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re: Why I Don't Want My Kids to Play Team Sports
Posted on 3/23/16 at 9:45 am to anc
Posted on 3/23/16 at 9:45 am to anc
IMO, one of the best things you can do for your kid is to let them play multiple sports before age 10.
Soccer, Teeball, Baseball, Basketball, Flag Football, Gymnastics, you name it. I prefer city/rec over travel.
They'll learn what they like and don't, and gain a fair amount of experience/skills.
From that point, they're well-equipped to make their own decisions in Jr High and High School.
Soccer, Teeball, Baseball, Basketball, Flag Football, Gymnastics, you name it. I prefer city/rec over travel.
They'll learn what they like and don't, and gain a fair amount of experience/skills.
From that point, they're well-equipped to make their own decisions in Jr High and High School.
1
Posted on 3/23/16 at 9:45 am to anc
Swimming IS a team sport. Yes, most events are individual, but there are relays and you practice with other people who push you to excel.
Posted on 3/23/16 at 9:47 am to anc
quote:
My daughter swims. Right now, her goal is to hit a sub-30 50 free and a sub-35 50 back
So when the cruel reality hits that she will have to give up swimming one day because there isn't professional swimming to pay her bills, and she has to get a job working with a group, what will you tell her?
Posted on 3/23/16 at 9:47 am to anc
quote:
My daughter swims. Right now, her goal is to hit a sub-30 50 free and a sub-35 50 back. She's done it in practice, but it doesn't count unless it happens in a meet. Yesterday she swam a 28.95 50 free. If that would have happened in any meet she has ever swam in, she would have won it. Elite swimmers at her age are considered 28.09
One of my co-workers has a daughter whose an elite swimmer, ranked in the top few in the country and is currently competing in INTL events and Olympic trials. But her parents still have her play rec soccer, just for fun/team aspects.
Posted on 3/23/16 at 9:47 am to LSUfan20005
quote:
IMO, one of the best things you can do for your kid is to let them play multiple sports before age 10.
And we certainly did that.
I thought it was an interesting article.
Posted on 3/23/16 at 9:49 am to Rhino5
quote:
So when the cruel reality hits that she will have to give up swimming one day because there isn't professional swimming to pay her bills, and she has to get a job working with a group, what will you tell her?
That plenty are people are successful working with groups that did not play 12 year old travel ball?
Posted on 3/23/16 at 9:49 am to terd ferguson
quote:
This whole thing just seems like a subtle brag thread to tell us how good your kid is a swimming practice.
Posted on 3/23/16 at 9:49 am to anc
Put a golf club in your kids hands.
Posted on 3/23/16 at 9:49 am to anc
you realize there are plenty of other forms of youth teams sports than travel ball, right?
Posted on 3/23/16 at 9:50 am to anc
Why not both?
See what your kid enjoys more and at a suitable age when it's required to work harder, make them choose.
See what your kid enjoys more and at a suitable age when it's required to work harder, make them choose.
Posted on 3/23/16 at 9:51 am to anc
quote:Not every kid is a superstar. Fact of life.
Before every game, the coach would have all his players form a circle, put their hands inside and yell out, “Team!” Then, without fail, my brother walked to the bench, sat down and remained there—completely ignored—for three quarters. Immediately before the final period began, the coach would point to David and begrudgingly insert him at right fullback for the requisite minimum amount all kids must play. He made it painfully clear to the others that my brother was the weakest of weak links; that he was useless as a soccer player.
Posted on 3/23/16 at 9:52 am to anc
Sports in themselves are amazing for kids. Kids need to find what sports they are actually good at. My nephew is pretty good at basketball, but didn't see a ton of minutes because this was his first year playing organized ball. He is killing it in track though. He has finished 1st place in every hurdles event he ran this year and only finished 2nd once in the high jump.
Posted on 3/23/16 at 9:52 am to anc
Interesting article, but the author is guilty of putting his own insecurities on his kid(s).
In the passage below, he is really over-thinking shite. As a parent of 4, the best advice I can give is to stop worrying so much and wanting things FOR your kids. Your job is to provide an opportunity, then let your kids develop into their own.
In the passage below, he is really over-thinking shite. As a parent of 4, the best advice I can give is to stop worrying so much and wanting things FOR your kids. Your job is to provide an opportunity, then let your kids develop into their own.
quote:
Now, come spring, Emmett will begin his inevitable decline. The “Fall Ball” kids will be far superior. The coaches will hand them the prime positions. My son will be placed in right field. He’ll hit eighth. Maybe ninth. He’ll grow frustrated, feel inferior, lose interest. It won’t be as bad as 1982, but it’ll seem familiar. No, thank you. Not interested. I want my kids to run track and cross country—where the ultimate goal is to accomplish your personal best. I want them to learn an instrument, to master a craft, to join the drama club. I want my son to be a “science nerd.” I want my daughter to write poetry. I don’t care if they win and I don’t care if they lose, as long as they try and as long as they’re happy. We place such an unhealthy emphasis in this country upon victory, without stopping to ponder the end game. Yes, medals are nice. Trophies, too. But, really, what’s so important about being the best? Why are we so focused on the result, while forgetting the value of the journey? Why do we devote so much time turning our offspring into … us?
