Just a rant

[chinamigarden]

I'm not saying we need to forgo other sports, but how does one merely get away with playing one season of rec softball per year and hope to have a shot at making a competitive varsity team in high school.

Not only the reps, but youth who play a sport year round have access to much better coaching and much better teams than the kid who plays for a random volunteer dad that drafts her in a spring rec season. The difference in development is astronomical even at the younger ages.

I suppose a stud athlete can bounce between several sports at a young age and be good enough to specialize in high school and be a varsity contributer, but for mere mortals, playing a season of rec ball from ages 8-14 puts them so far behind in mechanics and game knowledge that they'd need to dedicate so much time to catching up in high school when free time is scarce (schoolwork, other extracurriculars, social events).

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Your mileage may vary. My DD played travel softball and started in Vollyeball and Basketball for her HS varsity. She sure missed out on schoolwork (valedictorian), and activities (marching band, wind ensemble, NHS, Student government,)

 

[Orange Socks]

I believe all kids should cycle through all sports when they are younger. Soccer, basketball, softball, swimming, dance, gymnastics, etc. Saw lots of good athletic kids that were better, stronger, faster than my DD. Once DD started playing Summer All stars(10u-14U) she started passing those players up. Some schools beg for players for each sport, because their pool of kids are small or were not exposed to sports growing up-Such is the case for DD's school. Small for 6A but most of the kids were on reduced lunch and didn't grow up in the multi sport rec league program.

She played JV Bball freshman year. Had a miserable time because of the coaches and hung up her hi tops at the end of the season, even the coaches wanted her to come back. The coaches in this district do not make it easy for kids to play multiple sports. Basketball bleeds into softball. They cannot attend tryouts until basketball is officially done. 2 outstanding players (played Ivy League D1 and the other high academic D3) were relegated to JV because they missed out on Tryouts. One was a pitcher and just blew away just about every hitter that season.

 

[jbpick86]

I'm sure it is that way in some case. I can only go by what I've seen in 20 years of doing this. Specializing in freshman year is what I've seen that has worked best. Just my opinion.

I think the biggest knock against specialization is the lack of a lot of the things you mentioned in your previous post. You have parents specializing their 8-12 year olds year around because it's what they want so they go to practice three times a week, take a hitting lesson or two, and maybe a specialized lesson (pitching/catching). Then in the down time there is no physical play or physical training. There is Xbox, school work, or trying to relax and you don't see kids building overall athleticism and strength. Specializing that young, without an really focusing on physical training as well (which no one seems to leave time for) hinders a child's overall athletic development.

I coach rec soccer for our local league. I can't tell you the number of parents (most of the time Mom, but sometimes Dad) that have told me " Little Susie/Johnny really want to come back and play soccer again but (insert other parent here) doesn't want them to and wants them to focus on (softball/baseball).

Weirdly enough, it's almost always only the softball/baseball parents that have this specialization mentality that young. We don't see it with club football or basketball teams. There is a little bit with club soccer but not nearly as prevalent.

It seems like it's the parents that have gotten caught up in this culture that travel ball has created and their children are facilitating their new hobby in a lot of instances. Not knocking, I have recognized that tendency in myself a little bit with my own kids. It's easy to get caught up in.

 

[Rolling Hard]

A player with jujitsu or gymnastics background make very strong softball players.

 

[4Martini]

I suppose a stud athlete can bounce between several sports at a young age and be good enough to specialize in high school and be a varsity contributer, but for mere mortals, playing a season of rec ball from ages 8-14 puts them so far behind in mechanics and game knowledge that they'd need to dedicate so much time to catching up in high school when free time is scarce (schoolwork, other extracurriculars, social events).

I’m not seeing this with my daughter’s rec program teammates. She played rec only through 12s (well she played 14s- but was 12, and they do have spring and fall). She’s a late birthday kid but a bunch of her teammates made varsity as freshmen and were good hitting contributors having never played competitive. That said they had a D1 pitcher and an ex-NFL player and college baseball player as coaches.

Maybe it was just a really good rec program. The kids are very athletic who are successful in high school. The parents/ coaches invested a lot in them.

My daughter is trying to decide if she wants to play basketball as a freshman or just focus on softball.

A lot of pitchers here grew up skiing- I think leg muscle development young really helps them. (My daughter was on skis at 2)

 

[jbpick86]

A player with jujitsu or gymnastics background make very strong softball players.

My daughter did Cheernastics for a long time and honestly we left her in it mostly because it seemed to translate well towards other sports. She is significantly stronger than most girls her age and I credit that experience a lot.

Our local jiu-jitsu instructors kids are all extremely athletic and he said something similar in a discussion recently. That he sees huge leaps in kids athleticism over their peers when they get in to a sport like that early.

 

[Rolling Hard]

Balance and core strength.

 

[CoachCeetar]

Seems like bottom line is kids (adults too really) doing active physical/athletic things is beneficial and helpful to them doing physical and athletic things, even if they don't seem like one to one relationships. Some more than others obviously.

 

[Orange Socks]

A player with jujitsu or gymnastics background make very strong softball players.

I had a pretty athletic 12U Rec kid on my team. Ended up an Alabama Cheerleader.

 

[Northball]

A lot of pitchers here grew up skiing- I think leg muscle development young really helps them. (My daughter was on skis at 2)

I like your insight on the skiing. Makes sense to me.
Here I frequently see hockey players toward the top of the batting average list. Then tennis players.