(10-17-2017 01:55 PM)Wedge Wrote:  

(10-17-2017 12:59 PM)Frank the Tank Wrote:  I think we're seeing that specialization at all levels of youth sports and it's getting more and more intense.

I spoke to the basketball coach at the middle school (*not* high school) that my kids will attend in a couple of years and he said that a kid isn't realistically making a middle school basketball team in our district today without multiple years of travel team experience. You can say the same for soccer and baseball. Once again, we're talking about *middle* school (not high school).

Right. Good athletes, who would have played three sports many years ago, are one-sport athletes today. A 9th grade baseball player who skips fall travel ball to play high school football might fall behind in his baseball coach's pecking order and not be a starter the next spring and summer. If he becomes just a pinch-hitter or late-inning sub on his travel ball team, he has little chance of getting noticed by college baseball recruiters. It has decreased the participation levels in every sport that would have been the all-around athlete's second or third sport.

Also, the emphasis on transitioning kids onto travel teams as early as possible makes even the younger kids' recreational programs more intense, with the side effect that the kids who only want to play recreationally either drop out earlier or never play in an organized recreational program at all, and that further reduces youth participation levels.

And this is a huge problem - sports were meant to be recreational at heart.

Competitive is good, but the extreme measures that go into "youth sports" is insane. One of my co-worker's sons wanted to play Soccer at his HS, along with his club, but his club coach wouldn't allow it.