Yeah, they stayed in an airbnb somewhere in Bradenton that they said was 45 min away from the tournament. We live probably an hour and 15 north (sans traffic), so it wound up kind of being a waste for them. Our team was supposed to play a 9am game there in January that thankfully got cancelled. Wound up playing their team last month and got just completely outclassed and demolished, so it made me even happier we didn't have to make that trip.
In what world do you have 4-5 year olds and don't do the "every kid gets to hit and has to stay on first" rule?
I guess in this world: Which is a fucking hellscape world that I'm very happy my area is not like at all.
My 6 year old on his coach pitch team is one of maybe 3 who could accomplish actual outs and understanding the rules in a real game. The rest are clueless. He'd still slam his helmet in frustration and start crying if he got out on the bases. Let alone younger kids. I coach my 4 year old and keeping him from taking his glove off and playing in the dirt is an accomplishment worthy of award. I can't imagine trying to teach them the actual rules of the game.
At least my kid was into it. He liked how official it felt. But yeah he didn’t really care to play it again right away.
My son is 13u and wants to play baseball in college. The HS he’ll go to has 3-5 kids sign every year (2 last year at SEC schools) and is one of the best in our area. They practice 5x a week and seem to be a great program from top to bottom. Babe Ruth is a big deal here and only done for 13u-15u and he was one of four 7th graders who made his future high school’s team. They have the high school JV coaches running it and basically use it as a way to get around practice limits and for JV fall ball. All that being said, travel ball culture is the fucking worst and I hate so many of the people we’ve dealt with along the way. It sadly doesn’t seem like it’s baseball specific but the culture around travel/youth sports (especially at 11u and under levels) is just so damn ridiculous I would never blame any parent who decided sports just aren’t worth it. If he didn’t have a high school program like the one he’ll have and was forced to have travel as his only option to play the competition he needs to in order to get exposure/recruited I’m not sure we’d be doing it.
Is holding kids back a big thing in other areas. I find my area that a lot of kids are held back because of sports. Like if you are a late birthday like May or so parents want to hold their kids back from starting kindergarten so they are older for sports in their grade. I find it weird if a decision it's truly based on sports
yes it's a thing here. knew plenty of boys in my son's kindergarten class who were held back if they had a spring birthday. kids in February/March/April being held back in both school and their 6U baseball league. My son has a December birthday and honest to god was one of the youngest kids in his class. Of course those kids go on to dominate. I used to live in a different suburb of Birmingham that was more sports oriented than the one I'm in now. In the old school 20-30% of the boys repeated kindergarten. Of course they all say it's for developmental reasons but then you see them hitting the shit out of the ball in the batting cage next to kids a year to a year and a half younger than them and it's clear what the main motivation was. It's very stupid and glad that our new town is a little less intense.
Enrollment date for age is 9/1 for our school district. The fall birthday kids are the older ones. The spring kids are younger. Anything summer is usually rounded down. I also don’t know anyone that has held kids back strictly for youth athletics. I guess color me #blessed.
My son's team played one of the better teams in the league. They have won the League the past 3 seasons (2 Fall and 1 Spring). The coaches run a travel ball organization and only wear their gear. So the kids are wearing their Orioles Uniforms and all 3 coaches are decked head to toe in Travel Ball gear So we are on winning streak and it was the perfect time to play them. The usual head coach wasn't there so the assistant was running the show. He was having full on meltdowns out there. Was upset at about a tag at home that was called out. He was upset that the tag was on the helmet. Then my son had a collision at home and the initial call was "Out" till I pointed to the ball on the ground and the ump overturned it. He just walked off yelling "Thats 2! Thats 2!" So its 18-5 in the bottom of the 4th and it looks like we are heading into the 5th inning where the max run limit is moved from 5 to 10. Our HC asks if we are going to push for 5 and they other coach basically threw in the towel. So we moved all the kids on the field to different positions and the game ended 18-10. We were pretty shocked that they gave up. We would have tried if the shoe was on the other foot.
