Don't Be That Person

     All over the area schools are no longer in session and the summer has begun for most children. Growing up, this meant putting in tons of miles on a bicycle, pickup basketball games, hanging around the pool and playing a little sandlot football. All of these activities were unstructured and fun. As I look around now, I don't see this stuff anymore. Just this past weekend I was at the park and saw a game of baseball being played by 9-10 year olds. These kids were on travel teams and paid a nice little price to be a part of the team. Now, I am not around little league ball parks all that often but in this particular game, the amount of walks and errors was the most I have ever seen. And these kids parents paid for this club and were getting "elite" coaching. I could not believe it. So, instead of letting these kids enjoy their summer, they are playing 3-4 games on a Saturday on a team that doesn't look like they practice all that much. The worst part of it all was that these teams were the "B" teams. So I learned this week that there is elite travel "B" teams for 9 and 10 year olds.

     In order for any child to pursue achievement in an activity, there needs to be ownership, enjoyment and motivation. And the motivation doesn't come from giving your child a few dollars for every hit or strikeout, the motivation has to come from within. This motivation comes from the pleasure one gets from completing a task. Going to practice and playing one sport all year round is not going to get it done for most kids. They need to play. They need to get the enjoyment out of playing an unstructured game with their buddies and not have to worry about a coach or parent giving them that look that they did something wrong.

     Within the past 15-20 years, the spectrum of youth athletics has changed. Gone are the days of the three sport athlete, a species that is now almost extinct. A new species has evolved known as the specialist. This specialist plays on every AAU or travel team, focuses on one sport only, and gets private training for their given sport. They often excel at a young age, but over time, they get passed by. They get passed by the individual who played all kinds of sports growing up. They didn't spend their younger years going to boring practices and playing in a pointless weekend tournament. They developed their game in an unstructured setting with their friends. They learned how to pass, defend, or juke out the competition on their own. And most importantly, they wanted to do it and had fun every step of the way! So here is my call to all the parents: let your kid enjoy their summer this year. Take a break from the travel teams, let them go to the park, have some fun, and learn some new skills while playing something different. Afterall, our body and brains are built to grow through a variety of activities.

Chris Fluck