Just thought I would throw this out there to hopefully fuel some discussion. I don't claim to be a psychologist or anything but maybe some of you are. Maybe it's time some of us stepped back and took a look at what sports is doing to our kids. I remember like a lot of the folks on this site the old days when you played whatever was in season. As soon as the season ended you moved on to the next sport. All the "stud" athletes wore letter jackets with letters up and down both sleeves from multiple sports. They played a lot of sports and they had fun doing it. Today it seems like there is a lot of pressure for a kid to pick one sport and specialize in it. Coaches demand their full attention almost year round. A lot of times they threaten kids with loss of playing time if they try to play another sport. I for one know that my son was told by his high school basketball coach that if he didn't attend summer basketball camps that his playing time could be threatened that fall. My son loved baseball as well and from the end of May until August that's all he did was play baseball. I think back at the 60 or so games he played a summer and wonder if it was too much. His ultimate goal was to play baseball in college and he got to do that for one year before he screwed up his arm. That was it for his baseball career. I know today he has very little interest in attending high school games and I wonder if he had his fill of it when he was younger. I am interested to hear your thoughts. Let's don't call anybody out by naming coaches and such but let's have some spirited discussion.

I for one think it's good for kids to play more than one sport. I believe that all sports can complement one another. Kids who play one sport often suffer from burnout and by the time they are a junior or senior, they have lost all interest. I know I will get blasted for this but I wish the KHSAA would step in and ban all summer basketball, and put a limit on baseball and football done in the summer. As well as monitor the involvement of AAU. What ever happened to kids being kids. If they wanted to participate in the summer they would pick out some camps and attend. However, to be competitive kids have to play year round. It a situation for both coaches and players of darned if you do and darned if you don't.

I for one think it's good for kids to play more than one sport. I believe that all sports can complement one another. Kids who play one sport often suffer from burnout and by the time they are a junior or senior, they have lost all interest. I know I will get blasted for this but I wish the KHSAA would step in and ban all summer basketball, and put a limit on baseball and football done in the summer. As well as monitor the involvement of AAU. What ever happened to kids being kids. If they wanted to participate in the summer they would pick out some camps and attend. However, to be competitive kids have to play year round. It a situation for both coaches and players of darned if you do and darned if you don't.

 

That would be a shame to do away with AAU in the summer months, because this is a major recruiting tool for college coaches. There's more recruiting going on in the summer than during the regular season. I ,myself think playing the same sport 12 months a year is a little too much.Could create burn-out in some cases.

Just thought I would throw this out there to hopefully fuel some discussion. I don't claim to be a psychologist or anything but maybe some of you are. Maybe it's time some of us stepped back and took a look at what sports is doing to our kids. I remember like a lot of the folks on this site the old days when you played whatever was in season. As soon as the season ended you moved on to the next sport. All the "stud" athletes wore letter jackets with letters up and down both sleeves from multiple sports. They played a lot of sports and they had fun doing it. Today it seems like there is a lot of pressure for a kid to pick one sport and specialize in it. Coaches demand their full attention almost year round. A lot of times they threaten kids with loss of playing time if they try to play another sport. I for one know that my son was told by his high school basketball coach that if he didn't attend summer basketball camps that his playing time could be threatened that fall. My son loved baseball as well and from the end of May until August that's all he did was play baseball. I think back at the 60 or so games he played a summer and wonder if it was too much. His ultimate goal was to play baseball in college and he got to do that for one year before he screwed up his arm. That was it for his baseball career. I know today he has very little interest in attending high school games and I wonder if he had his fill of it when he was younger. I am interested to hear your thoughts. Let's don't call anybody out by naming coaches and such but let's have some spirited discussion.

 

Kids should be able to choose whatever they want to play. But if a coach presents opportunities for kids to play ball in June and a kid chooses not to then a lot of other kids do participate that is going to put the kids that do participate in a better situation to improve and get better. When I was in high school I participated in multiple sports, but I loved basketball so I played that year around and am glad I got the opportunity to do so.

I am a big proponent of playing multiple sports but it is very hard to do at a school where certain sports demand more time than the other. It is also hard to do at a school where the competition level is very high. I wish my son would choose to play 3 sports and have fun like I did in school but he doesnt want to. This is his choice, not mine. Right now, basketball season is over for him and he is wishing it was still going on. I am trying to get him to focus on increasing his strength by going to the gym and developing a healthy lifestyle. This is something that he can continue to do even when Basketball is over for good as far as playing competetively for a school.

Everyone wants to throw AAU under the bus. Let's remember it's still voluntary. Things have changed since all of us multisport studs :lol: have participated. Not saying one is better than the next, just sayin'. The times have changed.

I am a big proponent of playing multiple sports but it is very hard to do at a school where certain sports demand more time than the other. It is also hard to do at a school where the competition level is very high. I wish my son would choose to play 3 sports and have fun like I did in school but he doesnt want to. This is his choice, not mine. Right now, basketball season is over for him and he is wishing it was still going on. I am trying to get him to focus on increasing his strength by going to the gym and developing a healthy lifestyle. This is something that he can continue to do even when Basketball is over for good as far as playing competetively for a school.

