I Gotta Vent

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While sports and coaching kids is a passion, it's part of the balance of my life, not an obsession. I don't have the need to live vicariously through the sports accomplishments of children. Without a passion for coaching kids I would not have coached thirty-five sports seasons of basketball, baseball, softball and soccer.

I never doubt for a second all youth coaches believe they are providing a valuable service for the kids. In some cases, they are providing a comfort zone for a kid in a miserable home situation.

The problem is there are a lot of coaches who do not understand priorities and the physical abilities of kids from a physiological standpoint.

While sports may be the most fun thing in a person's life, it should never be the priority, not even for a professional athlete.

A sports career is a very short experience in a person's lifespan. Long after the cheering stops, whether it be at thirteen or thirty-five, religion, family and education will always be more important.

Anytime I see a coach present two-a-days to an elementary aged school kid, I know his priorities are more about winning than what's in the best interests of the kids. If a kid has two practices a day, when is he supposed to get his school work done? When does he spends time with his family and friends?

The studies show 73% of all youth athletes are done with sports by age 13.

Now let's skip the drop off that happens between 13 and making a high school varsity team.

3% of all varsity high school athletes will earn a college scholarship at any level.

.03% (3 in 10,000) of all varsity high school athletes will make the roster of a major league sports team. That does not mean they stick and earn a living playing professional sports.

Repeat after me: "There's no connection between prepubescent stardom and future stardom."

Now you tell me, what's more important, two-a-days or homework?

Now let's move on to the excessive number of games many travel teams play. While it applies to any sport, I'll stay in your arena, basketball.

If NBA players wear down physically and mentally in an 82 game season, how can playing this much at a young age be good for the kids? The wear and tear on thier bodies is so high, organized sports injuries are up 3000% in the last ten years. it's attributed to wear and tear on the muscles and joints.

I recently spoke to a orthopaedic surgeon who specializes in sports injuries. He said he's doing a lot of surgeries on kids aged 12-15 with injuries he used to only see in college and post collegiate athletes. His biggest clients are basketball and baseball players.

Just a couple of nights ago, at a kids basketball clinic, I was speaking to a father whose son's AAU team who made it to the championships at Orlando. The coach decided to cut the number of tournaments the team plays by almost 50%. He decided they can only improve so much so fast at a young age and keeping them fresh and healthy is more important.

If you respond, "the kids love to play, why shouldn't they play 80 games, you don't get it." I love ice cream too, but as a mature adult I know I shouldn't eat it until it's gone for health reasons. Part of the reason coaches are coaches is to supervise and make responsible decisions for the kids.

There are people on this board caught up in arguing over the national ranking of their ten year old teams. Who gives a damn! It doesn't matter except to those few misguided coaches. If they didn't mention it to their kids, the kids would take their life one game at a time.

There are people on the boards who thinks screaming at kids turns them into men.

There is one guy who wants to know if his son should play in the playoffs with a stress fracture in his ankle.

There are guys on these boards teaching ten year olds how to throw curveballs.

All of these issues are physically and emotionally damaging to kids. When I see these issues, I speak up.

I've done the research. I've talked to coaches from the high school to NBA level. I've talked to youth sports psychologists. I've talked to orthopaedic surgeons specializing in sports medicine.

If you want to have a conversation, convince me you're doing more than spouting what you want to hear to validate your position.