Don't normally agree with Fuzzy on a lot but you have been a bit of an asshole in here to people just venting.
Not going to lie here, I'm a bit surprised at people calling me an asshole for being snippy with posters in the "AHole Parents of Kids Sports: Awful Parents Reliving Their Youth" thread.
If it's based on age not grade how would that help them at such a young age? Seems like it wouldn't be a factor until HS. My parents have told me before that they wish they would have waited another year for my youngest sister to start school bc she is a July birthday and they felt she was always less mature than most kids in whatever grade she was in. While I don't doubt the motivation is sports for many parents, dads especially, there are any number of reasons why being a year older is helpful
People play their kids down even if they are older. They might call it 6U, 7U etc but nobody checks birthdays and it's understood that if a kid redshirts kindergarten it's okay that they stay in that league to play with their classmates. I'm sure at some age soon they will start checking birth certificates but not this young. But the goal is to get your kid dominating early to develop their confidence.
i'll be the asshole here: If you think kids who will eventually play college sports just start emerging at random once they hit HS, you have no clue what you're talking about.
There are countless stories of kids who excel in particular sports who don’t even pick it up until high school. Maybe it’s not “random” as they have other athletic outlets that prepare them but the idea that college destinies are apparent at 12 isn’t right either. maybe sports like golf and tennis sure
I'd say that scouting D1 baseball prospects before they hit puberty is damn near random. Certainly there are outliers and exceptions, but I very much doubt there's any sort of appreciable hit rate.
My kid’s (pre-k) soccer coach barely shows up. They’re scheduled for practices Tuesdays and Thursdays for an hour and a game on Sunday. The other seven teams have actual practices. Our coach decided to make Tuesdays “open practice” or just show up and do whatever, so nobody bothers to show up. We live literally on the field as our back fence touched the complex, so we go to play. We’ve had one actual practice in 3 weeks, and he’s missed 1/3 games and 2/3 practices. His wife showed up last week to coach. Kids are not learning shit besides from their parents. He’s also my state senator and got cancelled out of the 2018 governors race for sexual misconduct from multiple women.
I played in the same league he's talking about and my team had 2 kids who ultimately played for FSU. Everyone knew then that they were different and the local HS coaches had them penciled in for spots the day they enrolled. The idea that most 14 year old athletes haven't hit puberty yet is absurd
1. The OP said the kids are 13 about to turn 14. I don't know about you, but 13/14 is not "before" puberty for the vast majority of kids. 2. The OP said his kid was selected for a league of 13-14 year olds by high school JV coaches. "Scouting" for "D1" is entirely your invention not found in the text.
Same thing. Kids dominating at that age have almost certainly hit puberty and when I was in that league Jimmy Marshall (started at FSU) hit a homerun on our MLB-sized field. That kid was different and everyone knew it. The idea that you can't tell certain kids are on another level in middle school is silly. Some burn out and of course there are late bloomers but plenty of D1 players were pretty clearly legit at 12/13
I was actually so athletic in my younger years that they actually put me a level above where I should be. Because of all the athleticism and talent. I would’ve gone pro, too, if my coach didn’t have it out for me. Also would’ve gone military but I kept beating up my drill instructors.
Ok and? The guy said his kid was one of four 7th graders chosen for a 13-15u league run by HS JV coaches, which was cool because his kid wants to play college baseball. From that, you invented a scenario where "D1" coaches are "scouting" middle school kids, which was ridiculous because no one could possibly tell who will play college ball by that age. I've talked to multiple HS football coaches whose own kids went on to play college football. I asked them all independently of each other when they could tell their kid was going to play college football, and they all said by age 5-6. That doesn't mean every fast kid at recess is going to be a D1 athlete and it doesn't mean there aren't late bloomers, but in general the kids who have extreme athletic traits have them from birth.
To be fair, my first two posts were: Every 12 year old wants to play college baseball and I think you've got a couple years before you find out who is and who isn't likely to play college ball. But go off, king!