Youth Sports Catch-All Thread

Thought it was worth a try to start a discussion on sports for younger players. Post any thought, such as:

• Recommend any teams, leagues, associations, facilities, or tournaments (or not)
• Describe any examples of good or poor sportmanship observed during games
• Share any game photography/video tips
• Discuss bad behavior by parents or incidents in the stands
• Suggest any good fundraising ideas
• Provide good drills or practice plans for various ages/sports
• Vent about how you hate participation trophies
• Or just brag about your kid's accomplishments

BlazeOrange said:

Thought it was worth a try to start a discussion on sports for younger players. Post any thought, such as:

• Discuss bad behavior by parents or incidents in the stands

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LOL...I could max out the server memory with these...

I'll just give you my most recent one.

Coaching my son's soccer team in Columbus Day tournament.

My son's team is winning a reasonably close game (we ended up winning 4-2 so it wasn't a blow out) in second half.

Parent from other team screams out, "This is disgraceful. This team is an embarrassment.".

Later on, screams out to his son, "Enjoy your last soccer game with this team because you are terrible.".

Poor kid was trying to play with tears streaming down his face...

This was a game featuring 10 and 11 year-old kids...

Forza Azzurri said:

LOL...I could max out the server memory with these...

I'll just give you my most recent one.

Coaching my son's soccer team in Columbus Day tournament.

My son's team is winning a reasonably close game (we ended up winning 4-2 so it wasn't a blow out) in second half.

Parent from other team screams out, "This is disgraceful. This team is an embarrassment.".

Later on, screams out to his son, "Enjoy your last soccer game with this team because you are terrible.".

Poor kid was trying to play with tears streaming down his face...

This was a game featuring 10 and 11 year-old kids...

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I've seen some of that myself unfortunately. My kid plays club lacrosse here in VT and our first tournament this past summer featured us playing some very talented teams (same age level as described above - 10 and 11 year olds). We played one team from LI that I believe was deemed number 1 overall in the country. We have a couple talented scorers and actually broke through and scored two goals. After the first goal, the dad of the other team's goalie lost his marbles, stood up and threw his chair screaming at his son. After the second goal, he packed his stuff and left. Could not believe a lowly team from Vermont was able to score at all on his kid. Meanwhile, his son had made a number of nice saves and the team was beating us like 15-2. Then again, it costs like 5K for his kid to be on that team, so I understand the frustration slightly.

Not sure if everyone has seen this article.

http://stevenashyb.wordpress.com/2014/10/20/the-race-to-nowhere-in-youth-sports/

Good read and makes me feel good that his club lacrosse team coach allows for and actually encourages his players to go play other sports. He was an all-American at Georgetown though he's not all good...

And I've got a question for some of the older parents here. My kid is 11 now (just turned in August). He's an only child so I think that accounts for some of what I'm going to ask about, so keep that in mind. He's a great little athlete - usually the quickest kid around and has very good eye-hand coordination (eye-foot for that concern), but he seems to shy away from the contact necessary in sports, especially lacrosse, his favorite. He can sneak away a ground ball, but he rarely will battle to win one. Some of the other dad's say that will come later - light a switch being flicked. I keep waiting for it to happen, but he's not there yet. Is there an age when I should expect it will either be there or not?

CuseFaninVT said:

And I've got a question for some of the older parents here. My kid is 11 now (just turned in August). He's an only child so I think that accounts for some of what I'm going to ask about, so keep that in mind. He's a great little athlete - usually the quickest kid around and has very good eye-hand coordination (eye-foot for that concern), but he seems to shy away from the contact necessary in sports, especially lacrosse, his favorite. He can sneak away a ground ball, but he rarely will battle to win one. Some of the other dad's say that will come later - light a switch being flicked. I keep waiting for it to happen, but he's not there yet. Is there an age when I should expect it will either be there or not?

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Type A aggression on the field is something you are born with. I see small kids who are aggressive as he!!. And big kids that want no part of contact.

Since you described him as small, I will assume that he is not the biggest kid. That could have quite a bit to do with it.

He may get more naturally aggressive as he catches up to other boys physically. Or, he may not. No way to tell.

Something that may provide a clue is how physical is he when matched up with someone his own size.