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Post by 33coach on Feb 13, 2017 21:39:47 GMT -6
i wonder if the HS coaches would change their tone after a few years of their freshman classes coming in, and their only experience with football is "backyard football" and Madden.......
then i wonder if they dont care, why they insist that "vertical integration" with the youth program is critical to a winning program.
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Post by bobgoodman on Feb 13, 2017 21:43:07 GMT -6
I am in favor of it. I think kids don't need to tackle in their earlier years..they can still learn the game, grow some more, get more athletic.. i am sick of watching 3rd and 4th graders getting yelled at and running head first into each other. But those are the only years many people will even have a chance to play adult-organized tackle football. Most children who play don't continue doing so much into their teens. Many will never be athletic enough to play in high school. Abolishing organized tackle football for children means abolishing most tackle football, cutting out completely the careers of most would've-been players.
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Post by bobgoodman on Feb 13, 2017 21:50:24 GMT -6
I think it just depends on the area, but I don't see a problem with kids playing flag football up to 6th grade then strapping on some pads. I think it would build anticipation and keep kids from being burnt out. What about 6th graders & below who'll never be fast enough to play flag football or to play tackle at 7th grade & above, but who could've played a line position like center for years in an unlimited weight league?
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Post by bobgoodman on Feb 13, 2017 21:58:29 GMT -6
This may pass in New York, but no chance it even gets heard in the South. It's not going to pass in NY either. He's submitted a bill for several terms running now. Meanwhile I've moved to NJ.
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Post by CS on Feb 14, 2017 5:00:32 GMT -6
I think it just depends on the area, but I don't see a problem with kids playing flag football up to 6th grade then strapping on some pads. I think it would build anticipation and keep kids from being burnt out. What about 6th graders & below who'll never be fast enough to play flag football or to play tackle at 7th grade & above, but who could've played a line position like center for years in an unlimited weight league? How many baby Huey's do you see running up and down a bball court in peewee's that will never make the team or play as they get older? I,personally, see a lot of good future lineman playing youth bball without it being a problem. What about the kid who hates playing line in peewee quits then hits a growth spurt in middle school and is tall and receiver like, but got a bad taste in his mouth for football? We can play the "what if" game all day it really doesn't accomplish much.
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Post by bobgoodman on Feb 14, 2017 7:28:49 GMT -6
What about 6th graders & below who'll never be fast enough to play flag football or to play tackle at 7th grade & above, but who could've played a line position like center for years in an unlimited weight league? How many baby Huey's do you see running up and down a bball court in peewee's that will never make the team or play as they get older? I,personally, see a lot of good future lineman playing youth bball without it being a problem. What about the kid who hates playing line in peewee quits then hits a growth spurt in middle school and is tall and receiver like, but got a bad taste in his mouth for football? We can play the "what if" game all day it really doesn't accomplish much. Regardless of how many are Baby Huey, most people who've ever played tackle football quit before high school, for whatever reason or combination of reasons. Usually if they played, they did so for more than 1 season, so it's not that they tend to develop a bad taste for football just from playing. They sometimes do reject football because they played for a season in a bad organiz'n or under bad coaches; luck of the draw there. But most of those in that situation realize the problem, and if they had a choice of anywhere else to play football, they would.
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Post by jrk5150 on Feb 14, 2017 7:50:49 GMT -6
Personally, in my experience (of course limited to just my town and then what I see/hear about the towns around me), there are a heck of a lot more kids that play tackle who aren't athletic enough for flag or another sport than get "scared away" after trying youth football (but would have otherwise made it in HS if only they'd started later). No way to prove that of course, but when I look around, pretty much the only kids I see who are athletic and not playing in HS are those who never played football, or who were multi-sport kids (meaning soccer) and chose the other sport after playing out their time in youth. Does that "What about the kid who hates playing line in peewee quits then hits a growth spurt in middle school and is tall and receiver like, but got a bad taste in his mouth for football? " exist? Probably - I haven't seen it, but I'd be an idiot to try to say that doesn't happen. I just happen to believe - based on more experience with youth football than most of you have - that the other scenario, the kid that is helped by youth football, is FAR more common.
I'm currently coaching 8th grade travel basketball - I'm interacting regularly with the future HS basketball team, some of the most athletic kids in their class. I think maybe 4 of them (22 kids over two teams) played youth football. I've talked to maybe a dozen of the others, they either had no interest or their parents didn't let them. Will they try football in HS? I'd guess several of them will. I doubt they'll last given the track record of our HS staff, but who knows, we'll see.
