At the top - the caveat here being i know 4/5ths of fuck all about football except for the randomness of having a college roomate who played at the top - there is no soft position

That said, to get ahead, i suspect if you were not the tip top in a given position and knew you would not be, recognising it early and chaning position and being adaptable would be attractive

Well my times are still pretty competitive looking.... if I look at state championships level.
And the fastest kids in the country are really only 5 seconds faster (over 400m/500Y).
The difference is that in 1990 between the fastest kids and me there were something like 20 kids.
Now there would be 150.

I think what has happened is that in the 1980s there were serious swim teams in CA, AZ, TX, FL and in a few major cities.
Now there are serious swim teams everywhere.

The issue I'm having with 2 of my sons is specialization at such a young age (9 & 11). They are both good soccer and baseball players. We're lucky to have a pretty competitive baseball rec league so they are able to play with other kids at their same level. There are travel teams that are much better, but the rec league has a vast majority of kids that know what they are doing, and work hard. Soccer on the other hand does not have a good rec league option. I coach a U10 team where half of the team knows what they are doing, while the other half can barely run on their own. For better or worse, rec soccer is where parents send their kids if they have no other options. On one hand this is great, because I want as many kids running around and doing stuff outside as possible. On the other, my sons don't get the ability to play in a competitive situation. The travel teams here are all year round, so they would be expected to play and soccer during baseball season in the Spring. Time wise this just wouldn't work for our family, since we also have two other kids that do stuff like tae kwon do. One travel team my oldest played for traveled 2-6 hours one way each weekend. So he would have a single soccer game 6 hours away, which is just ridiculous. I'd really just like a middle of the road soccer league that has athletic kids, but doesn't require the time commitment of travel.

Soccer is ripe for the whole pay to play phenomenon because it is probably the most skill intensive popular sport (in terms of actual physical skills and learning the game), so training matters the most. That being said, I really hate the whole drive forever to play in competitive leagues phenomenon. It's largely a waste of time that could be better spent training and/or playing in local leagues. Not to mention most parents don't know very much so can't teach their kid.

Great follow-up radio show "The Big Business of Youth Sports" from On Point with Tom Ashbrook:

http://www.wbur.org/...ness-of-youth-sports




I'm already thinking about how to deal with sports in a few years even though my daughters are only 2 months old and 2.5. I think the cost and time commitment of these travel teams is ridiculous. I grew up in the 80's and 90's playing on "elite" travel hockey teams and my parents loved driving me all over the place. I loved it as well but burned out when college teams weren't calling. Now I only skate every few years.


My wife and her brothers never did these crazy travel teams. They spent time as a family at the beach, camping, playing rec league sports, working towards Eagle Scout, etc. All played high school sports (football and cross country) and they are some of the most well rounded successful people I know. I don't want to discourage my kids from playing any sports, but as a family I just don't see us becoming one of these sports traveling families. We travel a lot and spend most of the summer at the beach and traveling. I hope my kids can enjoy sports but also have a good life balance.

We had to do this for hockey in high school. Being in the Midwest it was the only option. We had house leagues, but there was no comparison in the competition level and we played 5 times as many games and had 2-4 times as many practices a week. As long as the kids are having fun and the cost isn’t a burden I don’t see the issue.

Maybe it was just the group putting together the travel for us but generally we stayed in average hotels. It wasn’t never anything excessive. But hockey is expensive in general so normally you’re not having people play who can’t afford the travel.

I harbor no illusions of my kids being competitive swimmers. But I don't stress when we go play in the pool or are at the beach. A good friend of mine didn't swim well in college- we didn't know and were screwing around in the river one summer. He almost went under swimming 50 yards across- the other 2 of us dragged him back to shore. That's way less likely to happen to my kids.

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If I don't, who will? -Me
It's like being bipolar in opinion is a requirement around here. -TripleThreat