In many sports, it is a matter of A) How long a family can handle the financial investment or B) How long before the athlete got burned out and it caused added stress / arguments in the family, car rides home, etc Sad :(
Just think how much better a kid would be if their parents spent the same amount of money and time improving the kids academics instead of dreaming that maybe if he keeps playing one travel sport he will get a full athletic scholarship to college. Society has their priorities all out of whack. I'm not sure I would be able to be a parent these days with all the craziness going on in the government schools, sports in general and the culture. Hat's off to all the young and middle aged parents out there, enjoy your kids, the time goes by very quickly and your job is to make them great young adults not the next star athlete.
We do the travel sports but we blend it w/ vacations and we spend time together. My wife and I don't live through our kids. We tell them, work as hard as you want to win. If you don't want to do this, we can do it local. I am not perfect, but we love our times together and win or lose, I tell my kids, doesn't matter, I LOVE you if you do your best!
Thank you so much, after I finished recording, I wasn’t really sure if my message was clear enough because so many emotions were running high, I expanded on my reaction and just posted it to my strong life podcast 🏆🏆
When I was young in the 70's you paid for your T-shirt and bought your bat or your tennis racket and off you went to the rec center. Or in Catholic High School one of the Nuns would couch us and drive us in a van to the location after school. It was almost free.
Travel sports are super expensive too. Travel clubs can cost upwards of $10k or more. When I was in southern California (granted I was in Orange County) some travel soccer clubs cost north of $20k a year. Some sports are becoming elitist due to cost while the talent pool gets watered down due to lack of wide spread participation.
I don't mind the price. I mind when coaches / programs promise to develop the athletes and they don't. REAL Coaches can develop average players into GREAT players rather than just organizing all talented players and building a "team"
@ZEvenEsh sadly there are tons of charlatans in the youth coaching world. Just having knowledge of how to coach the basics and coach kids of all skill levels and build a team and a fun experience is really tough to find.
I have mixed feelings. My children are athletic and play multiple sports, but I frequently think the age they’re recruited to travel teams is pretty young.
Yes, the travel teams have dismantled local teams. Travel Teams were supposed to be reserved for advanced athletes, today they are for everyone who can pay. Many promise to develop the kids but it becomes more private lessons on top of travel fees, etc. It's a game often times, not always, but often times a game of who can last the longest financially.
I agree we may never go back to multiple sport participation however I still think there is a chance. The injuries that are happening to not only young kids but also at the collegiate and pro levels. There is a significant rise in Tommy John surgeries in the MLB and it’s happening to guys early on in their careers. Which tells me that’s a product of the year round single sport participation and In particular the influence of travel ball which has big tournaments year round . Travel ball is the biggest culprit in this because they don’t care about the welfare of the athlete they care about their money and bottom line. If we bring about enough awareness especially to the younger generations and their parents maybe we can influence it enough to where parents will be selective about how much these kids play that sport year round. That’s why I find your video important and we need many more like it coming from multiple people .
I would say there is an OVER abundance of information out there on the dangers of early specialization and the BENEFITS of multi sport athletes. Parents choose NOT to listen. Towns need to come together and keep growing their recreation programs. Hire a Coach or coaches who have been interviewed and understand that the kids are #1. Tough to do though b/c most are building their business of travel sports. NOT all travel teams are bad but many are falling very short of developing the athlete!
Great share, but it sounds to me he is still trying to monetize from the Gold mine of youth sports, anything under 12/13 should be for fun with out having to have extra training, he just admitted that extra training at a young age leads to injuries.
This was an awesome video and great message. My son who is now a D1 ball player went through exactly what you are talking about. I was able to coach him at a young age however I was harder on him than the rest of the kids. I also told him I would because I never wanted to give the appearance of favoritism. All kids including him played the same number of innings and played multiple positions. When they are young it’s about development and the love of the game . In fact at every level it should be about love of the game. When he was 13 I stopped coaching him because it was time for him to learn to listen and learn from others who were better coaches than I was. Travel ball has become very political and overbearing . The amount of injuries these kids sustain are off the charts. I actually witnessed a 16 yr old after his third pitch tear his UCL. Travel ball has become a money making propaganda scheme. If you want your kid to get looked at then he needs to be at these specific tournaments thru these specific organizations which are costly in time and money.Then He needs to be rated and go to these camps etc…. The bottom line is there is so much money in these organizations that have a lot of power deciding your kids future especially if you don’t comply. We need to get back to multiple sport athletes this helps development of the athlete and prevents these overuse injuries. This mindset needs to start at the top and what I mean is at the pro and D1 college levels they should be preaching this to parents and this should take away the power these travel ball organizations have on the process.
I wasn’t sure if my message was clear enough in this response it just brought about so many emotions, I just expanded on this and posted the audio to my podcast, thank you for sharing how you did things as a father and as a coach, I unfortunately don’t ever think we will return to those days of multiple sports, and just good humans coaching kids
When adults found out how much they could bleed out if youth sports it was destroyed maybe forever
In many sports, it is a matter of A) How long a family can handle the financial investment or B) How long before the athlete got burned out and it caused added stress / arguments in the family, car rides home, etc
Sad :(
Just think how much better a kid would be if their parents spent the same amount of money and time improving the kids academics instead of dreaming that maybe if he keeps playing one travel sport he will get a full athletic scholarship to college. Society has their priorities all out of whack. I'm not sure I would be able to be a parent these days with all the craziness going on in the government schools, sports in general and the culture. Hat's off to all the young and middle aged parents out there, enjoy your kids, the time goes by very quickly and your job is to make them great young adults not the next star athlete.
