Quote:
Originally Posted by BigCatDaddy
If' I've learned anything from youth sports it's that people are ****ing crazy. I've seen worse than Pete. I've seen coaches not put 7 and 8 year old kids into games at all for the sake of winning a 3 dollar medal. It's easier said than done but until about 12 make sure the kid is having fun and make sure he is in playing the ****ing game not sitting on the bench "because he has to earn" a spot. They still believes in Santa for ****s sake. Just insane.
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I get that argument, and sometimes it’s correct. But what a lot of people don’t get is that there are lots of kids that REALLY enjoy competing against the best and winning. And those kids happiness should count too.
The problem is when the two worlds collide. The competitive (good) kids want to win or be as competitive as they can be. Then there are the kids that just want “have fun” or join sports to hang with their friends, or because mom and dad made them.
As a coach, you have to balance the bottom of the roster kids with the “I just want to win” kids. As a parent, I have two of the latter and one of the “I’m here to have fun” kids. As a coach, I think I’ve done a good job of balancing. But I get both sides of the coin.
The kids toward the bottom of the roster (and especially their parents) get frustrated when they don’t play, if get as involved as much as the best kids. The competitive kids get frustrated when they see the crappy kids blowing games, etc. Again, their point of view counts too. It’s not just about making the bottom kids feel good.
Some 8 year olds are dreaming about Pokémon during the game. Some are literally obsessed with sports and come home from games and watch highlights on YouTube because it’s what they love. Others want to be pros, but have no clue how bad their genetics are holding them back.
The Pokémon kids wash out sometime between 8-10. The kids that love it but don’t know how bad their genetics are, hang on a lot longer, and sometimes they work themselves into relevancy.
The competitive kids usually stick with the 2-3 sports their best at and are usually the kids that end up being varsity starters, and some go past high school.
Of course there are examples of competitive kids that fizzle out, or peak early. And there are examples of kids that weren’t anything special and hit a growth spurt.
But 90% of the time, you can predict who the players are by 8-10 years old. The only question is usually which sport will be their best/favorite.
It is what it is. Sports is the one area where kids are allowed to set their own hierarchy based on their abilities, and don’t have to worry about “making sure everyone feels included”.