For the sake of discussion, I refer to those activities outside the educational structure of scholastic sports as Youth Sports. These range from summer league baseball to select soccer and AAU basketball. Most of these teams are coached by parents of team members. In the case of AAU basketball, most coaches are guys who are on one of the big shoe company payrolls. AAU basketball and select soccer coaches in most cases have an anti-school mentality.
Select soccer in many cases is more attractive to some kids and parents because select teams play in tournaments all over the country, are coached by folks paid by the parents, play more matches than the school team and sold on the myth that select soccer will get you a college scholarship or even pave your way to the US Olympic team. Both mostly lies. Non-scholastic soccer coaches also preach the specialization message - one must play soccer year-round in order to get the college scholarship. The Olympic Development Program (ODP) has a long list of rules. The most restrictive is ODP weekend practices. Their practice rule states that a school activity is not an excused absence from an OPD weekend. This of course includes classes that may have to be missed because of travel to an ODP practice. Parents pay for all the expenses to ODP practices which could be far enough away to require overnight lodging. OPD coaches and organizers are gods. The sport of soccer in the USA is more a cult than a sport.
People heavy into soccer have a goal of their sport displacing football as the #1 sport in America. Granted it is the top sport in most countries. The purpose of one sport should never be to destroy another. You don't promote your sport by defaming another. Yet we have all seen the T-Shirts with the slogan, "Soccer is the Real Football". Why do that?
Kids are now playing highly organized soccer (and baseball) as early as 4 years old. Why? When are they kids? How do they discover social skills on their own? How do they become self organized? They learn one thing very quickly: they cannot play the game without uniforms and the right shoes. They also learn very young that if their team loses, they have failed.
I suggest we play these games without parents present and that no one keeps score. Have fun, learn skills, but without the pressure to win.
"Inside the Crazy Culture Of Kids Sports", an article researched and written by Andrew Ferguson in July of 1999 for TIME has some interesting statistics.
Kelly Donnelly, age 13, Cranford, N.J., and her sister are members of the Strikers select soccer team. They will play 50 games in her home state, Virginia and Canada.
What It Costs:
Equipment, $85-$265
Club Dues, $400
Travel, $50-$250 per tournament
Clinics, $600
How Much Time: 6 to 16 hours per week
Total Cost: $1135 - $2015
Eva Rodriguez, 12, dreams of playing in the WNBA.
What It Costs:
Equipment: $200-$395 for shoes and uniform
Clubs: $150 a year
Travel: $60 - $210 month to attend out-of-town games
Clinics: $100 - $400
How Much Time: 2 to 6 hours daily plus games
Total Cost:: $500 - $1575
Casey McKinley, 5, Parker, Co.., Baseball
What It Costs:
Equipment: $150 - $450 for uniforms, gloves, shoes, bats
Clubs: $25 - $150 a year for league and team fees
Travel: Kids in elite travel squads spend $10 - $100 per week
Clinics: $200 - $600 for intense summers and spring break
How Much Time: 3-12 hours per week plus 2 to 4 games
Total cost: $500 - $2700
Hockey is easily the most costly of the team sports. Nick has been playing since he was five and this year, says his father, John, 46, the family will spend over $4500 a year for the hockey habit. The equipment alone will cost $750. Some parents hope their kids win college athletic scholarships. But think about it. If you spend $4500 per year for 10 years of youth sports, you can pay for the college education. Robert Malina, director of the Institute of Youth Sports at Michigan State University, says the parents would be better off putting the money they spend on travel teams into a savings account. According to the National Center for Educational Statistics, fewer than 1% of the kids participating in organized sports today will be good enough to land a college scholarship. What's the point? Much of it sadly is an ego trip for the parents.
Fred Engh of West Palm Beach, Florida, is a professional coach, father of seven and author of the book Why Johnny Hates Sports. Too often, says Engh, "we take Johnny and Mary and push them into sports without knowing whether they're physically or mentally ready. The travel teams, the all-stars, the championships-they're what the parents want. Children under the age of 10 don't necessarily want competition. What they want is a swing and a sliding board."
Ugly, unsportsmanlike conduct by parents at games has a lot to do with the high dropout rate of kids in sports. Studies show that 73% of kids quit their childhood sport by age 13 because it ceases to be fun. The pressure put on them by coaches and parents don't make it worthwhile anymore. We don't allow kids to be kids. It's a strange thing in America. As parents we go from extreme neglect to smothering our kids with what WE want them to do and how we want them to act. Many parents today purchase the time of other adults to spend with their kids, when the kids would prefer time with their parents. What are back yards, picnic areas, parks and playgrounds for anyway?
Aggravating Assaults
By: Michael Popke
April 2008
Summary: A recent survey about the youth sports experience yields results both reassuring and troubling.
More than one-quarter of adults have witnessed a physical confrontation involving coaches, officials or parents at a youth sports practice or game. That's among the more startling findings of a recent survey by the National Alliance for Youth Sports, which asked moms, dads, volunteer coaches, officials and program administrators to answer 20 questions about the youth sports experience.
From reasons why parents want their kids to play sports (enjoyment was the top answer) to why they eventually quit (disliking their coach was the most common reply), the survey captures the personal observations of 2,130 respondents. The results are both reassuring and troubling, according to John Engh, chief operating officer of NAYS.
"It is inexcusable to allow altercations — whether they're physical or verbal — to occur during youth sports events," he says, referring to the question about witnessing confrontations, to which 16 percent of respondents replied "once," 12 percent answered "occasionally" and 1 percent claimed to have seen "often." "All children deserve the opportunity to participate in programs that are free from any type of senseless violence and unruly behavior that not only sabotages their fun but also can potentially jeopardize their safety and well-being."
Another statistic Engh finds "disturbing" is that 16 percent of respondents do not even know if their organization conducts background checks on coaches — even though 72 percent indicated background checks are part of their organizations' standard operating procedures. "Parents must be continually reminded of the importance of knowing who is coaching their children, and leagues must take aggressive approaches to ensure that child predators aren't allowed into their programs," Engh says. "Background checks are an important step in an overall screening process of volunteers and must be at the forefront of everyone's thinking, because we know that child predators strike in those areas that offer the easiest targets."
But not all the news is bad. Almost 90 percent of the respondents rated their child's coach as either "excellent" or "good" — which Engh says indicates that most coaches recognize youth sports is about kids having safe and rewarding athletic and social experiences.
Other findings:
74 percent say they've observed a coach yell at a child for making a mistake in a game.
69 percent of respondents claim they have seen coaches, parents or officials using tobacco products in front of children at youth sports events.
14 percent say they've seen coaches, parents or officials consuming alcohol in front of players.
13 percent can recall a situation in which a coach knowingly told a child to cheat.
(Complete survey results can be found at nays.org.)
"Clearly, there are many aspects of youth sports that are healthy and positive and giving children the opportunity to develop in so many key areas," Engh says. "We also know that youth sports have some weaknesses, and hopefully, some of these numbers will serve as a strong reminder that programs must always meet the needs of every child who participates. If we can keep that mind-set, more children will reap the benefits of participating."
