My daughter plays softball and the whole thing seems insane to me. I’m curious if other sports are even crazier.
We flew a team of 14yos to OKC to play softball and watch the women’s college World Series. Which seemed crazy to me- but the hotel was full of 8u coach pitch travel teams that had flew there too. To play each other with their dads pitching.
I see 7 year olds at private hitting and pitching lessons.
So -tell me the crazy in your kid’s sport.
I’m guessing someone has a kid that rides horses or flys planes. I assume ice hockey is high on the crazy list.
Skiing. Big Mountain ski comps. Not only do the kids need to know how to huck themselves off cliffs and land before they do it again, the parents and siblings have to be able to ski the insane terrain in some venues just to watch their kids. 2 years ago I watched a mom knock herself out trying to get to the bottom of the CB venue which is a true double black just to watch your kid compete. We haven’t flown to any comps yet, but with 3 in the competition age ranks this winter, things are going to get interesting with travel more than they already are.
My daughter plays soccer, going to college this year. We flirted at times with flying to some sort of national tournament but never did. That being said, the last couple of years her club team often involved 3-4 hour drives each way for games, and her home field was two hours south of us, which I thought was insane.
My son practiced taekwondo until his junior hear of high school. If he (and we) had wanted to, he could’ve flown all over the country for tournaments. It wasn’t uncommon for tournaments in our region (Rocky Mountain) to see competitors from all over the country.
For this sport travel does make some sense. In order to qualify for the national and world championships competitors have to earn a certain number of points, which can only be done through tournament placements. Some regions have more tournaments than others. The Rocky Mountain Region I remember having 4 each year, if a competitor placed first in at least 3 events in all 4 tournaments, they’d likely have the points for nationals.
There were definitely some competitors, mostly kids, that cherry-picked tournaments they knew there would be little to no competition.
My kids don’t do anything crazy, but I met a family last weekend obsessed with kids sports who have their young kids in competitive skiing and club soccer for a 7 year old! Freaking club soccer for a 7 year old?!? WTF
Lots of towns have travel teams for most sports. Come high school, lots of varsity teams travel for tournaments.
As for the coaching - yep, if you have the money your kids gets a private coach.
Then you even have people that travel for spelling bees (I was in a hotel last year and they hosted a spelling bee - the place was FULL of little kids).
So yeah - pick any “event” and people will travel for their kids to compete.
Skiing. Big Mountain ski comps. Not only do the kids need to know how to huck themselves off cliffs and land before they do it again, the parents and siblings have to be able to ski the insane terrain in some venues just to watch their kids. 2 years ago I watched a mom knock herself out trying to get to the bottom of the CB venue which is a true double black just to watch your kid compete. We haven’t flown to any comps yet, but with 3 in the competition age ranks this winter, things are going to get interesting with travel more than they already are.
Yes, travel ice hockey (son) had its craziness. As did travel volleyball (daughter).
Wife and I are glad to have time for our hobbies these days
All kids sports at a competitive level can be insane, when looking back.
Piling on w/some examples of craziness that I recall…
The dad that flew their daughter to Chicago (we’re in DC/VA area) for a 1:1 coaching session (not summer camp away with others, but 1:1 private lesson).
Family that built an indoor/synthetic 1/4 size ice rink at their home. Because ice time isn’t always available.
And on a sad and dark note, there was the suicide of one of my son’s former teammates. Dad was a coach and always pressuring the kid on the ice (and likely off the ice too).
Sports should have a high fun factor (for kid and family) as a priority.