Posted on 3/23/16 at 9:52 am to anc
quote:
She doesnt have the drama of sitting the bench or having the coach play favorites.
That will have her well prepared for life. Certainly she will never have to compete with others in college nor have a manager that plays favorites.
Posted on 3/23/16 at 9:54 am to anc
What?? Team sports helps with social skills and life in general.. Granted the rise in travel tourney ball has got a bit out of hand.
This post was edited on 3/23/16 at 9:56 am
Posted on 3/23/16 at 9:54 am to anc
Author of that article sounds bitter that his brother didn't get a participation trophy. I kind of hate that article.
By the way, are we really having to defend the value of TEAM sports here? What is wrong with team sports? OP sounds set in his ways about it.
Okay I am only 27 years old, and I can see the value of trying out a lot of extra activities as a kid, but this is the most pussified shite ever. "What's so important about being the best?" Oh my fricking god I hate what we have become.
Also, the author makes a big to-do about why being the best is not important and then the article ends with this:
By the way, are we really having to defend the value of TEAM sports here? What is wrong with team sports? OP sounds set in his ways about it.
quote:
I want my kids to run track and cross country—where the ultimate goal is to accomplish your personal best. I want them to learn an instrument, to master a craft, to join the drama club. I want my son to be a “science nerd.” I want my daughter to write poetry. I don’t care if they win and I don’t care if they lose, as long as they try and as long as they’re happy. We place such an unhealthy emphasis in this country upon victory, without stopping to ponder the end game. Yes, medals are nice. Trophies, too. But, really, what’s so important about being the best? Why are we so focused on the result, while forgetting the value of the journey? Why do we devote so much time turning our offspring into … us?
Okay I am only 27 years old, and I can see the value of trying out a lot of extra activities as a kid, but this is the most pussified shite ever. "What's so important about being the best?" Oh my fricking god I hate what we have become.
Also, the author makes a big to-do about why being the best is not important and then the article ends with this:
quote:
Jeff Pearlman is the author of the coming book “Showtime: Magic, Kareem, Riley, and the Los Angeles Lakers Dynasty of the 1980s.”
This post was edited on 3/23/16 at 10:02 am
Posted on 3/23/16 at 9:57 am to Rhino5
quote:
Team sports are great. Great memories. It's the parents who take it too serious that are the issue.
Having coached kid's sports, I can vouch for this 100%. The kids, for the most part are great. It's the so-called "adults" that are the problem.
And in the rare instance where I've had a problem child, almost invariably the parents were douchebags. Kids don't learn that behavior on their own.
Posted on 3/23/16 at 9:58 am to Salmon
quote:
Why not do both?
Motherfricking BOOM. Seriously. I wish I could upvote this a hundred times.
Why do people always seek to limit the learning opportunities and experiences of others, especially their kids?
The author is such a coward. He doesn't want to subject his kid to the horrors of team sports. Instead:
quote:
I want my kids to run track and cross country—where the ultimate goal is to accomplish your personal best. I want them to learn an instrument, to master a craft, to join the drama club. I want my son to be a “science nerd.” I want my daughter to write poetry. I don’t care if they win and I don’t care if they lose, as long as they try and as long as they’re happy.
What makes him think there's any less pressure at the upper echelons of track and cross country? Or that there is no bench to sit in either of those sports? I got news for you... cross country starts the top 10-12 runners in varsity. What happens when your kid is a senior, stuck at the JV level because there's 8 or so sophomores faster than him? Or what happens if your kid is fourth-chair flute or given a crummy role in the chorus for the high school musical? What happens when nobody wants to publish your kid's poems or your kid's Ph.D research gets blown to shite by something more groundbreaking that beat him to publication?
You can't protect people from failure. But you can expose them to it, and you should be taught not to fear failure. People learn more from failure than success. That's why I say, experience it all. Get your arse out there on the football team, and the quiz bowl team, and learn to play the guitar, and learn how to shoot, and learn how to bake cookies. frick, man... live life! Why is the author so afraid of life?
Posted on 3/23/16 at 9:58 am to JumpingTheShark
OP is trying to be cool by condemning team sports bc his daughter is excelling in something that isn't travel ball. Swimming.....aka a team sport.
Posted on 3/23/16 at 9:59 am to anc
How about you just let your kid play the sports they like to play. If that happens to be a team sport where he/she rides the bench, then so be it.
Also, you can set plenty of goals for yourself in a team sport. As an added benefit, you learn to work with people which is a pretty fricking important skill for life.
Also, you can set plenty of goals for yourself in a team sport. As an added benefit, you learn to work with people which is a pretty fricking important skill for life.
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