The Insanity of Youth Sports

[PARAM]

This is really sort of what I am touching on.
Traveling in a normal way, staying with a host family as apposed to the 5 star hotel, eating locally ect. Travel can be great and is great. It is the spending of money to create this weird bubble around the kids....that traveling first class and having 8 different professional quality uniform combinations some how relates to developing skill in the game.
Maybe I am just an old grump at this point.

How true. Back in 71 three of us stayed with a host family in Albuquerque. But in the present day and age, given the concerns of many parents, how many would be okay with their son/daughter flying 2000 miles to stay with a "host family"? Those days are far and few between now.

Hell the family we stayed with had 4 kids already and they took us all over the area despite what little time was available. We rode what was then the longest (or highest) mountain tram, went to a drive in and visited the Dodgers minor league facility. Cripes, for a parent today to let their kid spend time with strangers they'd probably require body cams!

 

[fearsomefour]

How true. Back in 71 three of us stayed with a host family in Albuquerque. But in the present day and age, given the concerns of many parents, how many would be okay with their son/daughter flying 2000 miles to stay with a "host family"? Those days are far and few between now.

Hell the family we stayed with had 4 kids already and they took us all over the area despite what little time was available. We rode what was then the longest (or highest) mountain tram, went to a drive in and visited the Dodgers minor league facility. Cripes, for a parent today to let their kid spend time with strangers they'd probably require body cams!

You are right.
The irony of course is this is all about perception and not reality. If you did a pole most would think it was more dangerous for kids now than in the past, but, the opposite is true. Most would also think there is more air/water pollution in the country now than before, but that is not true....just for another example.
A common perception is that public schools, particularly middle and high schools are not safe. The reality is, statistically, school is the safest place kids can be. The most dangerous? Their homes.

 

[Rmfnlt]

This is really sort of what I am touching on.
Traveling in a normal way, staying with a host family as apposed to the 5 star hotel, eating locally ect. Travel can be great and is great. It is the spending of money to create this weird bubble around the kids....that traveling first class and having 8 different professional quality uniform combinations some how relates to developing skill in the game.
Maybe I am just an old grump at this point.

I think when a parent is spending thousands of dollars on this for their kid, that changes everything.

 

[Elmgrovegnome]

My son is very athletic. He is a great wrestler and very good at football. He is still learning baseball.

I want him to have fun but I am quickly realizing how competitive other parents make it. I don't want to push my son like that. The result may end up that he is eventually behind the curve. He has high hopes and dreams but he is just a young kid.

 

[fearsomefour]

My son is very athletic. He is a great wrestler and very good at football. He is still learning baseball.

I want him to have fun but I am quickly realizing how competitive other parents make it. I don't want to push my son like that. The result may end up that he is eventually behind the curve. He has high hopes and dreams but he is just a young kid.

That will all sort itself out.
My son was a very good football player as a kid, up until about freshman year of high school. He loved football and football only. He lagged behind a little growing big. So, he sort of feel off. He ended up lettering in basketball and baseball in high school. I could tell from a pretty early age baseball was going to be his sport. He is a lean left hander who has a naturally loose shoulder. He is still playing baseball now in college.
The stages you see in youth sports is sort of funny. You have the kids who hit puberty early and they dominate from that 10-14 range then usually sort of fall back to the pack. You have the late bloomers who sort of come out of nowhere late. Of all the kids my son played travel ball with, high school sports with ect. there are exactly 4 that are still playing in college, all at a pretty low level. The interesting thing is two of the 3 baseball players still playing could barely get on the field in high school. The basketball player was on Varsity two years and only had one good year, his senior year. The other kid was a good high school pitcher who had one good year at a small college then got injured and quit. The attrition rate after high school is insane. They say 5-6% of high school players play any level of college baseball (the sport I am most familiar with) after high school.
I have no idea how old your son is. I would just advise to enjoy it as much as you can now. Let him play multiple sports and have fun first and foremost. The days of youth/high school sports will be over before you know it. I didn't associate much with other parents with the whole sports thing....I was never interested in politics or talking about how much the coaches suck (usually true) or how Johnny is better than Timmy. For me to enjoy the games I had to get away from that negative stuff.