Well, last night at a soccer game between two top teams, things became heated and a mother on the opposition said aloud ,quote ‘ You’re a real little bitch number 4’ - as my daughter, who is 14yo (and no. 4) retrieved an out-of- bounds ball. I wasnt there but my girl recounted this when she came home . I asked her how she reacted and she apparently smiled & blew a kiss at the lady and then proceeded set up the equalizing goal in the final minute of play…lol
Some of these parents are fucking insane…
Well, last night at a soccer game between two top teams, things became heated and a mother on the opposition said aloud ,quote ‘ You’re a real little bitch number 4’ - as my daughter, who is 14yo (and no. 4) retrieved an out-of- bounds ball. I wasnt there but my girl recounted this when she came home . I asked her how she reacted and she apparently smiled & blew a kiss at the lady and then proceeded set up the equalizing goal in the final minute of play…lol
Some of these parents are fucking insane…
Damn. I hope your daughter (and you) are able to take that as a sick and twisted compliment
Well, last night at a soccer game between two top teams, things became heated and a mother on the opposition said aloud ,quote ‘ You’re a real little bitch number 4’ - as my daughter, who is 14yo (and no. 4) retrieved an out-of- bounds ball. I wasnt there but my girl recounted this when she came home . I asked her how she reacted and she apparently smiled & blew a kiss at the lady and then proceeded set up the equalizing goal in the final minute of play…lol
Some of these parents are fucking insane…
Damn. I hope your daughter (and you) are able to take that as a sick and twisted compliment
lol… isn’t it crazy . Can you imagine saying that to anyone let alone a kid!!! My D just shakes her head and laughs … which is a great approach i think
My daughters are both swimmers. Other than a lot of practices and several in state meets, there are a couple (usually 2) of travel meets per year. Travel meaning airplane travel to somewhere further away. Having two on the same schedule means double the $ but the nice part is that they’re not going different directions all the time. The youngest usually gets an extra travel meet each year for some all star thing or going to jr nationals.
Don’t get me started on $500 semi disposable tech suits… grrrrr….
I know juust enough about swimming as to not drown:) Dude in my ‘hood on the other hand had his girl swimming from when she could walk …daily 5ams and wknd meets across the province and into States . She grew to become real fast but they would always come home from meets telling me about this one girl who would finish way ahead of everyone else.
Well, guy’s daughter just qualified for Canadian Olympic relay team in Paris and that kid they were always going on about ? ……Summer McIntosh !!
I know juust enough about swimming as to not drown:) Dude in my ‘hood on the other hand had his girl swimming from when she could walk …daily 5ams and wknd meets across the province and into States . She grew to become real fast but they would always come home from meets telling me about this one girl who would finish way ahead of everyone else.
Well, guy’s daughter just qualified for Canadian Olympic relay team in Paris and that kid they were always going on about ? ……Summer McIntosh !!
I think it can be as crazy as you want it to be, the challenge is holding back without your kid feeling left out. My daughter stopped playing U10 soccer because we only did rec league, all of her friends did travel. We weren’t willing to commit to travel. At one point a friend said rec league isn’t real soccer, well that started some tears.
My 10yr old daughter does figure skating now, I feel like it is a constant tug of war discussing with the club of how much time/effort/money my daughter should be investing in the sport. She loves it, but with two working parents, it is hard to shuttle her to/from the rink while working and managing her sister’s activities. Not to mention homework, school, other activities, downtime. Growing up I never left school for sports at her age, now it seems like everyone does it for a baseball tournament, hockey game, etc. Leagues do not care if kid has school, they schedule their tournaments anyway.
Small city in the midwest here and we have a specialty gym run by a former pro athlete for improving young kids in their particular sports. I see parents sending their kids to these gyms multiple days a week on top of their already high demand travel teams. Putting/dedicating time to this over the kids education.
Friend brought this up to me: Imagine if we put this time/dedication of sports into engineering competitions or programming competitions. Where would we be today?
The engineering thought is interesting. In addition to softball my daughter joined the local robotics team and it’s fabulous. They have a building where kids hang out and build cutting edge robots. My daughter is on the fabrication team and is learning machining. They blast Taylor Swift and cut metal parts. She loves it. I think it’s a zen like break from the crazy sports. Other teams are a lot like her crazy softball competing all over the country/ world. But there’s room for kids who just want to listen to Taylor Swift and machine parts too. But all in all it’s insane too- but insanely sponsored by engineering companies- so cost to kids is very low.