Will those 4 who played continue to play in HS? The two of them that kept playing into 8th grade, probably (hopefully, one of them is the best QB prospect I've seen come through our program in 12 years). The other two dropped football in 6th and 7th grade, they just didn't like it. One of them was very good - he just decided it was too much work, that he has more fun playing basketball. That happens. He didn't get scared off - he was a good player on good teams, he just decided the grind wasn't worth it. He had flag as an option and didn't play. Maybe if he hadn't played youth he'd have tried it in HS and liked it. Who knows. You can't "make" football fun for every kid. Hopefully he comes back to the sport - he should, he's pretty good, but right now all of his focus is on basketball.
My concern - and it should be yours too - is the other 18 kids on those two basketball teams - pretty much all of them would have been very good football players. You guys should be less worried about keeping kids from playing youth football and more worried about those kids who never set foot on the field, mostly because they either never thought about it or they and their parents got spooked by it all. Because those 18 aren't going to all sign up for freshman football, and you can't blame us for that...
So let's keep score - my admittedly tiny sample is that we perhaps "scared away" 2-4 kids of the 22. That leaves 18 of the best athletes in their class who are YOUR responsibility to recruit and retain. Oh, and we had 37 8th grade kids try out for travel hoops, again all of whom were athletic enough to be good football players, and hardly any of them played even a year of youth football.
So let's see what happens from freshman to varsity, and who makes it. I'd be willing to bet that the HS staff loses a heck of a lot more of those kids than we did.
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Post by blb on Feb 14, 2017 8:17:48 GMT -6
I have never coached youth Football. Had two daughters, neither of them played.
When I was a kid, back when dinosaurs roamed the Earth, our community did not have a youth Football program. I started playing in 8th grade (Junior High).
I would have killed to start playing earlier, other than the neighborhood games we played in a vacant lot.
First, I think this politician is way overstepping his bounds and those of government. Let parents-their children make decision to play or not for themselves.
As I got into coaching, despite my wishing I could have played organized Football sooner, I came to feel that starting around 7th grade was soon enough physically.
The problem is that kids start playing Soccer so young now that many get into it and never give Football a chance.
I'm sure there are kids who play youth Football, have bad experiences, don't like the effort involved or get burned out, decide to specialize in something else - whatever.
One of the most successful HS programs in our state has had a model Flag Football program for many years.
Long-winded way of saying I don't know what the answer is except I will never discourage a kid from playing Football.
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Post by bobgoodman on Feb 14, 2017 9:09:31 GMT -6
I have never coached youth Football. Had two daughters, neither of them played. And that leads to another question: Where are girls going to get a chance to play adult-organized tackle football if not as children? It's a small-minority taste among females, so there aren't enough of them interested in playing to form girls' HS teams, and adult women's teams need a large geographic area to draw enough players, requiring long travel times for many just to practice.
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Post by jrk5150 on Feb 15, 2017 8:03:55 GMT -6
So here you go guys, hot off the presses: journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2325967116686784#pq=X2hXJCConclusion: Injury is more likely to occur in youth flag football than in youth tackle football. Severe injuries and concussions were not significantly different between leagues. Concussion was more likely to occur during games than during practice. Players in the sixth or seventh grade were more likely to suffer a concussion than were younger players. Is this the end all be all? No, of course not, it's one study. But this is also consistent with the old Mayo Clinic study that pretty much said the older the kids (into HS), the greater the rate of injuries. Every single study and metric that exists right now around youth football is that it's a safe sport, in fact safer than many others, and safer at the younger ages. By the way, some of this meshes with my anecdotal observations that concussions are a bigger issue the older they get, and I feel like there's a bump in frequency (still low) at about 11-12 years old. Which is right around when many of you advocate for them to start hitting. So let me ask - how smart is it to have a kid just learning techniques and how to hit safely at the age his risk for injury begins to increase? My personal opinion is that it's better to give them a year or two to learn it before they are at a higher risk of being hurt by it.
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center
Junior Member
Posts: 484
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Post by center on Feb 15, 2017 8:34:11 GMT -6
Are the attrition rates from youth football to high school football any worse than any other sport?
Don't most youths that start a sport eventually stop doing it before high school?
