I don’t know. But an option is certainly to reduce the number of teams. Question becomes how much more profit does the tournament Director make with those extra games. Is it 500 bucks for the weekend or $2500?
I think the problem is just as much the tournament directors as it is the parents. Let's face it so many parents want to capitalize on their child being an athlete, and the money that can cone from that, whether be scholarships or recruitment at high school level now or a chance at the pros, parents have gotten way out of hand with how serious they take sports. And a lot of it is the problem of our capitalist society as well. Allowing students to be milked by colleges without being paid was bad, but now paying them is going to make it even worse.
What they should do is prevent club play for anyone under 13 years old. This solves the scheduling issue and the bedtime issue and possibly the maturity.
Let's face it as much as we all love sports, your kid is not going to be assessed as being pro worthy until they hit puberty. I've seen parents so serious on a baseball field about their kid hitting a homer who is seven and I want to scream at them that it means absolutely nothing until he can do so with a 90 mile an hour fastball.
I love sports. I grew up playing sports, but I refuse to put my kid in California baseball because of how serious it was at age 67 and eight our job as parents is to teach them sports and let them learn the games and enjoy playing them. it is not to put them in the club situation we're winning is everything. And I hope we learn better and figure this out soon
Well said, Jonathan! And agree to a large extent, certainly in areas where rec sports have a strong infrastructure. The issue is how the capitalization and parents' dreams for their kids have worked hand-in-hand to decimate community sports. It's very sad.
Fully agree Melissa - it's sad. A pipe dream I realize but I wish the upside for kids was the value of playing multiple sports rather than playing so hard at 9 that you have an overuse injury. And why can't these fields have a close time? I realize tournament directors will push back to extend it but plenty of public spaces aren't accessible after a set time, so why are fields different?
I don’t know. But an option is certainly to reduce the number of teams. Question becomes how much more profit does the tournament Director make with those extra games. Is it 500 bucks for the weekend or $2500?
great point!
I think the problem is just as much the tournament directors as it is the parents. Let's face it so many parents want to capitalize on their child being an athlete, and the money that can cone from that, whether be scholarships or recruitment at high school level now or a chance at the pros, parents have gotten way out of hand with how serious they take sports. And a lot of it is the problem of our capitalist society as well. Allowing students to be milked by colleges without being paid was bad, but now paying them is going to make it even worse.
What they should do is prevent club play for anyone under 13 years old. This solves the scheduling issue and the bedtime issue and possibly the maturity.
Let's face it as much as we all love sports, your kid is not going to be assessed as being pro worthy until they hit puberty. I've seen parents so serious on a baseball field about their kid hitting a homer who is seven and I want to scream at them that it means absolutely nothing until he can do so with a 90 mile an hour fastball.
I love sports. I grew up playing sports, but I refuse to put my kid in California baseball because of how serious it was at age 67 and eight our job as parents is to teach them sports and let them learn the games and enjoy playing them. it is not to put them in the club situation we're winning is everything. And I hope we learn better and figure this out soon
Well said, Jonathan! And agree to a large extent, certainly in areas where rec sports have a strong infrastructure. The issue is how the capitalization and parents' dreams for their kids have worked hand-in-hand to decimate community sports. It's very sad.
Fully agree Melissa - it's sad. A pipe dream I realize but I wish the upside for kids was the value of playing multiple sports rather than playing so hard at 9 that you have an overuse injury. And why can't these fields have a close time? I realize tournament directors will push back to extend it but plenty of public spaces aren't accessible after a set time, so why are fields different?
You have a third solution which you actually listed earlier in your article. That is for the tournament directors to limit the number of entries.
Show me a tourney director who is willing to reduce profits for the sake of the kids. Does that person exist?