28 to 23, what is that? Hockey with no goalies?

Yes. I can't stand LaCrosse.

Im pretty hammered right now.

Football?

May have told this story before.

We joined up with a summer soccer rec league for the YMCA in Lake Zurich, which I ended up as a co-coach for. For whatever reason, they had decided to merge the age groups and gender, so it was boys and girls 7-12. Now, its the Y and its a rec league, so I figured there wouldn't be much issue. Boy was I wrong.

We have the first "practice" game and this kid who is probably 11 or 12 goes end to end and curves a shot into the upper corner of the goal. My reaction was, "Holy Fucking Shit!" So, I went over to the coach and have the following dialogue:

Me: That kid is pretty awesome.
Coach: Yeah, hes on a traveling team
Me: Ah. Okay. None of my kids have that skill. I have two seven year olds and my primary goal is for them to not get hurt and have fun.
Coach: Well, you need to understand, he and the other kid there are in a traveling league. I can't tell them not to play the way they play.
Me: Uh... okay?

Over the next five minutes or so, these two kids proceed to score 10 goals. There were a few physical plays, but nothing out of the ordinary. I spoke with the other coach from my team and said I'm curious to see how the first game goes.

So the first game comes. Its against the same team from the practice. Off the initial kickoff, my daughter starts to take up the ball and the one travel league kid steps right into her leg and steps on her foot. No foul is called and my daughter is out of the game crying and barely able to walk. For the remainder of the first half, this kid is pushing kids on my team around, including one of the seven year olds that he has about 10 inches on. I didn't mention anything to the coach yet, but I was fuming. Second half starts and one of my older kids is running up the sidelines. The traveling league kid slide tackles him, takes out his legs and has his cleats up so one gets lodged into the kids stomach. No foul. Kid on my team can't breathe and needs to be helped out. When I came back to the sideline, I told the coach for the other team in a relatively strong manner, "hey, I don't want to see that again. This is a rec league and per league rules slide tackling isn't allowed." The other coach takes this kid out and says no more slide tackling. This kid LOSES HIS FUCKING SHIT! He starts screaming and crying to his mom, "IM PLAYING THE RIGHT WAY! THATS HOW YOU PLAY SOCCER!" The coach doesn't say anything and this kid just continues to make a scene. The mom finally decides to take him to the car to calm him down. We quit the league the next day, but never got any apology or refund.

I believe that traveling sports for anyone before high school is pretty much useless and just an excuse for parents to live though their children. You'd be better served spending that money on training services and camps.

We've been doing travel baseball for four years ages 10-13. It is far superior to in house baseball. The main problem with in house baseball is that 1/2 to 2/3 of the roster is stocked with very poor baseball players. It impacts the quality of the game. For instance:

1) The other team's pitcher cannot throw strikes. You spend two hours at a game to watch your kid get hit by a pitch and walked two times.
2) There are huge holes in the fielding. Your son is on the mound, and he has to strike a kid out to make any kind of an out because the players in the field cannot make a play. And then you still have to sweat the drop third strike.
3) Many of the kids and parents are not involved. It is a babysitting service. They don't practice with their kid, and so the kid never gets better.
4) There is no off season program.
5) The number of games is quite limited.

Travel baseball is only for families that are very into baseball. It is a 9-10 month commitment, and more time is spent practicing than playing. Camps are fine, but they only get limited time to teach skills vs a strong travel program. I am a big fan of individual lessons IF you are willing to work on what is taught. Games are critical for implementing what has been taught and learning from mistakes. The level of competition challenges your child. It is definitely not for everyone.

We played 52 games this year from April through July. We just started fall ball this weekend on a 14U team and are finally playing 60/90 baseball!

I wouldn't say save the money. I'd say spend it more wisely.

You can buy a lot of dedicated instruction for the money spent traveling the Midwest searching for a 12 year old who can strike your kid out.

