Will Your Kid Want To Retire From Track and Field Soon?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 The Track, Soccer and Softball, Baseball Fields and Basketball Courts to name a few in America are littered with the what seems to be trashed dreams of parents and their youth athletes “I Quit Slips”. ”I Quit Slips” are when kids say at some point between when they start and when they chose to end their pursuit of sports in their youth I have had enough.  

Parents think it can’t happen to their child ,that  it is someone else’s burden but  it happens, and when it happens to you, it can be a surprise to say the least a tremendous let down and disappointment. Why disappointment? Simply because there has been invested so much time and energy,heck money lots of money into a pursuit that has brought so much happiness and joy to ourselves , our families and friends, it had become a focal point of  life for 5-10 years and sometimes abruptly sometime no so,but  it  can often feels like a surprise.. Where did this come from?

 Thirty million kids play in youth league sports in this country.

When 30 million people do any one thing, that one thing soon becomes big business. In the past 15 years, there has been an explosion of club teams, private coaching, strength and conditioning gyms, sport-specific camps, and any other pay-to-play endeavor to capture this market. Winter indoor leagues for warm weather sports. Off-season leagues. Year-round this, year-round that.

It is all designed to help kids become high school stars and — the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow — help them get college scholarships.

Thirty million kids play, but for a healthy slice of that number, it becomes work. All I can say is we parents try our best but we don’t know everything especially if our child will want to continue in the sport we both love right now?

This is the story of one of them. Read the rest of  journalist Mark Diionno’s  Here

Related posts:

1. Just “Off” Today
2. Can An Athlete Make A Living In Track & Field
3. Cell Phones And Your Kid
4. What Track and Field Can Give Your Child
5. Kids Just Want To Have Fun, Parents Too!