Agree 100%

I think the real problem lies with coaches and parents who allow this to continue. No party is free of fault. Too many coaches have bought into the quantity over quality idea for getting better. Parents on the otherhand buy into this and give into the these mandatory demands. I'm not sure who started the one sport means I'm going to college but there are a lot of former athletes, including myself, that are glad coaches and parents didn't know about this in our day. Just check once in a while how many multi sport athletes in HS play for major D1 programs. I guess they didn't get the memo either.

Everyone wants to throw AAU under the bus. Let's remember it's still voluntary. Things have changed since all of us multisport studs :lol: have participated. Not saying one is better than the next, just sayin'. The times have changed.

 

I think that's EZ Living's point...and his question is whether this is a good change or not.

I think that's EZ Living's point...and his question is whether this is a good change or not.

I think it's good. Not too many kids these days can imagine being 3 sport athletes. They think we were all crazy.:thumb:

 

Heck, for that matter, there are many who can't believe we played both ways in football, let alone played football, basketball, baseball and ran track.

I agree with playing more than one sport. I think that many of today's athletes choose to go with the one sport they excel in the most. Two sports at the most. Very few really excel to the point of playing any sport past high school and are not thinking about just having fun. I know sometimes parents are guilty of being somewhat unrealistic with their children. That being said, there are coaches that are guilty of pressuring young athletes into making decisions of one sport over another. I know of three players that would be contending for starting positions, more than likely starting, this year in a sport they are not playing. Mostly because of a coach that told them to pick. Gladly it wasn't a varsity coach, but he's the coach that is without some very talented players because of one of his lower level coaches. Careful what you wish for. All that being said, play all you want and have fun, be a kid. Do well in school and enjoy your school years and all it has to offer.

Just to make it clear, none of the three that I mentioned are mine. So I'm not just a disgruntled parent. All three boys are excelling in two other sports, so dropping one may have been a good thing for them.

I for one think it's good for kids to play more than one sport. I believe that all sports can complement one another. Kids who play one sport often suffer from burnout and by the time they are a junior or senior, they have lost all interest. I know I will get blasted for this but I wish the KHSAA would step in and ban all summer basketball, and put a limit on baseball and football done in the summer. As well as monitor the involvement of AAU. What ever happened to kids being kids. If they wanted to participate in the summer they would pick out some camps and attend. However, to be competitive kids have to play year round. It a situation for both coaches and players of darned if you do and darned if you don't.

 

My son really enjoys playing summer basketball. Should we force him to play something else. Maybe playstation? Kids can be kids and some kids enjoy the competition of summer basketball.

Not only does playing one sport year round lead to burn-out, but also more injuries. Overuse of the same muscles causes many more sports-related injuries than playing different sports throughout the year. Great if you are in the sports medicine field, but really hard on young bodies.

I think it's good. Not too many kids these days can imagine being 3 sport athletes. They think we were all crazy.:thumb:

 

Just to play devil's advocate, if that's so hard to believe, why do kids (and their parents) focus SO much on one sport? Do they think they're going to go pro? Do they think that they're going to get a college scholarship? Do they think that playing year round is going to make them THAT much better? (And no, I'm not comparing them to someone who sits at home watching tv instead.) I'm just wondering.

 

If the majority of kids don't play anything past the high school level...what's the push behind the singular focus? I'd rather have my kid go through a broad array of experiences like spindoc and I did, than to say "you have to choose one sport".

Just to play devil's advocate, if that's so hard to believe, why do kids (and their parents) focus SO much on one sport? Do they think they're going to go pro? Do they think that they're going to get a college scholarship? Do they think that playing year round is going to make them THAT much better? (And no, I'm not comparing them to someone who sits at home watching tv instead.) I'm just wondering.

 

If the majority of kids don't play anything past the high school level...what's the push behind the singular focus? I'd rather have my kid go through a broad array of experiences like spindoc and I did, than to say "you have to choose one sport".

 

The problem is the proliferation of private coaches and bodies like AAU that preach (either intentionally or by inference) a two-pronged message of 1) the only way to play ball at the next level (whether that's HS or college) is if you play the game year-round, and 2) your child WILL make it (if you play year-round).

 

Parents find themselves in the uncomfortable position of getting this information and feeling forced to participate at extraordinary levels (and spending extraordinary $$) to ensure that Johnny doesn't get "left behind."

 

I'm not anti-competitive ball at all (I coach a competitive USSSA baseball team that plays about 25 games a year, 10-13 in the spring and 10-13 in the fall). Competitive ball is a great learning tool, and it has its place in the sports spectrum. But I hear so many coaches telling the parents what they "need." A 10 year old player doesn't "need" to play 80-100 games a year. That's an average of a game every 3-4 days. Kids "need" time to be immature, carefree, and to explore new things (i.e., other sports). They need to be allowed to be kids and not "pushed" into anything. We have coaches telling 9 and 10 year old kids what their future is, if only they'll commit to one sport at that age. That's insane. :irked:

 

Two years ago, I watched a competitive 9u baseball team that had a stud 8 year old on the team. The kid was a fearsome pitcher. They pitched him all spring and all summer - riding him on the mound as their primary pitcher - and he helped the team win several titles. All of this was done in the name of "getting him to the next level", a stated goal of his father. By the fall, the kid's arm was rubber, and he was already seeing a doctor for care. All at the ripe old age of eight!

 

I don't think we've necessarily lost anything because kids aren't playing hide-and-seek and "soldier" at home in their free time, they're playing organized sports. But I think we've lost something when the kids are being managed like professional athletes at tender ages.