It's pretty obvious that "travel ball" parents ghettoized house leagues. When I was a kid, you played house leagues where the better players were distributed evenly via a draft, then after the season ended there were invitation-only (or tryout, whatever) tournament or travel teams. However, that apparently wasn't good enough for the travel parents looking to live through their kids--sorry, I mean "expose" their kids to the "better" competition in Wisconsin and Missouri. Ironically, baseball isn't even a real scholarship sport http://www.scholarshipstats.com/baseball.html and all these suburban travel baseball players couldn't last a week with a 9 year old Dominican slave team. Plus, all of the best athletes play lacrosse these days, which is killing baseball as a spring sport. It all seems so pointless. In any case, thanks for killing house leagues and further ruining baseball for generations to come. 'preciate it!

I'm confused.

What's the end goal? Kids want to play IN GAMES. Against other teams.

Isn't that what travel is? What are the options?

- Play in a travel league - with other kids. Practicing a couple of times a week with your teammates and playing lots of games. That improves skills and TEAMWORK greatly. And camaraderie.

- Do clinics and then what? Not play travel? Play in a house league with often inferior talent? With kids who don't want to be there and/or whose parents make them go? Kids get bored and they don't get better. Iron sharpens iron. For example, in hockey against or with other kids who can't skate or in baseball where a kid can't get he ball over the plate? All the hating instruction in the world won't matter if the pitchers are walking kids on 4 pitches because they can't find the plate.

So, help me out - what are you suggesting?

Now, in the case of hockey, spending the money on good private instruction (skating, edge work, shooting, goaltending, D, board work, checking) versus an overcrowded camp? That I can understand.

They'll spend most of their life with a job. No reason to turn a game into one.

i bet Jeff Bezos would make a great youth league coach

I think it's interesting that the "massive time commitment" isn't considered a negative.

That is a lot of time spent in your childhood prepping a skill you are incredibly unlikely to use often after you turn 18.

I'll admit though that much of my thoughts come from being burnt out by basketball by the end of my senior year and seeing just how many people got burnt out prior to that who were studs at the age of 12.

The same can be said about much of what kids learn in school. Every bit of math the average adult needs can be done on an iPhone.

That's the point that seems to have been lost. It should be about the FUN of the sport and the pride that comes with learning and refining a skill. A love that can take them all through life. Making friendships and playing a wonderful game that keeps them in shape and they can play all through their lives.

That said, we've taken it too far. Like Dennis Miller said, 'when the fuck did coffee go from 25 cents to 4 bucks?'. Same with youth sports. It was never like this when I was a kid. It's the same reason a Big Gulp is like 64 oz. 64 friggin ounces.

For my kids, it's about balance. I see way to many families where you wonder - 'when they hell are they doing school work'. One dad literally has his kid on the ice at 6am each morning. Kid is most likely NOT getting enough sleep and proper nutrition. He's probably also tired as shit at school. When is homework done? Sure, it is making him a better hockey player and he's the stud on his team and he'll play the top level (and then get destroyed by teams in Canada), but for what? Why not just a practice or two a week and then games on the weekend like we had as kids?

Having to cancel family vacations on Thanksgiving for a stupid ass hockey tourney or missing Spring Break family vacations because of baseball tournament? NOPE! Not worth it. My time with my kids is limited. I want to enjoy myself and create those memories for my ENTIRE family. Insane travel sports schedules get in the way of that shit.

I'm talking about travel teams that require overnight travel. Lots of wasted time and money with those that would be better used in other ways if the goal is to improve the player.

Obviously, there isn't much difference in price between a house league and a travel team that has to drive 15 minutes to a game two towns over because there aren't enough people to sustain a quality league in a single town.

I'm suggesting that if you and your family are spending weekends on the road with your family that the money would be better spent finding more local options and spending that money on private instruction or quality camps. Driving your 10 year old to Cleveland to play 5 games on a weekend isn't a good use of time or resources if your goal really is the improvement of the player.

They'll spend most of their life with a job. No reason to turn a game into one.

To each their own.