A 42 game schedule for 9-10 year olds! Tournaments every Saturday and Sunday where 9-10 year olds play 3 games on each day with 20 minute halves!
Did your jaw drop at these revelations? It should. These are 9 & 10 year olds playing in a tournament league, in games that are longer than 32 minute high school games and in a schedule that would test any college team.
I just moved to Oregon and in talking with an acquaintance here learned that his ex-wife just signed their son up to play in the league described above. A couple of questions came immediately to mind—no, make that numerous questions.
- Is this schedule for the adults or the kids?
- Do the parents realize that all day, each Saturday & Sunday, all they are going to do is sit waiting for the next game?
- Would any sane high school coach allow their players to play in three games in one day? In fact, the rule book will not allow it.
- Twenty minute halves—that means a 40 minute game, even if it is a running clock. High school games are 32 minutes.
- 42 games in a season! Colleges may play 45 games over a 4 month period.
I have written many times in my articles about youth sports being for the youth—not for the adults! Here is a quote from an article I wrote earlier this year: “Youth basketball is for the youth. A child must be allowed to be a child. They should be allowed to have fun with learning and playing the game and experience the joy.”
Young players have so much pressure placed on them to participate, and often to win in sports, that is just unnatural for kids to be subjected to. Add the expectations of parents and coaches to this mix and we’ve eliminated much of what being a kid is all about. With all the angst causing things coming at them, from every direction, related to school, clubs and other activities—now add all this time a kid has to be a kid being tied up in a tournament every weekend. (Oh, I forgot to mention—these teams also practice 3 times a week.)
Where were the sane and clear thinking adults while all this was being planned and passed into action? Didn’t anyone involved stop to think of what injuries can be inflicted upon developing young bodies from all this over-vigorous activity? Didn’t anyone care? There are many precedents for how to set up and run a youth sports program that is for the youth’s enjoyment and safe physical development. Obviously, these kinds of programs were never looked at, or if they were, they were dismissed.
This is so much of what is wrong about youth sports in today’s society. We have been bombarded with sexual abuse issues, anger issues, and over-reaching programs and schedules like the one I describe here, plus sports burn-out at an early age.
When will the parents wake up fully to the fact that these types of programs are not in the best interests of the kids they so willingly put at risk. What tragedy must befall some unsuspecting child in order to awaken adults to the injustice of what they are pushing at their kids?
Unfortunately, just about every kind of tragedy one could imagine in youth sports has already occurred. Because of these, many organizations and communities have recognized the horrors of youth sports and taken wonderful remedial steps toward offering programs that have helped to bring joy, wonder and FUN to their youthful participants. For the rest, what will it take before the realization dawns on them of the harm that is being visited on today’s youth and the repercussions that will be brought forward in the future as these kids mature?
Watch the video related to youth mentoring
Mass Mentoring Partnership, the Massachusetts umbrella organization for youth mentoring, is working with Bank of America to launch a statewide (in MA) initiative to engage BOA employees in youth mentoring. Here, BOA Massachusetts President Bob Gallery introduces the initiative at a forum with BOA employees in Boston.
Help answer the question about youth mentoring
Any ideas for collecting donations for youth program?I volunteer for a nonprofit that offers programs like tutoring, sports, art and mentoring to foster care youth. We tried so hard to collect donation for back-to-school supplies and were under our goals which means some kids get stuff while others don't. It's really sad. So we gave to their youth who participate the most. But that discourages the kids who didn't get anything and they think there is some favoritism.
How would you collect donations in these hard times for a cause you really care about.
About Author
Coach Ronn Wyckoff is an international spokesperson for youth sports being for the youth and the author/producer of 28 e-book and videos, including the 4-hr. instructional DVD, “Basketball On A Triangle: A Higher Level of Coaching and Playing”.
Coach Ronn’s more than fifty years of playing and coaching basketball, and being a coaching consultant, uniquely qualify him to teach coaches how to teach basketball and players to play better basketball. His programs have reached hundreds of coaches and players around the world with his simple yet highly detailed teaching methods. More can be learned about Coach Ronn and his programs at his website http://www.Top-Basketball-Coaching.com
Tags: Bank of America, children, corporate partnership, Massachusetts, mentoring, Youth
I think you answered your own question. Parents and coaches feel like they need to win at all costs…. that is the problem with youth sports. Don't get me wrong… I don't like losing, but really… its t-ball after all.
I am not sure that it is isolated to sports. Karate and even chess club is that way. My daughter's chess competition was nearly as bad as some of the sporting events I have been to… just a little quieter. Seriously cutthroat.
I think you just have to find a good team/league and ignore the insanity as much as you can.
because they don't want to pay and if the school has to pay more money then it wont really effect them. so pretty muchly they are being selfish and only thinking of what is to their benefit
The Hi-Five Sports Club is an experienced, established, child-centered organization, which offers exciting sports programs and entertainment for children.
I think in recreational leagues the games should be recreational, still keep score, but let all of the kids play. Even the kids that aren't as good want to win, but they don't want to give up playing time just so the team wins. Also, in a recreational league, the parents pay for their kids to play, not to see them on the bench. Each of the parents pay the same amount for their child to play, so they could get the same amount of playing time. You teach the kids the game, not about winning and losing, they can figure that part out on their own. If you want the children to play competitive sports find a travel or tournament team to play on.
There is not that much difference between the D40 or D80 when it comes to getting good action and sports shots. Back when 35mm SLR's ruled, we used cameras that had NO autofocus and shutterspeeds that topped out at 1/2000th of a second and manually advanced the film. We had NO problem getting great shots.
As you can see the D40 has twice the shutter speed (1/4000th of a second) than the old 35mm cameras.
Just be sure you have a long enough lens for the distance from you to your subject. Most of the time a 70-300mm zoom will be find.
the best age to start is when a child is ready, it varies ALOT. but for starters put the child in a sport that focuses on fun rather than competition. Show your child different sports and let her try them . If she likes it let her continue. Meet the coach talk to him/her and make sure he/she is what you want. If your child shows interest then let her try the sport and gradualy increase competitive level if the child wants too. good luck.
Model releases are required to use the footage in a commercial manner.
For editorial use, no release is needed.
What sort of group? Many already have this covered in the paperwork each player/parent signs to join the league, or the school in the league, or both.
As long as this website is not selling anything, you should be OK. If the website sells anything at all, you will have to make absolutely certain that the either you or the league have the releases.
No?