Hey FlavaDave … what’s your feeling about badminton?
[quote]LIFTICVSMAXIMVS wrote:
Zap Branigan wrote:
I think we need less organization in our sports.
Isn’t this a contradiction? The mere idea that there exists a sport means that people were organized enough to agree on a set of rules?
Not to beat a dead horse but sports federations are a great example of anarchic organization.[/quote]
It is not a contradiction. Things have increments and need not be measured in absolutes. We can have less organization in sports while still playing sports. Sandlot football is less organized than high school football.
[quote]Professor X wrote:
The real place to place that blame is not on the kids…but on the parents that allow it to continue.[/quote]
I wholeheartedly agree. I have worked with tons and tons of kids in a variety of coaching settings (from camps and clinics to coaching teams to my training business) and I have hardly ever seen a kid who is lazy or with a poor attitude who I could not attribute it to the parents.
I started playing basketball, baseball, and soccer when I was 5. My parents made me drop soccer to play football (I chose to play football, they wouldn’t let me play four sports) when I went into third grade.
Going into my sophomore year I am still playing football, basketball, and baseball. However, I have taken years off in every sport except baseball…and now it is guessed that my arms are too screwed up to ever pitch because I pitched so much when I was little. I would have had problems because I was just born with different arms, but they have gotten worse.
I’m not saying that you shouldn’t encourage your kids to play sports at an early age because I have definately gained some advantages from it.
Just make sure that they want to play and stay away from travelling teams until you get close to school ball. You will get more games than you would ever want if you are good enough when you get older.
Also, keep the pitch count LOW when you are a young pitcher. There are a million ways to mess your arm up and you don’t even have to notice it immediately.
[quote]Yo Momma wrote:
So keep it fun for the little ones, regardless of what sport they choose to play. Because most of them will not grow up to be athletes. But the lessons learned by being a team player will serve them well in any profession. Both boys and girls.
[/quote]
Again, I agree very much.
Then I see coaches of 12 year-old teams where the only concern is winning and wonder what lessons the kids are learning? Then I see the parents asking how good the other players on the team are and what chance the team has of making it to Nationals and wonder what lessons the kids are learning?
I think sports are a great way to kids to learn work ethic, teamwork, social skills and develop self-esteem. They are also a great way to teach a kid that immediate gratification is the only important thing, how to be a poor sport and ruin their self-esteem. Coaches have a very important job and many are sorely unqualified.
Too much ego from adults and not enough caring about the kids in youth sports today.
[quote]Professor X wrote:
Since when does a game define masculinity?
I consider football to be more brutal and interesting than most other sports, but shit, some kids are just not inclined to be good at some sports. That doesn’t make them weak in and of itself.[/quote]
Obviously not. They might excel at different sports or something entirely different. That doesn’t make them unmasculine or unworthy. People here don’t make sense. Expose your kids to everything. Sports and other activites. And let them gravitate to what they are good at and like to do.
Non-scientific observations of a father with four sons (8 - 15). My boys all started with soccer and switched to football, so I have experience with both.
It all comes down to what you view the purpose of youth sports to be.
Soccer, at non-elite levels (i.e., they take anyone), especially co-ed soccer, is used to get uncoordinated fat kids off the couch and moving. It is not used to build character or engender the love of competition.
The mantra we heard over and over is “everyone is a winner” - until I was ready to hurt someone. Practices were easy. The good kids weren’t rewarded for effort or skill. It was sickening to me, since life surely isn’t that way. The kids surely know this and they keep score, even though they aren’t supposed to.
Football at the non-elite level is the complete opposite. Our leagues are all about character, competition and understanding that maybe, just maybe, when you suck, you might have some responsibility for it. Practices are run with discipline. They call the coaches “sir”. The whole team does push-ups when one member screws ups.
If you don’t do your homework, you watch practice from the sidelines. Young boys eat this stuff up - at least mine do. It’s night and day from soccer at the same level.
Plus, there’s something about hearing a bunch of eight year olds on defense pounding their thigh pads and chanting - “Who will protect this house? I will! I will!”
I’m sure “travel” or competitive soccer is similar, but at the rec league level it was an example of everything I don’t want my kids to be… coddled, entitled and non-competitive.
[quote]t-sama wrote:
Non-scientific observations of a father with four sons (8 - 15). My boys all started with soccer and switched to football, so I have experience with both.
It all comes down to what you view the purpose of youth sports to be.
Soccer, at non-elite levels (i.e., they take anyone), especially co-ed soccer, is used to get uncoordinated fat kids off the couch and moving. It is not used to build character or engender the love of competition. The mantra we heard over and over is “everyone is a winner” - until I was ready to hurt someone.
