I was going to commit suicide tonight but I think I'll stick around a couple years for this TR.

My daughter has basically zero interest in spectator sports. But my wife was an athlete growing up and wanted our daughter to experience it. So we just signed her up. My town has a good number of youth sports programs that are casual introductions into sports. So she tried several sports starting at age 8: softball (hated it and was terrible at it); basketball (hated it and was terrible at it); soccer (hated it, but was halfway decent at it mainly because she had miraculously became a reasonable athlete and simply had more endurance than anyone else); and volleyball (loved it and has recently became decent at it).

Once your kid finds the sport they like, you get them involved in more serious things, like club sports.

And don't give up on your kid's athletic ability too early. When we signed up my daughter for softball, I just assumed she was just simply wasn't athletic, because she was so bad at it. But a few years later and she's a much better athlete. Probably not college scholarship level (I've been to big tourneys featuring some of the best 14 year olds in the region. The athleticism and size of elite 14 year old volleyball players is amazing), but she's found something she enjoys and has a decent shot at making her HS VB team.

Agree with Gus on that point. I feel like we should always strive to make sports fun and try to instill confidence. There are a lot more benefits to getting really good at sports than just getting scholarships and becoming a pro athlete.

I strongly believe playing sports builds a lot of character and confidence in kids; IME, everyone should strive to instill confidence in as many kids as possible. Sure, it's nice to have a confident kid but from a selfish point of view, those 'other' kids that lack confidence will make life pretty crappy for everyone around them (including your own kids), in one way or another - so take care of them too, for your own sake.

In Indiana we had organized school basketball teams starting in 4th grade. I got cut every year for three years. In 7th grade I made the team. There were 60 guys who went out for it every year and I was sure I was going to get cut again. It was seriously the best experience. I had never been so happy. I went on to playing through high school and while I was never great I can say I started varsity at a fairly big school.

It's nothing special. And nobody gives a ****. But I remember it. And it carried over into how I trust my mind and work ethic into self-improvement. I'm so glad I kept trying. And I hope my eventual kids keep trying. Eventually we all reach that level where other people are just better, smarter, more talented, luckier, whatever. But that lesson of trying even after failure is the greatest thing I learned as a child. Team sports ftw

How hard did you try to become 6'7"? lol

Sports are obviously good. Parents can ruin them, though. As a pretty introverted kid/adult, a baseball field has always been a place where I felt comfortable socially and seem to command respect without demanding it. Because I could always play and show others how to play. I still remember when I moved to the suburbs I didn't know anybody but had kids on the team sitting next to me talking to me and wanting to be my friend and I thought it was super weird b/c that wasn't normal for me. They wanted to make sure they were friends with the good players on the team. That was cool. I felt good, and comfortable. And I'd help them out on the field because they were nice. It made me feel like a leader. Everyone should (and probably does) have at least 1 or 2 things in life that they are good at and are, for lack of a better word, respected for. It might be a sport, or a particular class, or a hobby. Parents won't really know so you gotta let them explore.

G10

I just remembered that I had a Cadence Greear username that was lost in the great 2+2 disaster of a couple years ago. This would have been a perfect thread to unleash it.

My sister just told me that her 9 year old stepson is interested in learning golf this summer. He is left handed as am I so I am pretty excited to try to teach him some of the basics when I see him. I think golf will be a good fit for him because his biggest issue with team sports is selfishness and immaturity. He got in a couple arguments with his football and basketball coaches about what plays to run and ended up getting benched for large portions of games so maybe golf will help him with the maturity aspect.

I only see the kid a few times a year, but he spends 2 weeks over Christmas and ~10 weeks in the summer with his dad and my sister. Do any parents have advice for what someone in my shoes could do to help a kid like this become more of a team player and take instruction?

Wife was very active in sports and I played soccer close to year round so I'm hoping our baby will want to play eventually. Wife played Volleyball and Softball.

Greear, what was their UZR and wOBA+ ratings?

greer you have cute kids.

I haven't got to this stage yet but I've hear mostly good things from my friends with little kids. it's fun, kids run around, etc.

