<p>In March 2005, The San Francisco Chronicle Magazine published my article exploring how the over-the-top youth sports culture was affecting kids and families. Titled “How Much Is Too Much?” it generated tremendous reader response, and two months later I signed a deal with Gotham Books to investigate the issue on a national scale. The results of that research, conducted in the academic year 2005-2006, appear in my book, “Revolution in the Bleachers: How Parents Can Take Back Family Life in a World Gone Crazy Over Youth Sports.”</p>
<p>My only comment: though I skimmed towards the end, this author got through a whole article of this nature without saying a thing about gymnastics. I was actually skimming for the gymnastics and it never came! Not sure whether to be disappointed or proud. Finally someone recognizes that all this soccer and baseball and whatever is the same thing.</p>
<p>It is about the growth in preventable sports injuries, particularly those due to overuse, in young children and teenagers because of intense time spent in practice and playing.</p>
<p>This is one of the best articles on the topic, calmom. I’m sure you saw plenty of this in the dance world, as well.</p>
<p>I am especailly amazed at parents who ignore the orthopaedic surgeon’s advice. I’ve seen kids sent our to dance with stress fractures. I know teenage dancers with necrotic bones in their feet. I also know of a family that had to be bailed out financially by in-laws just when they were about to lose their house… But their son (now ten) continued to receive private pitching lessons year round. </p>
<p>Too many parents of young stars are somehow blinded to the fact that their kid is not growing taller than 5’7", so his days of dominating are short-lived.</p>
<p>I admit to allowing sports to control too much of our family lives. My son just started playing in a very low-keyed flag-football league that is run through the NFL. As the youth sports have taken over most every moment of family weekend time, the rec department scheduled the games for 8 or 9 o’clock on Saturday nights. My reaction at first was, “Good! It doesn’t interfere with hockey or lacrosse!” My bachelor brother found it hysterical, saying “I guess they realized that parents had an hour or two of free time, so they had to move in quickly & take that away.” It took someone on the outside looking in to bring some perspective.</p>
<p>I saw this article and put it on the Cafe thread…wish more pareents would talk about this…also, about what kids miss out on by doing sports sooo much</p>
<p>I like that the one article mentioned the benefits of participation in multiple sports on a seasonal basis. It’s rather uncommon now to see kids do 3 and 4 sports in high school (the 3 sport athlete) it seems …but years ago…it was more common. It’s not easy, as playing at the varsity high school level, oftentimes means gaining outside experience at the club level. imo, some sports are helpful cross training for the other sport and taking a break from one sport to play another in season sport helps prevent burnout as well. i think there are benefits for the athletes who participate in sports performance training. imo, they learn good fundamental skills which can help prevent injuries, i.e., proper stretching, etc…</p>
<p>Princedog, the other sports are still never going to get as bad as gymnastics. No sport is more dangerous to young bodies. When girls don’t menstruate until they give up the sport, something is quite wrong. Of course, it can be enjoyed & coached at a healthy & reasonable level, but is so often not!</p>
<p>Participating in lots of sports is SO sensible from a health & safety point of view. Plus, it’s just fun. H coaches our town hockey team, which plays in a “house league.” One practice & one game per week. Pretty low-keyed. Which is perfect for H’s mellow personality. What he has seen is many of our ten year old son’s buddies are giving up other sports, attending daily clinics, joining travel leagues, and spending 7 days a week on the ice. Did I mention they are ten year olds? This is NJ, not Minnesota. Of course, the travel kids have developed much better skills, and it is sometimes hard to put house kids & travel kids on the same line. Some house tournaments even have begun to restrict the rosters to only house players to keep the play level fairly even and competitive for everyone.</p>
<p>Son is a good athlete, but no superstar. As he gets to high school, he may find that every spot on every team is taken by kids who specialized in a sport year round. I really wish it hadn’t reached this insane level.</p>
<p>The common denominator of all the issues listed in the article is ignorance.</p>
<p>Ignorance of people entrusted to run athletic programs. Ignorance of parents who believe in farfetched dreams of college scholarships or a pro career. </p>
<p>However, informed parents CAN make the correct choices for their children by moderating their ego and ambitions, and selecting the appropriate programs from their little prodigies. For the record, while there are horrible coaches, there are also many, many very responsible and well-educated coaches who understand how to limit practices. For instance, one of the most successful soccer programs in one of the most competitive markets in the nation imposes a 3 hours limit on weekly practices. Unfortunately, the moment the athletes are released to their high schools, they meet a world dominated by poor coaches who believe that daily 2 hours practices will bring better results, and mask their total lack of competence. This happens mostly at schools where the coaches HAVE to be certified teachers.</p>
<p>In the end, the solution will be found in the dissemination of information that is more objective. Hopefully, this book will be helpful in that regard. I do, however, also hope that it will not mischaracterize the entire sport scene by extrapolating well selected anecdotes.</p>
<p>weenie, perhaps that is because kids who devote a sane amount of time to sports are quickly pushed out of contention by the travel/elite level kids. Nobody is passing to them, the coach gets impatient, and they get discouraged. I’ve seen it happen.</p>
<p>My son, who is in 7th grade, enjoys team sports but is not superstar. </p>
<p>He is determined to attend a school other than our public school because he wants to be able to play sports he enjoys (basketball in particular) and learn some new ones (soccer and lacrosse). His local public has try-outs and without summer camps, private lessons and club participation the kids don’t have much of a chance. house leagues and intermurals don’t happen around here. I was surprised to find that there are few options for kids that just want to play because they enjoy it.</p>
<p>Why do kids focus on just one sport?..