We do the travel sports but we blend it w/ vacations and we spend time together. My wife and I don't live through our kids. We tell them, work as hard as you want to win. If you don't want to do this, we can do it local. I am not perfect, but we love our times together and win or lose, I tell my kids, doesn't matter, I LOVE you if you do your best!
@ZEvenEsh don't forget to tell everyone your steroid stack
Zach you couldn't be more on the money man!!! This is absolutely correct!!!
Thank you so much, after I finished recording, I wasn’t really sure if my message was clear enough because so many emotions were running high, I expanded on my reaction and just posted it to my strong life podcast 🏆🏆
When I was young in the 70's you paid for your T-shirt and bought your bat or your tennis racket and off you went to the rec center. Or in Catholic High School one of the Nuns would couch us and drive us in a van to the location after school. It was almost free.
I miss the purity of streetball and learning how to play sports by spending 10 hours a day, outdoors and playing with your friends🏆🏆
Travel sports are super expensive too. Travel clubs can cost upwards of $10k or more. When I was in southern California (granted I was in Orange County) some travel soccer clubs cost north of $20k a year. Some sports are becoming elitist due to cost while the talent pool gets watered down due to lack of wide spread participation.
I don't mind the price. I mind when coaches / programs promise to develop the athletes and they don't. REAL Coaches can develop average players into GREAT players rather than just organizing all talented players and building a "team"
@ZEvenEsh sadly there are tons of charlatans in the youth coaching world. Just having knowledge of how to coach the basics and coach kids of all skill levels and build a team and a fun experience is really tough to find.
I have mixed feelings. My children are athletic and play multiple sports, but I frequently think the age they’re recruited to travel teams is pretty young.
Yes, the travel teams have dismantled local teams. Travel Teams were supposed to be reserved for advanced athletes, today they are for everyone who can pay. Many promise to develop the kids but it becomes more private lessons on top of travel fees, etc. It's a game often times, not always, but often times a game of who can last the longest financially.
I agree we may never go back to multiple sport participation however I still think there is a chance. The injuries that are happening to not only young kids but also at the collegiate and pro levels. There is a significant rise in Tommy John surgeries in the MLB and it’s happening to guys early on in their careers. Which tells me that’s a product of the year round single sport participation and In particular the influence of travel ball which has big tournaments year round . Travel ball is the biggest culprit in this because they don’t care about the welfare of the athlete they care about their money and bottom line. If we bring about enough awareness especially to the younger generations and their parents maybe we can influence it enough to where parents will be selective about how much these kids play that sport year round. That’s why I find your video important and we need many more like it coming from multiple people .
I would say there is an OVER abundance of information out there on the dangers of early specialization and the BENEFITS of multi sport athletes. Parents choose NOT to listen.
Towns need to come together and keep growing their recreation programs. Hire a Coach or coaches who have been interviewed and understand that the kids are #1.
Tough to do though b/c most are building their business of travel sports.
NOT all travel teams are bad but many are falling very short of developing the athlete!
Great share, but it sounds to me he is still trying to monetize from the Gold mine of youth sports, anything under 12/13 should be for fun with out having to have extra training, he just admitted that extra training at a young age leads to injuries.
Excess Sports Prep with a lack or imbalance of strength & conditioning increases chances of injuries. I've seen it happening for well over 20 years.
This was an awesome video and great message. My son who is now a D1 ball player went through exactly what you are talking about. I was able to coach him at a young age however I was harder on him than the rest of the kids. I also told him I would because I never wanted to give the appearance of favoritism. All kids including him played the same number of innings and played multiple positions. When they are young it’s about development and the love of the game . In fact at every level it should be about love of the game. When he was 13 I stopped coaching him because it was time for him to learn to listen and learn from others who were better coaches than I was. Travel ball has become very political and overbearing . The amount of injuries these kids sustain are off the charts. I actually witnessed a 16 yr old after his third pitch tear his UCL. Travel ball has become a money making propaganda scheme. If you want your kid to get looked at then he needs to be at these specific tournaments thru these specific organizations which are costly in time and money.Then He needs to be rated and go to these camps etc…. The bottom line is there is so much money in these organizations that have a lot of power deciding your kids future especially if you don’t comply. We need to get back to multiple sport athletes this helps development of the athlete and prevents these overuse injuries. This mindset needs to start at the top and what I mean is at the pro and D1 college levels they should be preaching this to parents and this should take away the power these travel ball organizations have on the process.
I wasn’t sure if my message was clear enough in this response it just brought about so many emotions, I just expanded on this and posted the audio to my podcast, thank you for sharing how you did things as a father and as a coach, I unfortunately don’t ever think we will return to those days of multiple sports, and just good humans coaching kids