The other side to the "Multi-Sport Athlete"

[nikkilugi]

I have a friend who watched DD play and turned to me and said - “if I could do it all over I would have picked a sport and stuck to it instead of playing everything. I’m good at all sports but I would have liked to be great at one like your DD” that was years ago and it still sticks with me. When DD was little she played VB, BB and SB and I found my Murphy’s law was if there were practices or games they would always always conflict. Always. I just couldn’t do it as a parent and made her drop a sport . I had 2 other kids that didn’t play sports but did do scouts and band and a husband that traveled for work so I just could not do it. I did “encourage (make)” daughter try out for her HS VB team freshman year and she made JV and hated every minute of it. That’s when she decided only softball from then on and I am totally fine with that because guess what happened during VB season..... schedules conflicted between VB which she hated and her TB SB which she loves. Because our schedules always conflict. Always......

 

[jdint]

Just to be a contrarian some quotes from 2 highly successful college football coaches:

“I think sometimes you see some of these kids that specialize so early,” Swinney said, “and they’re much closer to their ceiling.” He made a motion with his hand as if he were wringing a towel and added, “I see it all the time; one sport since the fifth grade, and that’s all they’ve done. They’ve been to every clinic, every camp, every teaching session, and everything’s been squeezed out of them. There’s just not that much room for them to get any better.”
“I want the multisport guy,” said Swinney, a three-sport athlete at Alabama’s Pelham High. “I just love that.”
-Dabo Swinney

“...I am dead set against single-sport athletes (while kids are growing up),” Meyer said. “I think that’s wrong. I think the young person is getting screwed. I think that’s wrong. I think they should play other sports. The fact that some of these over-anxious fathers and uncles think that I’m going to -- when the kid is six years old he’s going to do nothing but play quarterback. I think that’s wrong. - Urban Meyer

Swinney pointed out that in this year’s N.F.L. draft, 90 percent of the players selected in the first round had been multisport athletes in high school.
“Parents should get out of the way and let the kids be kids,” Swinney said. “I think it’ll all work itself out. There’s enough pressure. If you’re good enough, you’re going to be good enough.”

 

[_MIA_]

Just to be a contrarian some quotes from 2 highly successful college football coaches:

“I think sometimes you see some of these kids that specialize so early,” Swinney said, “and they’re much closer to their ceiling.” He made a motion with his hand as if he were wringing a towel and added, “I see it all the time; one sport since the fifth grade, and that’s all they’ve done. They’ve been to every clinic, every camp, every teaching session, and everything’s been squeezed out of them. There’s just not that much room for them to get any better.”
“I want the multisport guy,” said Swinney, a three-sport athlete at Alabama’s Pelham High. “I just love that.”
-Dabo Swinney

“...I am dead set against single-sport athletes (while kids are growing up),” Meyer said. “I think that’s wrong. I think the young person is getting screwed. I think that’s wrong. I think they should play other sports. The fact that some of these over-anxious fathers and uncles think that I’m going to -- when the kid is six years old he’s going to do nothing but play quarterback. I think that’s wrong. - Urban Meyer

Swinney pointed out that in this year’s N.F.L. draft, 90 percent of the players selected in the first round had been multisport athletes in high school.
“Parents should get out of the way and let the kids be kids,” Swinney said. “I think it’ll all work itself out. There’s enough pressure. If you’re good enough, you’re going to be good enough.”

Although I don't disagree with the premise necessarily, football, outside of QB maybe, is a bit different than softball in terms of skill development. You see plenty of kids who don't start playing football till HS play in college/NFL..not going to see much of that in softball/baseball. Also using NFL draftees as an example is probably not a good example since those guys are six sigma athletes for the most part.

 

[radness]

Do what you want.
So will the competition!

 

[_MIA_]

Just out of curiosity, for those of you who have DD's who only play softball and are in HS, how many times do they do skill development (hit/field/pitch etc) in the "offseason" on average? 3 or 4 times a week?

 

[jdint]

Although I don't disagree with the premise necessarily, football, outside of QB maybe, is a bit different than softball in terms of skill development. You see plenty of kids who don't start playing football till HS play in college/NFL..not going to see much of that in softball/baseball. Also using NFL draftees as an example is probably not a good example since those guys are six sigma athletes for the most part.

Are you inferring our dd's aren't all six sigma athletes? I'll have you know my dd is at least a seven sigma athlete maybe an eight. (This is the "out of touch parent thread right?)

 

[_MIA_]

Are you inferring our dd's aren't all six sigma athletes? I'll have you know my dd is at least a seven sigma athlete maybe an eight. (This is the "out of touch parent thread right?)

Nice..your first name wouldn't happen to be Bo and DD's mother's last name Joyner-Kersee?

 

[nikkilugi]

Just out of curiosity, for those of you who have DD's who only play softball and are in HS, how many times do they do skill development (hit/field/pitch etc) in the "offseason" on average? 3 or 4 times a week?

DD doe hitting & limited indoor as she can fielding work 4-5 times a week. She also does weight/speed work 4 days a week.

 

[_MIA_]

DD doe hitting & limited indoor as she can fielding work 4-5 times a week. She also does weight/speed work 4 days a week.

So hitting 4/5 and fielding 4/5 days (e.g. she does both when she works out) ?

 

[jdint]

Nice..your first name wouldn't happen to be Bo and DD's mother's last name Joyner-Kersee?

Ha. No, but I'm currently only about 8 miles from Jackie Joyner-Kersee's ball fields. That's probably just as good.