coaches taught their teams well, too. It’s not always terrible, and you have more control over the experience than you think at first.

BR sounds like the worst place to have your kid play any type of team sport. My kid is just gonna be a swimmer. Just him and the clock.

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coach Little League baseball. The fair play rules vary by age. If you are 8u or 9u, every kid has to get at least one inning of IF. I personally hate that rule because it means that you always have one kid in the infield, who is a weak player. By default, that pulls down your strong players, who are capable of turning double plays. This mentality of catering to the weak at the expense of the strong is part of the reason that we start losing so many kids to select at around that age.

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They are 6,7, and 8. A lot haven’t ever picked up a baseball or bat yet. Catering to the weak at the expense of the strong? Are you fricking serious? At that age they need to be learning.

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love 10u and above because I’m not forced to play anyone anywhere. The new kids who have never played pretty much play outfield the entire year unless the are natural athletes.

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So they never have grounders hit to them in a game so they can never really learn. Awesome.

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It’s easier to learn a position when you aren’t constantly changing.

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I agree. But do you only practice kids in their positions in practice? If so, how will you ever know if a new kid can even improve into an infielder?

At 8u and under, kids should be exposed to different positions early in the season and allowed to rotate. As the season continues they will find their natural spots and the coaches should start focusing them in on those spots more and more.

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So they never have grounders hit to them in a game so they can never really learn. Awesome.

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Game time is one thing. But you gotta work them everywhere at practice. I never did the infield/outfield rotation in practice. Each kid fielded each position in our drills. You never know who will take to it. It is easier to teach a kid to field a ground ball and throw to first from second base than it is to teach a kid to field a fly ball and make the correct decision with it in the outfield. I often put one or two of my better ones out there to steal outs. To each his own.

I've got multiple kids that have played all the major team sports. They've never been on a team that the coach's kids don't bat the top of the order, play QB, or run the point. And I couldn't even count how many different teams they've been on. Not saying they all didn't deserve it but other kids weren't gonna get a shot at those spots regardless. It's the benefit they get for coaching the team. Honestly, you need to either start coaching yourself or learn to live with it. There's no other options. I will say that changes in high school. At that point you have coaches paying their mortgage and supporting their families so playing the best has actual financial incentives. Other than that I would say enjoy the time you have with your son right now. I'd give anything to go back to those years and see them play again.