Practices were easy. The good kids weren’t rewarded for effort or skill. It was sickening to me, since life surely isn’t that way. The kids surely know this and they keep score, even though they aren’t supposed to.
Football at the non-elite level is the complete opposite. Our leagues are all about character, competition and understanding that maybe, just maybe, when you suck, you might have some responsibility for it. Practices are run with discipline.
They call the coaches “sir”. The whole team does push-ups when one member screws ups. If you don’t do your homework, you watch practice from the sidelines. Young boys eat this stuff up - at least mine do. It’s night and day from soccer at the same level.
Plus, there’s something about hearing a bunch of eight year olds on defense pounding their thigh pads and chanting - “Who will protect this house? I will! I will!”
I’m sure “travel” or competitive soccer is similar, but at the rec league level it was an example of everything I don’t want my kids to be… coddled, entitled and non-competitive.
[/quote]
Good post.
The distinction, however, is that I am assuming your kids actually showed some interest in football to begin with.
My dad used to be an “assistant football coach” when he taught history while I was growing up. The teams were run like a pseudo-military training camp…and the kids benefited from it, some of them so much that he still gets thanked for it even today.
There is no doubt that an activity like football can be a great learning experience. I just hope the actual gifts of the child are being paid attention to.
[quote]flyboy51v wrote:
Vicomte wrote:
This is funny. You seem to think Football is the be all and end all of sports, because that’s what you did, like to do, and you think it makes you tough. Soccer, or, real ‘Football’ is just as good as your favorite arbitrary physical activity.
Hell, in most countries, even showing up to watch a soccer match guarantees more physical contact than actually playing in a game of American football. I never played football, and I certainly didn’t enjoy soccer as a wee lad, but I’m not going to condescend and say football makes you a man.
Honestly, it sounds like you’re worried your nephews might turn out to be ‘a couple of them queers’ because they play one sport opposed to another. That’s just silly.
Well … I just picked on football because it’s what I know. If I lived in Austalia I’d probably be talking rugby. I’m not suggesting they’ll become “homosexuals” because of soccer or lack of football. That would be stupid. I’m just saying they are definitely a little softer as a result …
When I was a kid … every guy wanted to play football … now kids are playing soccer. Soccer is NOT a tough, aggressive sport. I’m sorry all you soccer fans. I’ve played a lot of soccer. There’s a reason mom’s all want their kids to play soccer so they don’t get hurt.
I know you’re being sarcastic and soccer is arguably better endurance conditioning than football … but soccer fans getting more exercise than football players???
I just think that not too long ago there were a lot of kids who still did manual labor … a lot of them still lived on farms … a lot of them hunted and could handle a gun … they worked on equipment from a young age … and if they played sports it was typically a tougher contact sport.
Now they tend to live in suburbs … no physical labor ever … they don’t have a clue about hunting or guns or fishing and if they’re increasingly playing wimpier sports.
Hell … schools are banning dodgeball and tag because it’s too “rough.”
Anyway I was trying to see if I was alone on this … seems like I might be …
[/quote]
Damn… back in elementary, I actually looked forward to dodgeball. Those were the days 
[quote]t-sama wrote:
…The whole team does push-ups when one member screws ups. …
[/quote]
I made 9 and 10 year old girls do push ups when they messed up by not listening/paying attention in soccer practice. They loved it, no complaints from the parents either.
Childrens MMA seems like the only viable option for real boys looking to become real men
Thanks. My house is like WWF Smackdown 24/7 - so, yes, they wanted to play football and perhaps called the one who still wanted to play soccer a “field fairy”. “Honest honey, I had no nothing to do with it…”
One of the most important lessons my boys get from football (and lacrosse) is that you don’t have to be afraid of confrontation (physical or otherwise) and you can shake hands afterwards, win or lose. This is a very important facet of a successful man. If a boy gets that from another sport, I am all for it.
[quote]Professor X wrote:
t-sama wrote:
Non-scientific observations of a father with four sons (8 - 15). My boys all started with soccer and switched to football, so I have experience with both.
It all comes down to what you view the purpose of youth sports to be.
Soccer, at non-elite levels (i.e., they take anyone), especially co-ed soccer, is used to get uncoordinated fat kids off the couch and moving. It is not used to build character or engender the love of competition. The mantra we heard over and over is “everyone is a winner” - until I was ready to hurt someone. Practices were easy.
The good kids weren’t rewarded for effort or skill. It was sickening to me, since life surely isn’t that way. The kids surely know this and they keep score, even though they aren’t supposed to.
Football at the non-elite level is the complete opposite. Our leagues are all about character, competition and understanding that maybe, just maybe, when you suck, you might have some responsibility for it. Practices are run with discipline. They call the coaches “sir”. The whole team does push-ups when one member screws ups.
