I understand the many thoughts in here on travel being good or bad. One thing I never understood or figured out though was what about the other kids when there are siblings? Many families have multiple children but have finite dollars and vacation time. Are they depriving another sibling, perhaps a daughter, when so much is given to a baseball or hockey playing son?

I understand the many thoughts in here on travel being good or bad. One thing I never understood or figured out though was what about the other kids when there are siblings? Many families have multiple children but have finite dollars and vacation time. Are they depriving another sibling, perhaps a daughter, when so much is given to a baseball or hockey playing son?

The victims are the American People and the Republic itself.

Our other children are much older than our "24th".

All had played a travel sport at one time except for our oldest. She sang and acted in plays.

I had you pegged as a catcher.

Scooter should cowboy up and pay the $20K to get his daughter on a traveling hockey team as a goalie too.

Used to do it in emergencies only. Filled in couple times in HS. Hated every minute of it.

I am not a legal expert, how many times do I have to say it?

READS JUST FINE

I understand the many thoughts in here on travel being good or bad. One thing I never understood or figured out though was what about the other kids when there are siblings? Many families have multiple children but have finite dollars and vacation time. Are they depriving another sibling, perhaps a daughter, when so much is given to a baseball or hockey playing son?

I know you don't read my posts but this is exactly kind of the stuff I'm talking about. It starts to dominate childhood for a kid. All for what purpose? Is it so you get good at a sport you'll pretty much stop playing after high school? This is why I say that travel sports is a vanity project for parents. You can't tell me that most children would choose to forgo their childhood so they can play games every other day during the week and then a bunch of games in some town that is 4 hours away every other weekend. They will have plenty of time in their lives to have that level of a grind.

Hockey I could see the benefits of teammate bonding. Though I see it more of networking than bonding. It is a bunch of entitled white upper middle class bros with rocks for brains. You'll have a guy who can hook you up with a gig at his dad's law firm once you pass the Bar after your 3rd try.

Yes it is.

When this is all over, which is not going to be for a while, Trump will be re-elected President.

I really don't understand how so many people think athletic failure r greatest is defined by the time a kid is 10.

The victims are the American People and the Republic itself.

The team "bonding" I guess is a positive. I don't really talk to any of the teammates that I played travel with for 7 (?) years. That's with three of the guys actually going to Indiana like I did. You find friends in elementary - high school, college and post-college. Travel team friends are like "work friends".

Hockey I could see the benefits of teammate bonding. Though I see it more of networking than bonding. It is a bunch of entitled white upper middle class bros with rocks for brains. You'll have a guy who can hook you up with a gig at his dad's law firm once you pass the Bar after your 3rd try.

The difference is, both the kids and parents are committed. You practice indoors during the winter. In house has like two practices, and then they roll the balls out.

We typically see two kids stop playing every year out of 12. You can tell when the kids' hearts are not into it. We lost several off of our 12U team because they just wanted to play football (baseball's too boring).

There is a funnel with baseball. I am just guessing, but I think about 5% of boys are truly baseball players where they love playing. By about 11, very few kids want to play baseball. By high school it is an extremely low amount.

Expensive travel sports are the real "pussification of America." When I was a kid the best players naturally rose to the top due to everyone having the same opportunity to play and practice. Usually the best players were giant pricks and so were their parents and they let you know just how bad you sucked. This gave everyone a realistic view of their own abilities and shortcomings. Now the guys and girls whose parents drop $20k have this warped view that they're actually better, because Joe-sixpack's kid can't afford the same opportunities. Eventually a lot get found out, but at least they learn the valuable lesson that money can buy opportunity, and besides if their parents can already drop $20k on sports, they'll probably have plenty of other bought opportunities.

So are they committed or not?


FWIW the travel team my daughter was asked to try out for (shes decent but I think they just need coaches and tgsts why we were asked) gets all their girls to play in college. 90% play at community college or a local school like St Xavier but they do play.

Oh and my in house team had probably 20 practices indoor and out before our first game and we had 3-4 softball days per week during season. Not all in house is dead. But I agree in house is definitely getting killed (becoming a feeder system) by travel teams

Well said

The victims are the American People and the Republic itself.