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Post by davecisar on Feb 15, 2017 10:16:28 GMT -6
Do away with football below the Freshman HS level and you just killed off the Sport. If you think for one minute that a kid that has never played football pre HS but has played all the others Sports is just going to show up out of the blue his 9th grade year...you are a fool. Youth Sports, all of them are fast becoming a specialization thing. Like it or not....agree to disagree all you want....I live it every year. Its a real thing. May as well do everything possible to keep football in the conversation regardless of what you may think otherwise. I disagree. Kids who don't play organized youth football still play football. It just won't be organized, padded football. They'll play 2 on 2, 4 on 4, or whatever in their yard or whatever patch of grass that they can find. None of my HS teammates played youth football because there was no youth football. One thing that we all had in common was that we couldn't wait to get to HS so that we could play on a real football team. P.S.: Very few of our OL played youth football. Couldn't make weight. Over 70% of youth leagues out there today are unlimited weight Most of those are unlimited weight just on the line between the tackles Pop Warner is in the minority now
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Post by davecisar on Feb 15, 2017 10:26:23 GMT -6
Ive coached youth football for over 20 years Just 2 diagnosed concussions in that time for my players If the game is coached well- concussions arent an issue We have had our helmets off for 1/2 of practice for 17 years now
Over 90% of our kids go on to play High School football because they develop a love for the game early
Which states have the HIGHEST amount of numbers % wise and support for HIGH SCHOOL football? Most would probably say Texas, Alabama, Louisiana, Florida, Tennessee Which states have the lowest participation numbers % wise- New York, Maine, Vermont Look at how THOSE states do things In Texas the kids start out VERY young
Remember we compete with other sports for players Many sports like soccer, baseball, basketball are now year round even at the youth level Then there are video games, the internet- more
Hook the kids early- they will continue to play
Equipment is not an issue-it never has been- unless your program sized you poorly
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Post by davecisar on Feb 15, 2017 10:29:50 GMT -6
As to cost MOST programs including mine turn down no one due to fees We scholarship kids every year
When I had my inner city program we had about 400 kids playing for free No youth programs are making any money off kids playing I know of no paid staff in any of the programs in our state and I know most of them High School coaches and admins get paid to coach- youth coaches do not
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Post by davecisar on Feb 15, 2017 10:55:22 GMT -6
Youth Football has become big money many places and it's not going any were. Reading this stuff is garbage. The one thing i will agree upon is there are terrible coaches out there who make us all look bad. Pay it no mind it's all hot air. Youth Football will be around longer than us nobody will leave that much money on the table mark my words. No organizations I know of have ANY paid staff at all- none Ive worked with 100s of youth football programs If you are referring to Pop Warner- the governing body of what is now less than 10% of all youth football programs- yes, they have some paid staff. They put on an event that the participants feel is worth the extra money. As to AYF- which is now bigger than Pop Warner- we pay $25 per team to be part of AYF. That gets me insurance discounts of over $1200 last year over what I could get if I was on my own. Any other fees we pay are to our league which goes to fields and refs- NONE of the league guys make a dime and the poor guys put in 100s of hours with little thanks. The fees we charge to play are less than what it costs to play baseball here and pretty close for basketball. If you add up all the individual tournament fees and travel- we would be less than wrestling. I have no idea about soccer. Our fees are much lower than what I pay to have my kids in gymnastics, swimming, dance, theatre etc etc etc
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Post by bobgoodman on Feb 15, 2017 20:49:01 GMT -6
Are the attrition rates from youth football to high school football any worse than any other sport? Don't most youths that start a sport eventually stop doing it before high school? Yes, for several reasons:
1. As they get older, children are given more responsibilities, especially academic ones. There's a tradition in this country of not teaching much in grade school; partly that's because the children's brains aren't developed enough yet, but mostly it's just tradition. In some countries it's common for children to learn several languages early. As they become more capable, they're given more non-academic responsibilities too. Overall, they have less time for recreational activities than they did when they were much younger.
2. Parents don't see as much of a need to "park" their children someplace safe for a few more hours when they hit teen ages.
3. As the children grow and become more competitive, the weaker competitors get weeded out. They become more interested in winning and less in helping their opponents win. They especially drop out of competitive games they weren't good at in favor of those they are good at.
4. As the cuteness factor fades, parents become less interested in watching their kids run around.
5. Children don't see adults in their families or neighborhoods playing children's games, so as they tend toward adulthood they want to act more like adults. That doesn't work against their playing tennis or poker, etc., but does work against their playing many other sports.
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Post by fantom on Feb 15, 2017 21:00:26 GMT -6
Are the attrition rates from youth football to high school football any worse than any other sport? Don't most youths that start a sport eventually stop doing it before high school? Yes, for several reasons:
1. As they get older, children are given more responsibilities, especially academic ones. There's a tradition in this county of not teaching much in grade school; partly that's because the children's brains aren't developed enough yet, but mostly it's just tradition. In some countries it's common for children to learn several languages early. As they become more capable, they're given more non-academic responsibilities too. Overall, they have less time for recreational activities than they did when they were much younger.
2. Parents don't see as much of a need to "park" their children someplace safe for a few more hours when they hit teen ages.
3. As the children grow and become more competitive, the weaker competitors get weeded out. They become more interested in winning and less in helping their opponents win. They especially drop out of competitive games they weren't good at in favor of those they are good at.
4. As the cuteness factor fades, parents become less interested in watching their kids run around.
5. Children don't see adults in their families or neighborhoods playing children's games, so as they tend toward adulthood they want to act more like adults. That doesn't work against their playing tennis or poker, etc., but does work against their playing many other sports.
Nope. It's because the demands are more stringent and that the competition to play at that level is much tougher.