If you don’t do your homework, you watch practice from the sidelines. Young boys eat this stuff up - at least mine do. It’s night and day from soccer at the same level.
Plus, there’s something about hearing a bunch of eight year olds on defense pounding their thigh pads and chanting - “Who will protect this house? I will! I will!”
I’m sure “travel” or competitive soccer is similar, but at the rec league level it was an example of everything I don’t want my kids to be… coddled, entitled and non-competitive.
Good post.
The distinction, however, is that I am assuming your kids actually showed some interest in football to begin with.
My dad used to be an “assistant football coach” when he taught history while I was growing up. The teams were run like a pseudo-military training camp…and the kids benefited from it, some of them so much that he still gets thanked for it even today.
There is no doubt that an activity like football can be a great learning experience. I just hope the actual gifts of the child are being paid attention to.[/quote]
[quote]Waitingforcoyote wrote:
Childrens MMA seems like the only viable option for real boys looking to become real men[/quote]
LOL!!
Just what the world needs…more MMA wannabes.
I wonder what the next fad will be. We’ve already had karate around the time that the Karate Kid came out. Boxing could potentially ruin a few pretty boys’ pride, and MMA should be on its way out over the next 5-10 years.
There has to be a fighting style or discipline that has not been exploited yet in an effort to get the Post-WWF crowd into it.
[quote]flyboy51v wrote:
Hey FlavaDave … what’s your feeling about badminton?[/quote]
It’s riveting. Having played competitively in my youth, I can honestly say that I still have nightmares. It’s what has driven me to train. To get bigger and stronger. Because one day, I know, I will have to face down the shuttlecock. And when that moment comes, I will be ready.
I would like to nominate the Brazilian/African fighting style of Capoeira as the next wannabe trend.
It should be way more interesting than skinny guys running around all claiming they can beat up everyone 50-100lbs bigger than them because of their mad MMA skilz.
[quote]pushharder wrote:
t-sama wrote:
Non-scientific observations of a father with four sons (8 - 15). My boys all started with soccer and switched to football, so I have experience with both.
It all comes down to what you view the purpose of youth sports to be.
Soccer, at non-elite levels (i.e., they take anyone), especially co-ed soccer, is used to get uncoordinated fat kids off the couch and moving. It is not used to build character or engender the love of competition. The mantra we heard over and over is “everyone is a winner” - until I was ready to hurt someone.
Practices were easy. The good kids weren’t rewarded for effort or skill. It was sickening to me, since life surely isn’t that way. The kids surely know this and they keep score, even though they aren’t supposed to.
Football at the non-elite level is the complete opposite. Our leagues are all about character, competition and understanding that maybe, just maybe, when you suck, you might have some responsibility for it. Practices are run with discipline.
They call the coaches “sir”. The whole team does push-ups when one member screws ups. If you don’t do your homework, you watch practice from the sidelines. Young boys eat this stuff up - at least mine do. It’s night and day from soccer at the same level.
Plus, there’s something about hearing a bunch of eight year olds on defense pounding their thigh pads and chanting - “Who will protect this house? I will! I will!”
I’m sure “travel” or competitive soccer is similar, but at the rec league level it was an example of everything I don’t want my kids to be… coddled, entitled and non-competitive.
I like this post.[/quote]
Why? It was a stupid emotional appeal.
edit- nevermind. answered my own question.
Just wanted to post this:
http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/2402_horror_tackle.shtml
for anyone who thinks soccer is a “safe” sport. Actually , if I rememeber correctly, soccer is one of, if not the sport, where the most injuries occur.
You can play soccer and never be afraid of being hurt, but you can also play flag or touch football. The link I posted is one example, but there are many more out there.
I love the picture where he’s just kind of shrugging it off like, “what did I do wrong?”
The PROBLEM many have with soccer is no longer limited to soccer, but something that happens in many pee-wee sports nowadays. It just so happens that soccer, since it’s the ‘easiest’ to set up for kinds from 4-12 (very little equipment needed to provide) that you see these things happen…but t-ball is the same way, and a lot of CYO/Rec League football:
Everyone plays.
No one goes without a trophy.
Fundamentals aren’t taught
No one gets yelled at or corrected.
It’s more about ‘trying’ than ‘trying your best’.
Parents are far too involved in the coaching.
Now, I think you need to have winners and losers, corrections and training, and lessons in ANY sport.
The other side of the coin is the ass-hats that punch out refs, scream curse words at coaches, or pull their kids around by their ears.
It’s not about the toughness of the game or the toughness you GET from the game, it should be about learning a skill, finding, challenging and respecting your limitations and strengths and having fun.