I go off the professional or semi-professional route and take a stab at something new: Hope Sellers.
Ever walk into a youth sports venue lately and notice the hope that is being sold to parents? In the past two years I have coached several youth sports teams. But, as each day goes by each kid gets more and more specialized. Today I will tackle two of the culprits of kids specializing in sports at a very young age.
Before I take some well deserved shots at some of the culprits...I need to tell a story of a neighbor boy, let's call him Sue (one of my favorite Johnny Cash Songs). Sue is by far the most talented kid his age in just about every sport he's ever played: Hockey, Baseball, (I heard he was awesome at) Soccer, Horseshoes, Lawn Darts, and Bowling (yes, bowling I saw him fire a clean strike at a 7 year old birthday party.) As they say on TV, Sue is a natural (hand/eye, speed, agility, etc). Heck, he's even got good blood lines (kinda like a race horse).
Sue has yet to live a full decade of life and his Dad (culprit #1) told me this is his last year of baseball (poor kid hasn't even seen or thrown a curve ball yet and he's getting the hook). In sadness, our neighborhood 9 just lost one of, if not it's best player. Why would he pull him out of baseball at such a young age? Hockey dads know where this is going already.....Sue is going to start playing hockey year-round. You guessed it, 9 years old and his sports world is now down to 1.....Wow.
Is this all Dad's fault? Mostly. But, there are other culprits....let's call them secondaries. The first one is this new cottage industry of Hope Sellers. People selling parents the hope that their kid is going to play such-and-such sport at the highest level. One such organization, Minnesota Made in Edina, MN, tells parents that players aren't born they are made!!!!
Hmmmmmm....if they told the truth, "Johnny sucks, save your money!" , I'm sure they'd go out of business. So, instead, they ignore the obvious fact that a kid like Sue with or without training and dedication is going to go far, but a kid like Johnny will not. Why? Johnny sucks and Sue is the bomb.
End of Story.
Why do I write this? It all went down over the past month on the baseball diamond.
Over the years, I've coached several baseball teams, taught numerous clinics, and worked the John Anderson (U of MN) baseball camp in college. One night at practice while doing drills with my pitchers, a kid says to me, "Coach, my Pitching Coach tells me......." I really don't remember how the sentence ended because I fainted on the spot. After I was revived, I awoke to another boy telling me...."his pitching coach says he should......" instead of fainting this time, I spoke up. Boys, if your pitching coach is so great, then why isn't he out here today coaching you? The smarter of the two boys raises his hand and says, "cuz you don't get paid and he does...". To that I replied, "Ahaaaaaaa" (sort of like the Jewish Eddie Murphy in Coming to America)!!!!!!!!!' " The kids didn't get my Aha. But I did. My point: That guy is trying to make a buck...plain and simple. So he'll tell any parent, any kid that he's good as long as he's writing a check out to Hope Seller, Inc. Sorry to go nostalgic here, but what happened to practicing what you learned from your well qualified coach with your dad, mom, brother, neighbor, etc? Today, dad just dumps the kid off and writes some washed up ex-pro a check and calls it a day. When I was growing up I had some great non-parent coach role models (Wizzy Wyatt, Al Frost, Quincy Brown). These guys taught us the game, we went home and practiced it with whomever and we said thank you when the season was over. Over the last two years I have watched way too many kids go the route of Sue at way too early of an age.
Please, do your kids a favor. Instead of making them play just one sport....make them play one more sport. Heck, they may even enjoy it.
Rant over.
