Youth Sports

[Rocky]

Well i personally know a few guys, one in particular who had a kid playing baseball that just wasnt into it. his kid would be sitting out in the field picking flowers and making dirt mounds while the game was going on around him. He talked about how much he had worked with his kid and how he deserved to be out there all the time because "he was the best on the team, they just had him in the wrong spot" dude even got into a confrontation with the coach about it saying he needed to move him. situations like this is when the parents need to understand that it just isnt going to happen or its going to happen later. i couldnt stand to coach youth league, and ive thought about it often and even turned down a few offers to help people out. Parents are what makes or breaks a kids fun/learning in youth sports.

[basketballguy]

Parents single handedly ruin leagues.

also another question is picking teams for leagues. My opinion is that kids should have a "try-out" one day prior to the season and let allt he coaches attend and have the kids do simple drills like shooting jumpshot/layups/ and play a small pickup game maybe... you all get the picture. then from that point after let the coaches have a mini-draft where all the kids are chosen on a team.

[CoeburnCane]

Parents single handedly ruin leagues.

This.

People who are grooming their child to be an athlete from day one need to simply keep their kids in travel leagues, and out of Little League/P-Nut/Pop Warner/etc.

The by-laws of most of the leagues like LL/P-Nut/PW have something to the effect of being an "instructional league" in them. Not so w/AAU and that sort of thing. If you're in it to win at all costs--go to the league that's geared toward that. If you're in it to have your child have a good experience with team sports and care that they get a fair chance at playing time, keep them in the more instructional-type leagues.

I had some good youth league coaches growing up, ones that taught me not only a lot about sports but how to be a good person. I also had coaches who taught me how NOT to be, and most of those were the ones that would have been better served to go AAU.

I've always said I'd like to take control of a youth league and give everybody a rude awakening--and base all playing time off of report cards. If you're not dedicated in the classroom, then you won't get to see the field--plain & simple. You can see the difference in a lot of today's kids that are recruited to go play a sport on the D1 level. If their grades aren't good enough--they get passed thru b/c they can play that sport, not because they're a good student along with being an athlete. Wonder what would happen if we started making kids accountable for their grades by divvying out playing time according to their grades?

[Unchained]

This.

People who are grooming their child to be an athlete from day one need to simply keep their kids in travel leagues, and out of Little League/P-Nut/Pop Warner/etc.

The by-laws of most of the leagues like LL/P-Nut/PW have something to the effect of being an "instructional league" in them. Not so w/AAU and that sort of thing. If you're in it to win at all costs--go to the league that's geared toward that. If you're in it to have your child have a good experience with team sports and care that they get a fair chance at playing time, keep them in the more instructional-type leagues.

I had some good youth league coaches growing up, ones that taught me not only a lot about sports but how to be a good person. I also had coaches who taught me how NOT to be, and most of those were the ones that would have been better served to go AAU.

I've always said I'd like to take control of a youth league and give everybody a rude awakening--and base all playing time off of report cards. If you're not dedicated in the classroom, then you won't get to see the field--plain & simple. You can see the difference in a lot of today's kids that are recruited to go play a sport on the D1 level. If their grades aren't good enough--they get passed thru b/c they can play that sport, not because they're a good student along with being an athlete. Wonder what would happen if we started making kids accountable for their grades by divvying out playing time according to their grades?

That right there may qualify for post of the year. I couldn't agree more. Folks have their priorities wrong.:2thumbsup:

[centennialdawg]

This.

People who are grooming their child to be an athlete from day one need to simply keep their kids in travel leagues, and out of Little League/P-Nut/Pop Warner/etc.

The by-laws of most of the leagues like LL/P-Nut/PW have something to the effect of being an "instructional league" in them. Not so w/AAU and that sort of thing. If you're in it to win at all costs--go to the league that's geared toward that. If you're in it to have your child have a good experience with team sports and care that they get a fair chance at playing time, keep them in the more instructional-type leagues.

I had some good youth league coaches growing up, ones that taught me not only a lot about sports but how to be a good person. I also had coaches who taught me how NOT to be, and most of those were the ones that would have been better served to go AAU.

I've always said I'd like to take control of a youth league and give everybody a rude awakening--and base all playing time off of report cards. If you're not dedicated in the classroom, then you won't get to see the field--plain & simple. You can see the difference in a lot of today's kids that are recruited to go play a sport on the D1 level. If their grades aren't good enough--they get passed thru b/c they can play that sport, not because they're a good student along with being an athlete. Wonder what would happen if we started making kids accountable for their grades by divvying out playing time according to their grades?

Some youth leagues have that rule now about bringing home good report cards. But none of the really adhere to the rule come game time.

Little league baseball/softball has a mandatory play rule now. They have had that rule for years. Some coaches used to try and get around the rule by telling mommy, or daddy, that little Johnny or Mary said they are sick and can't play. Used to happen all the time.

In the case of t-ball, there should be no score kept, but, the coaches should at least try and teach them about the simple rules of the game. This has not happened and I believe it never will as long as the leagues try to "hurry" the t-ball season along by playing so many games during the week. Most leagues play the teams on a 3 game a week schedule ending the season in 4 weeks.(Mandatory 12 game schedule) Most all the t-ball games are over by the 2nd week in May.

[CoeburnCane]

Some youth leagues have that rule now about bringing home good report cards.

Someone stole my idea.

But none of the really adhere to the rule come game time.

...and that's where my implementation of my idea would be different. You fail a test and it's the day before the "championship" game? Guess what dude, you're sitting the bench. Why? Because it's your responsibility to the team to do the best you can on a test. A parent doesn't like that? Give them the AAU's phone # and hold the exit door open for them.

Little Johnny Superstar would either sit the bench and have a book cracked open studying, or he'd be on his way out the door. If a parent questioned that decision, then they definately wouldn't have their priorities straight and I'd personally tell them as much.

[Biggin]

well i wanna play advocate here.

there are some kids that can try their hardest and only manage C's or D's, and some can breeze by and still get A's or B's.

how can you punish a kid even though he is doing his best and only getting C's and D's?

[centennialdawg]

well i wanna play advocate here.

there are some kids that can try their hardest and only manage C's or D's, and some can breeze by and still get A's or B's.

how can you punish a kid even though he is doing his best and only getting C's and D's?

I see your point, but when I was playing sports in high school, an athlete had to maintain a C average in order to play sports. I remember the words "You are academically ineligibe to play at this time" rang out a lot back then. Coaches and teachers just seemed to care more about your education then than they do now. Now it is "here you go Johnny, you didn't pass this six weeks because your average is only 55 on Algebra, but I went ahead and gave you a C- because you really tried hard". Guess what? Trying hard is not cutting it in college. Just look at how many high school athletes are having to take "remedial" courses in college. Even at our community colleges a large majority of the students entering their first years have to take a remedial course in algebra or english in order to just be able to understand some of the material being taught. I remember when my daughter, Heather, played high school softball, there was a parent who warned her daughter that if she came home with anything below a C, then she could not play. Guess what? This girl made a D and her parent stuck to her word and the girl did not play. She was no slouch either. She was an infielder who was a starter.

No, biggin, when it comes to grades, they should be just as important(at least to the parents) as ability in order to play sports, even in Little League, AAU, p-nut, or Babe Ruth.