Can Youth Sports Be Reigned In?
January 20, 2009
Like many issues of life and death, to us it’s always somebody else…Isn’t it? Or is it? Tom Farrey,
Author of Game On: The All-American Race to Make Champions of Our Children.” 
He discusses just what’s really up with youth sports in America and who if any body is to blame.
This book reminds me that at our core we parents are genuinely involving our kids in youth sporting events out of love.We want them to be active and healthy.Today, with one day per week of exercise in many elementary and middle schools , just when can our children get the proper level of exercise?
Once our children do get involved in youth sports something must snap that in some cases causes some to take it WAY out of proportion. I have not one concrete answer but lots of questions. My favorite question is “How much is too much as it relates to our sport, Track and Field?” Is starting at 6 over the top? Should we be running 6 year olds in events like the 400m, 8oom,1500m. Does it really help for their future endeavors?
Actually no. All the research proves that earlier isn’t necessarily better with track and field and the abilty to have great gains with out starting very early are very obvious. (Allyson Felix to name one standout) this isn’t a discussion point any more. Again why do we do it ? I guess because we can.
I know I won’t win any popularity contest over this next statement but does a 5-6 year old really need to be competing weekly and training just as hard as the 9 and above athletes? I think absolutely not. I believe that a 5-6 year old has a larger likely hood of never wanting to run again if he finds the practice not fun. If the 5-6 year old had a special “Fun” workout that mimicks fun only ,relay races,tag and chase he would want to come back. More often than not this isn’t the workout the 5-6 year old is getting (nor is it the one the parents would deem “best”) and sooner that latter the experience that child remembers is a negative one. One with no fun.Fun should be the reason for the experience. Shouldn’t It?
Well we have lots to think about with our own children and I have no answers.I am just like many of you reading this post, a parent that loves track and so far kid likes it too.
Oh yeah she likes lots of other things as well , so I can’t say right now track is it. So we take it year by year ,season by season.Hopefully I will continue to try and be balanced and not to over bearing or God forbid a pushy parent. Just talking about it keeps me honest and thinking about it on a regular basis. How ’bout You?
One of the most common responses elite and college coaches give me when asked when should a youth athlete (sprinter) begin races like the 400m and 8oom if they are more of a natural sprinter the answer is 100% of the time “No rush we almost NEVER see those great youth stars in our training systems years later, there is time for that level of development when it counts…Really counts”.
Wow,you mean to tell me it’s not counting right now? Yes and No. Yes it counts to the parents and the athletes to recieve a medals and the excitment that experience generates.No, it doesn’t count when you consider would you rather have medals and accolades at 9-14 or 18-25.The math is very easy for me to add up. A matter of fact it is getting easier every year we continue to participate in the sport I love most of all.
As the publisher of the book wrote as a promo ”Youth sports isn’t just orange slices and all-star trophies anymore. It’s 14-year-olds who enter high school with a decade of football experience, 9-year-olds competing for national baseball championships, 5-year-old golfers who shoot par, and toddlers made from sperm donated (for a fee) by elite college athletes. It’s a year-round “travel team” in every community–and parents who fear that not making the cut in grade school will cost their kid the chance to play in high school. In short, a landscape in which performance often matters more than participation, all the way down to peewee basketball“.
As always….. lots to consider,lots to ponder,lots to do to help our kids have the best brightest childhood we as parents can provide.
Until Next Time
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- Could You Use A “Flying Lesson”?
- Frozen Agave Orange Yogurt
- Monday Wrap Up With TrackMom ..Can We Talk??
- Smarts Thoughts On Youth Sports
It still amazes me how much parents preach that they take it easy with their kids but they continue to run them in meets week after week without a break during the season as their addiction to the medal count grows.
This book is so- important AND readable that my brother in law the middle scool principal temporarily stole it from me four months ago and counting, Bill– after I had read only 1 chaptrer , .
Congratulations to the Walt Disney Corporation forr allowing ESPN to publish this book, despite a hard look at the sports-tourism in which Diisney is heavily investted.
And kudos to the Disney lawyers for letting Farrey hang, draw, and quarter the underperfoming tenats/squatters/sharecropperrs, the
Basketball Junta that has ruled AAU for over16 years..