[BigCatDaddy]

Originally Posted by kcclone

I get that argument, and sometimes it’s correct. But what a lot of people don’t get is that there are lots of kids that REALLY enjoy competing against the best and winning. And those kids happiness should count too.

The problem is when the two worlds collide. The competitive (good) kids want to win or be as competitive as they can be. Then there are the kids that just want “have fun” or join sports to hang with their friends, or because mom and dad made them.

As a coach, you have to balance the bottom of the roster kids with the “I just want to win” kids. As a parent, I have two of the latter and one of the “I’m here to have fun” kids. As a coach, I think I’ve done a good job of balancing. But I get both sides of the coin.

The kids toward the bottom of the roster (and especially their parents) get frustrated when they don’t play, if get as involved as much as the best kids. The competitive kids get frustrated when they see the crappy kids blowing games, etc. Again, their point of view counts too. It’s not just about making the bottom kids feel good.


Some 8 year olds are dreaming about Pokémon during the game. Some are literally obsessed with sports and come home from games and watch highlights on YouTube because it’s what they love. Others want to be pros, but have no clue how bad their genetics are holding them back.

The Pokémon kids wash out sometime between 8-10. The kids that love it but don’t know how bad their genetics are, hang on a lot longer, and sometimes they work themselves into relevancy.

The competitive kids usually stick with the 2-3 sports their best at and are usually the kids that end up being varsity starters, and some go past high school.

Of course there are examples of competitive kids that fizzle out, or peak early. And there are examples of kids that weren’t anything special and hit a growth spurt.

But 90% of the time, you can predict who the players are by 8-10 years old. The only question is usually which sport will be their best/favorite.

It is what it is. Sports is the one area where kids are allowed to set their own hierarchy based on their abilities, and don’t have to worry about “making sure everyone feels included”.

Yep, I get both angles for sure. The thing is if it's your kid then don't bitch about coaching and just put him in a better situation where he gets to play and perhaps be a bigger part of the team. But like i said on the other hand I've seen enough over the course of my life time you can still get lower level kids involved in certain situations and probably more frequently than what they do. I'd probably put your 90% number a little lower as in it's my experience the shorter kids tend to be more coordinated and athletic early on where as the taller kids take a bit longer but usually pass up those early bloomers by 13-14 or so.