Even while my sons were in elementary school, I could not possibly have seen ourselves keeping the schedule required for playing 2 or 3 sports a year. Little League and sometimes AAU were enough. Even at that, it seemed like for 4 months a year we hardly ever ate a normal dinner. In high school, the hours required for just one sport made it even more impossible to participate on multiple teams- 15 to 20 hours per week during varsity season (baseball in our case), in the off season (fall), the kids do conditioning so they won’t injure themselves come spring- 5 or so hours per week of running and throwing. We had ours take pitching lessons on the side so as learn the correct way to throw so they wouldn’t end up injuring themselves.</p>
<p>^ Yup. There are a myriad of reasons I’m sure. </p>
<p>But this may be the first generation of kids to have a shorter lifespan than the generation before them. I am just so worried about young people’s health these days. Over 30% are overweight - 16% truly obese (at least 30 lbs overweight).</p>
<p>They are 16 year olds living in 55 year old bodies. Why doesn’t anyone seem to care about the fitness of ALL our kids? For cryin’ out loud -my town is about to install a million dollar artificial turf football field (two of them in fact) and we don’t even have sidewalks.</p>
<p>One of the greatest things about my son #1’s little LAC is that he has been able to play club and intramural sports. He has just loved it and has all the camaraderie one would expect from higher level sports.And he’s in the best physical condition of his life (broken hand not-with-standing…lol).</p>
<p>Douleplay, the point is that if a kid plays another sport in the off season, that will serve as conditioning. Using different muscles allows others to rest. Also, it sounds as if you were quite serious about your baseball. Think low-keyed rec level leagues (one practice & one game per week,) and you can see how multiple sports are possible.</p>
<p>Cal Ripkin, Jr. has been promoting cross-training with other sports as the ideal for many years.</p>
<p>weenie – that is good to know, I haven’t thought ahead to sports in college for this son (older son does martial arts and hiking/outdoor stuff – so it isn’t the same).</p>
<p>He has decided to apply to a local boarding school after calling and visiting – they told him that every kid can play any sport (not all at the same time) even if they aren’t the best or have never played. They told him that the school was small enough that they always need players, although they might have an A team and a B team. He was thrilled to hear that and is really hoping to get accepted next spring. I was surprised that it was such an issue for him – but it really was.</p>
<p>“kids who devote a sane amount of time to sports are quickly pushed out of contention by the travel/elite level kids. Nobody is passing to them, the coach gets impatient, and they get discouraged. I’ve seen it happen.”</p>
<p>Exactly. There are sports where a kid can “jump in” later than others. Baseball and soccer- forget it. Kids have been playing since they were 6. If you think you’re going to start at 14, you’ve got a lot of making up to do.</p>
<p>Football- maybe. My son started at 14. Didn’t seem to matter that he never did the peewee leagues. </p>
<p>Basketball- don’t know. Kids learn basketball in their driveways. Some go into highschool with better skills than the kids who have spent 5 years playing AAU. A lot depends on height.</p>
<p>Dancing/gymnastics- seems like these folks start early. The minute the girls become womanly they seem to lose the edge. I maturation counter productive to the female athlete in this sport? The most successful teenage girls look like they’re 9 or 10 (IMO). Boys on the other hand have more of an advantage as they mature and develop muscle mass.</p>
<p>Cross country- Definitely can start this in high school, but maturation, at least in women, seems to cause a decline in performance. Not sure about men. Most of the successful men x-ers in men seem to be wirey. Takes up the least amount of practice time because you can only run for so long.</p>
<p>I just spent yesterday at TESC ( evergreen state college) watching my daughter play 5 rugby games
Well I actually didn’t watch every game- I couldn’t bear to.
When I had heard that she was interested in rugby, I was worried, but she assured me that she was going to be one of the fast ones.
Well she is, but she isn’t * that* fast.</p>
<p>We don’t actually have a lot of overweight kids at her high school, not that I have seen anyway.
Although if they subsisted on school menus, with the high salt & carbs, I don’t think they could help but be overweight.
She also is taking chemistry and as her teacher is very intrested in nutrition ( to the point of being a little too interested IMO), she comes home everyday with admonitions for our eating habits.
( I already don’t cook meat every day, avoid anything that has high fructose corn syrup in it, and if I buy anything with white flour it is from an * artisan * bakery, so lay off already!) ;)</p>
<p>I know what you mean about gymnastics.
That sport seems to have high injuries from watching girls over the years, and the coaches also don’t seem to back off, once an injury occurs.</p>
<p>However- even in gymnastics, you aren’t having to watch your child run one way, and see another child bigger and heavier slam into her, and then be joined by her teammates and try to see if your daughter is able to protect the back of her neck on the ground.</p>
<p>I can see why for ( 21+) beer is closely associated with rugby, although I am thinking perhaps the beer should be imibibed beforehand, so they are less prone to injury!</p>