Desire to play college ball

[riseball]

And, directly related to the overuse question:

"Overuse Injury: In a study of 1200 youth athletes, Dr Neeru Jayanthi of Loyola University found that early specialization in a single sport is one of the strongest predictors of injury. Athletes in the study who specialized were 70% to 93% more likely to be injured than children who played multiple sports!"

What exactly is a youth athlete?

 

[riseball]

Exactly. You don't need to play softball or any other sport year-round to become elite and get a scholarship. We can debate the cause/effect all day. The key point is that you don't need to specialize at age 10 or even in high school if you want to get a scholarship. You are not hurting your chances if you take three months off of softball to play basketball over the winter.

What if you suck at basketball and really enjoy playing softball? Do you follow your passion or reserve a room at the hospital?

 

[RubberBiscuit]

Ridiculous. Kids NEED unstructured play time. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics:

*Play is important to healthy development of the brain;
*Undirected play helps children learn how to work collaboratively, to share, to negotiate, to resolve conflicts, and learn self-advocacy skills;
*When play is child-driven, children practice decision-making skills, move at their own pace, discover areas of interest on their own, and ultimately engage fully in the passions they wish to pursue;
*When play is controlled by adults - such as in organized sports - children have to follow to adult rules and concerns (like winning) and lose some of the benefits play offers them, particularly in developing creativity, leadership and group skills.
*Play offers parents a wonderful opportunity to engage fully with their children;
*Play and unscheduled time that allows for peer interactions is an important component of social-emotional learning; and
*Free, child-driven, creative play protects against the effects of pressure and stress

Also worth noting that recent research at Loyola University Medical Center in Chicago suggests another benefit of free, unstructured play: that children who spend more time in free, unstructured play suffer significantly fewer overuse injuries. That's a topic I've seen raised more than once here at DFP.

"Aimless wandering" appears to be a good thing.

Yer Hilarious BG - I bet a “community organizer” drafted this psycho-babble. Thanks for being part of the decay......

It's almost like you want to portray a dedicated "sporto" as a kid that gets locked alone into a dark gym locker at birth and only gets taken out for TB time.

Geesh.....

 

[riseball]

I guess at some point people have to decide if they are going to do what other parents and athletes have done to be successful or if they are going to hole up and read studies and figure it out on their own. The choice is theirs.

 

[BuckeyeGuy]

When you are 10 or when you are 18? These studies sound like they are more geared to tee ball at the YMCA than college bound athletes.

Well, since the OP was in regards to an 11 year old, I'm right on target, aren't I?

 

[BuckeyeGuy]

Yer Hilarious BG - I bet a “community organizer” drafted this psycho-babble. Thanks for being part of the decay......

It's almost like you want to portray a dedicated "sporto" as a kid that gets locked alone into a dark gym locker at birth and only gets taken out for TB time.

Geesh.....

Don't let the facts or the research get in the way of your ranting. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) is just a bunch of quacks, obviously, so go ahead and ignore the doctors who treat(ed) your kids. I'm sure you know so much more than them.

I guess at some point people have to decide if they are willing to be open minded to new ideas that challenge their belief structures, or if they're going to continue following the herd because they're afraid of change. The choice is theirs.

 

[riseball]

Don't let the facts or the research get in the way of your ranting. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) is just a bunch of quacks, obviously, so go ahead and ignore the doctors who treat(ed) your kids. I'm sure you know so much more than them.

I guess at some point people have to decide if they are willing to be open minded to new ideas that challenge their belief structures, or if they're going to continue following the herd because they're afraid of change. The choice is theirs.

They are a political organization that puts out their share of unsubstantiated crap. What next? An opinion from Oprah or maybe Gwyneth?

 

[Classof2020]

I guess at some point people have to decide if they are going to do what other parents and athletes have done to be successful or if they are going to hole up and read studies and figure it out on their own. The choice is theirs.

Agreed. You have to do what works for your kid and what works for your family and not freak out so much. Every kid is different. One of my kids read books 90% of every waking moment. She is top of her class and has lots of nerdy friends just like her and is happy as a clam. Yes she will end up with glasses soon and won't make any sports teams in college. Yes I tried to draw her out into the light of day sometimes and that didn't go so well and I finally let her focus on what she likes.

I have a second kid who likes to try a variety of things and would be happy to jump from one sport to another as much as we had time and money to do - which isn't as much as he'd like. He won't play any sports in college because he is just happy to try out everything and not work super hard at anything. And he may get injured not from overuse but because he also doesn't work hard at conditioning, etc. . . . and kids just sometimes get hurt playing sports.

And then I have one who only wants to play softball. I have offered other things multiple times and she doesn't want to. Should I tell her statistics show that she won't be able to play in college or she's bound to have a sport career ending injury if she doesn't . . . or should I just help her to have fun and be the best well rounded player she can be. Or should I suggest we stop now because down the road it's possible that she might have arthritis or tear something, because that can happen when you play sports a lot, and because you are doing something very physical A LOT so you could get all kinds of injuries.

Guess what we all get old and we all die, and these bodies are all going to give out one way or another. And I think we should help them to have a good time growing old in whatever works for them and you. Use some common sense and find some balance in whatever you do and quit reading studies where you don't even know who they talked to or what they actually asked to get their data.

 

[pctrips]

To bring this back on topic, my DD is 11 and we aren't even talking about college. I'm going to try and keep her a kid having fun and playing a game as long as I can. Even though she plays competitively and works hard to get better at it she is doing that because she wants to. Her goal right now is to improve as a softball player and I hope we stay there for a while.

 

[dbronstein]

To bring this back on topic, my DD is 11 and we aren't even talking about college. I'm going to try and keep her a kid having fun and playing a game as long as I can. Even though she plays competitively and works hard to get better at it she is doing that because she wants to. Her goal right now is to improve as a softball player and I hope we stay there for a while.

That's what it's all about. Play hard, get better and have fun.