It doesn't cost 20k per year. Our club costs 1,600 per year, which includes 20 off season lessons, five tournaments, 24 league games, and six months of coaching. My son was just invited to a different 15u team for next year, and they charge 2,500. But that team has paid coaches. We're sticking with our current club.

The 20k that guy mentioned is probably him just bragging. If you truly go all over the country for weeks at a time, well then I suspect you spend a lot of money on hotels and flights. We play mostly local with one out of state tourney per year. We went to the Dells this year.

Have your kids do anything with the amount of hours my son plays baseball in a given year, and it will cost far in excess of 1,600.

There are no in house leagues at 13, 14, 15, etc. The intermediate division is dead.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

Maybe, but I've never seen a kid on one of those elite teams that didn't deserve to be there. I've also seen a some on teams that should be playing up but couldn't because of money. If they are really good (or the family is not crazy) the club finds a way to put them where we belong.



I can't decide if you are a goofball because you live in your theoretical world or because sometimes you don't know what you are talking about.

Does your son play hockey or baseball?

There's no maybe about it. We've been watching hockey die in Quebec for years now.

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Maybe you'll be the 1 percent! However given you were complaining earlier about not going on vacations in a long time maybe you won't.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

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1% of what? He won't play professionally and he's not getting a scholarship to anything. If that's the reason to play sports it's a very Bernsteinesque outlook.



This is not a complaint. We did a spring break trip this year. We have a finite amount of money. We choose to spend it in different ways. A vacation is not necessarily more important than a kids hobby or experiences.


Oh yeah hilarious. He really got me there. You are the same way but somehow have less of an idea of what is going on. I look forward to you following everything I say on the board the next few weeks so you can win your fantastic and always entertaining game of gotcha!!! Woo hoo! Let the games begin. Hopefully I did not spoil your little hard on.

Don't worry about Rick, Spaulding. I respect your opinion. In fact, you remind me a lot of my sister-in-law.

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People feel a whole bunch of ways about their in-laws. Glad you like yours.



Can you explain? I'm unaware of what or how that's happening? What players might not have been on the Blackhawks if what you are saying is happening?

I do think kids are not allowed to make mistakes as much. They learn so much when they are just farting around playing and thru repetition.

I'm impressed Spaulding posted a wrestling gif.

Nicely done.

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Wow. Spaulding just destroyed the shitpost twins.

Did. Not. Happen.

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^
This guys gets it.

French-Canadian representation in the NHL is way, way down from the '80s and before. The Quebecois birthrate has plummeted since the Quiet Revolution (the shift away from Quebec basically being run by the Catholic Church), but Quebec's economy has suffered for years and the game is getting too expensive for both the native Quebecois and the immigrants who have come to Montreal en masse now that no one whose name ends in -ier gets pregnant anymore. The Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, the third league of Canadian major-junior hockey for players born in Quebec and points east, sends fewer and fewer players to the NHL, now trailing not only the Western (BC, Alberta, Sask, Manitoba) and Ontario (duh) leagues, but even the once-lowly USHL, a Junior A equivalent for Americans who are too dumb to play college sports. Only 14 players from the Q got drafted this year to the O's 48 and the Dub's 34. That's unbelievable from a component of the highest junior league. Something really troubling is going on out there. Soccer and MMA are coming on strong, while hockey is fading away.

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There are plenty of reasons to play sports. I spent my whole life until I was 18 playing sports. The only good reason to join a team where you spend weekends driving to the middle of nowhere in Ohio and then playing games all weekend while spending the rest of the time in a hotel room is if you have some bigger long term goal. Otherwise that time and money could be spent so much better. Most of the travel kids in my sport weren't even playing it by the time they were juniors in high school and a lot of them had simply been burned out by it. I was burned out by the time I went to college that I've played it about 10 times since in my whole life. Ironically, playing video games ended up being a much more productive use of my time as a kid but that isn't going to be true for everyone.

That is the point though. A kid will likely have more fun and a better experience on a vacation than they would traveling to otherwise undesirable locations and spending most of your time in the hotel and venue and then back in the car. It's even worse when families have multiple kids and they drag another one to watch all weekend.

The whole point though is that travel sports that require overnight travel aren't just a "hobby". It's basically having kids pretending they are professionals for no real good reason unless they truly are the elite of the elite and destined for the pros. Kids can learn just as much and have just as much fun playing in local leagues or if that isn't possible one of the local travel leagues that play against other towns. The overnight travel is for parents much more than the kids.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Baseball. Obviously, it's a relatively inexpensive sport. Hockey is a different beast because of the cost of the equipment and lack of places to get ice time.

You will observe that people without teenage kids taking broadsides at travel sports. It is a tremendous way to spend your weekends. The teammates build close bonds and have a great time. And any time spent with your children is precious. Seeing the smiles on their faces when they experience success or being there to pick them up when they fail, are perfect teaching moments. You see the linkage between hard work (practice) and on field improvement.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

I don't care how old his kids are or if he has any at all, don't you think Rick makes a good argument?

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Freedom is our Strength.

I'll defer to Leash. I don't read Rick's posts.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

some of the most fun times in my life were playing travel basketball. I felt like an actual adult as a kid. Glad my parents let me do it.

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Ба́бушка гада́ла, да на́двое сказа́ла—то ли до́ждик, то ли снег, то ли бу́дет, то ли нет.

news flash: hockey is very expensive to play, even more so when you are good at it.

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Are you a drone pilot?

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You're safe. Don't worry.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Somewhat. He mostly sounds like someone that doesn't know what he is talking about.

Just ask Patrick Kane.

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You can disagree with me if you want but it should be fairly obvious I have a pretty good amount of first and second hand experience on this topic. You just don't like what I am saying because you obviously put a lot of time and money into youth sports and it isn't fun to think that it may not end with the great results that coaches and pamphlets will try and sell you on.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

You cannot convince me that a child becomes a better player by going across the country to compete in a weekend tournament. That is where the vanity Rick speaks of, lies.

I do think you become better with practice and out of season focus. I am even warming to the idea that more game action, up to a point, results in a better player.

However, there is no doubt there is a mass hysteria in parents created by travel sports and that there is an industry that is all too happy to feed on it. As a defense, if it is a defense, there are similar industries in just about every aspect of a child's life now. If you don't think a kid who has showed aptitude with music or acting or academics isn't being run through this insanity, you aren't paying attention.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

You can disagree with me if you want but it should be fairly obvious I have a pretty good amount of first and second hand experience on this topic. You just don't like what I am saying because you obviously put a lot of time and money into youth sports and it isn't fun to think that it may not end with the great results that coaches and pamphlets will try and sell you on.[/quote]
out
What great results am I looking for?



I agree with that. It's an industry now and they are essentially driving out school and park district teams. It's not about your kid becoming a better player. Some people play travel because of the lack of options.

The craziest stuff is dance and gymnastics.

This.

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I mentioned that. The intermediate division is dead. There are no options at 13, 14, 15, etc.

At younger ages, the in house competition is crap. Less than half the kids want to be there. Practices are limited.

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Hawaii (fuck) You