I've heard some nightmare stories from my friends with kids 10 and up - all the normal stuff about awful parents, getting into it with the ref, just letting the one good kid on the team win the game while everyone else watches, etc.

my kids (someday/hopefully) will play sports as much as they want, and I'd like them to do a lot of different things, but I'm really not looking forward to super aggro parents.

No kids of my own, but I do a lot of work/research regarding youth burnout/dropout rates in sport and how to get kids playing again.

Pretty interesting report by the Aspen Institute's Project Play initiative on the topic of anyone is bored and wants to skim. Lots of interesting infographics and stats. http://youthreport.projectplay.us

My kid is 2. He is obsessed with playing basketball, baseball and golf. Although he is deathly afraid of the Easter Bunny and came in last in the 2 year old division of the egg roll.

No big deal. Egg roll skills are only minimally transferable to basketball and have zero bearing on golf or baseball. He'll be fine.

I have a niece who plays soccer for her freshman HS team. She's pretty good, but quite frankly the rest of her team is awful. She complains that nobody pays attention to what they're doing and nobody plays hard. She's really good, but just isn't there yet to move up to Soph or JV. She's getting to the point where she's thinking of quitting. How do I talk to her to stick with it? That it will get better. She can't stand the coach, thinks she's doing a pretty crappy job

Most good competitive girls soccer is club soccer, not high school soccer. the best players and best coaches will be at the club level. That leaves your typical mouthbreathers to coach high school and rec.

The best thing you could do for her is send her to a highly regarded skills development camp. She'll get better instruction and hopefully learn to enjoy the game a bit more.

I thought u were a detroit fan

If you played sports, there wasn't much better than innocent competition alongside your friends. My kid isn't old enough yet, but I hope she wants to be on teams.

Cute kiddos, hopefully their college funds aren't wrecked when you lose these royals tigers bets.

I chuckled at the part about the shift, gotta love smart coaching.

Then you have the other extreme, the coach who continually plays a bad player. My daughter's club volleyball team started off with two setters, but one broke their hand early in the season and couldn't play again. So the coach let this one setter set the entire game every game.

That'd be fine if she was a good setter. But she wasn't. It was pathetic. She has terrible judgment and can't even set the ball at the right height. But the coach refused to even try to let another player try to set.

Finally, we went to one two-day tourney. At the end of the first day, our setter has an asthma attack and coach decides to finally sub her out the second day to give her a breather (pun intended). My daughter (who normally plays middle blocker for the club, but is setter for the school team) comes in to set. Plays exactly two balls, makes one mistake, and is immediately pulled for the original setter! This setter makes mistakes all the time and the coach lets her play all the time. My daughter made one mistake and got yanked immediately. And keep in mind that the setter had an asthma attack the previous day and was supposed to take it easy.

That said, the repetitions she gets from being on the club team did help her. At the beginning of the season, her serve was so unreliable that the coach didn't even let her serve. By the end of the season, she was probably the most consistent server on the team.

My cousin plays for DU lacrosse. She's pretty ****ing good. They are pretty ****ing good

So I guess this thread will turn into "SE Parents Bitch About Their Kids' Playing Time" then?

@gus

is the setter's parent hot?

Been working on a scouting report for my 22-month-old son:

Strengths:
Throws well with both hands
Strong, excellent climber
Good mini hoop dunker
Willing passer

Weaknesses:
Not very good at catching
Sometimes loses focus & accidentally throws things backwards
No outside shot
Hungry & sleepy

jfc, sports are so competitive where I live that we were given information about a summer baseball tournament/travel team for 6-year olds. I mean really? REALLY?

Not that my kid is good enough, but I checked the "no, my child is not interested" box.

Aren't competitive leagues for young kids a net positive for both the great athletes and the poor ones?

The great athletes get to play against better competition and get more specialized coaching plus the challenge alone can help keep them engaged and improving. The average or below average athletes don't have to play against kids who are way more talented than them and are put in situations where they are more likely to have athletic success and be able to develop alongside kids of similar talent levels.