Billdozer

Sorry to revive an old thread, I just stumbled upon it while lurking and felt compelled to respond.

For a little bio to better understand my response, I had an opportunity to play basketball in college, my best friend from HS played football in college and was my roommate, and my uncle spent over a decade in professional baseball where he had over 700 innings pitched, 650 strikeouts, and a 3.5 era over that time. He’s now a college baseball coach and offers an invaluable perspective from a recruiting standpoint.

First off, understand that there is no one-size-fits-all answer, here. There are so many factors and so many different observations from so many different people and their individual experiences. Each sport also differs in who, how and when each kid excels. For example, I found that early bloomers tend to excel in basketball because they can take advantage of their superior size at the time, whereas in baseball I’ve found that those same players aren’t as good because they have a higher center of gravity, not as agile and their coordination tends to be off because of the sudden growth yet your smaller players who may struggle in other sports, can excel in youth baseball. Football has always been a mixed bag of certain types of players, small and big, fast and slow. My best friend that I referenced above, who went on to play college football, was the best on our team at 10 years old, 12 years old and high school. For me in basketball, at 13 I was cut from the middle school basketball team because I was an awkward body who didn’t really have a place then. I wrestled in middle school instead. By the time I was a sophomore in high school, I was 6’6 and would end up being a 3-year letterman in high school and by my senior year, out of those kids in my grade who made the middle school team over me, only 1 (yes ONE) of those players made our state title contending high school team. So here we both were, one who always excelled in his sport and myself who showed up to the party late, both in college doing our thing.

At the end of the day, none of this can be sorted out before puberty. You may begin to see the competitiveness and the mental fortitude of a good athlete at such a young age, but genetics are by and far the largest determining factor as to whether a child will play at the next level or not. If you want me to tell you whether or not a 10 year old child has the ability to play at the next level, show me his parents, not his youth sports accomplishments. It’s the old “I can teach you football/basketball/baseball, but I can’t teach size, speed, etc…..” saying.

I will also say this: No child is getting looked at seriously by colleges before the age of 14-15. Not happening and if you think it is, you’re lying to yourself and those around you. That’s coming from a college baseball coach and former pro, who does this for a living. Travel ball isn’t getting a child noticed by colleges before their mid-teens, and most kids are getting burnt out and parents spending their college savings, believing that what I said isn’t true. Let your kids play multiple sports, let them develop different muscle groups and uses for different muscles, but most of all, let them develop a love for the game and a drive to want to play. I see so many kids who just go through the motions because they’re burnt out, because their parent’s desire for the child to play, surpasses the child’s. If you want a kid to play with passion, they must learn to miss playing said sport otherwise it just becomes a job.