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August 23, 2004
Multi-sport
There is an interesting article in today's issue of USA Today about the pressure on kids to become one-sport athletes. It raises a lot of great points.
I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to play many sports as a kid, and it included traveling or "all-star" teams fairly often. I played hockey, baseball, fastpitch softball, bandy, soccer, football, and I even speed-skated for about 6 or 7 years. I, for one, would not have had the drive to be that active for one cause. Even today, when fastpitch softball is what I keep doing, I don't like to give every last minute to that sport. There is too much going on to spend every free moment working on my game.
Playing multiple sports is the best thing for kids to keep things in perspective. It is alright, and actually beneficial to be better at one sport than another. It is not necessary to be the best at every sport you play. With that, it is also dangerous to put all of your talents into one thing. Sometimes we find out that we aren't as good as we'd like to be, and we aren't going to be as good as we once thought we would be. I've had so many friends crushed by the realization that they were done playing for traveling teams or weren't going to make the varsity team.
Lastly, it's not even that important to be on the travelling teams. I wouldn't advocate doing anything with less than full effort, but if a kid makes that full effort and isn't good enough to make the team, big deal. Very few people ever go on to play at a notably high level, and why wouldn't you want your kid to play at his or her level (instead of being a very weak player on a good team)?. So, in the end, most everyone is left without recollection of who made what team in what year. Also, these things have become very political among parents. I would wager a guess that at least 1/4 of selections for these teams (and maybe as high as 1/2) are of a political nature. Coach A doesn't get along with Parent B. Parent B is close friends with Parent C and so Kid C doesn't get to be on the team. Many times it comes down to the parents, and not the abilities or skill level of the kids.
Encourage kids to play a variety of sports. Encourage them to do their best at whatever they do, and if they don't want to do their best to pick something else that they would like to put their effort towards. Encourage them whether they are playing in an in-house program or on the traveling all-star team. As someone who once regarded making these teams as somewhat "life and death," I realize years later that it wasn't that important. Only that I had fun and gave everything to win.
Posted by Judd at August 23, 2004 08:06 AM
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