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Post by tmtfootball on Feb 16, 2017 5:37:36 GMT -6
Good point. I have watched as a fan my grand-kids play most all of the sports and I will say this....football fans are by far the most insane Then you haven't been around wrestling parents. They make any football fan look like a saint.
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Post by bobgoodman on Feb 16, 2017 9:42:14 GMT -6
Yes, for several reasons:
1. As they get older, children are given more responsibilities, especially academic ones. There's a tradition in this county of not teaching much in grade school; partly that's because the children's brains aren't developed enough yet, but mostly it's just tradition. In some countries it's common for children to learn several languages early. As they become more capable, they're given more non-academic responsibilities too. Overall, they have less time for recreational activities than they did when they were much younger.
2. Parents don't see as much of a need to "park" their children someplace safe for a few more hours when they hit teen ages.
3. As the children grow and become more competitive, the weaker competitors get weeded out. They become more interested in winning and less in helping their opponents win. They especially drop out of competitive games they weren't good at in favor of those they are good at.
4. As the cuteness factor fades, parents become less interested in watching their kids run around.
5. Children don't see adults in their families or neighborhoods playing children's games, so as they tend toward adulthood they want to act more like adults. That doesn't work against their playing tennis or poker, etc., but does work against their playing many other sports.
Nope. It's because the demands are more stringent and that the competition to play at that level is much tougher. That was #3 above.
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Post by bobgoodman on Feb 16, 2017 9:43:24 GMT -6
Good point. I have watched as a fan my grand-kids play most all of the sports and I will say this....football fans are by far the most insane Then you haven't been around wrestling parents. They make any football fan look like a saint. I thought it was baseball and/or soccer.
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Post by Chris Clement on Feb 16, 2017 16:08:53 GMT -6
Honestly the parent stories I hear on this site are nothing by hockey parent standards.
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Post by fantom on Feb 16, 2017 18:44:35 GMT -6
Honestly the parent stories I hear on this site are nothing by hockey parent standards. Well, give us some.
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Post by Chris Clement on Feb 16, 2017 21:23:33 GMT -6
I'm not sure I can do it justice, but here goes. It came out a bit gonzo, which may actually add to the effect. Parents losing their minds over the games played by 6-15 year olds.
Parents fistfighting in the stands or parking lots, fake addresses to play for the "right" team, etc. There have been more than a few homicides, usually manslaughter after one of these brawls. Playing time in lower level houseleagues is (supposed to be) real simple. Every three minutes of running time five kids come off the ice at door A and five kids go on the ice at door B. Daddy coaches will do nutty things to get their son a little extra tick. They'll make sure he's first off the ice, which might be worth one or two shifts in a game. They'll set a screen of coaches and shuffle better players ahead. Duplicate jerseys to switch at breaks. Put a suspended player in another kid's jersey. Spend a day at any rink and you'll see stone cold sober parents go absolutely ballistic at each other. Otherwise perfectly civilized people screaming obscenities at volunteer coaches and teenaged refs. Washed up NHL goons will literally hold hockey camps to teach preteen children how to fight, including the inscrutable, unwritten, and inviolable etiquette. It's considered a smart investment, because if your son ends up a marginal player he can get farther if he's willing to goon it up
It's important to get how the socioeconomics of hockey work. It's an expensive sport by any measure. You get no economies of scale, icetime is the most expensive part of it. The team provides none of the equipment. You don't see celebrities start charitable hockey leagues for the underprivileged. Expect a lot of white collar parents heavily invested in their kids' success. Parents are used to being able to spend money to make their kids better. It works fantastically at lower levels-the kid who did summer hockey and power skating has an impossible advantage over the other kids, and youth hockey more than perhaps any other sport lends itself to the single best player dominating. These kids are invariably touted as "future stars" and the Gretzky comparisons begin. The social capital of your kid being a hockey superstar can't be understood by people who don't live in a sport monoculture. For several years you can basically buy talent for your kid. More skating lessons, carbon fibre stick, bonus tournaments, travel select teams, there's no kind it to how you can spend your money, and it works because skating is so fundamental to hockey and so difficult to do well and so hard to practice without expensive ice time that he who spends more gets better. When a parent has dropped six figures they expect a return on that investment. So when that kid turns out to be a perfectly normal, good-not-great hockey player, some turn to desperation...
Travel leagues are generally split into AAA, AA, and A categories (some areas, often rural, will have B, BB, C, etc.). Tryouts are in August just before the season, and right after parents have shelled out tens of thousands on gear, camps, whatever. A hockey team carries 18 skaters and 2 goalies. No more, often less. You can't tag along as a project and develop. You either make it or you don't. And not making the higher level means less practice, less game time, less coaching, and now you fight the stigma of not already being a AAA player. You'll never catch up. Coaches have been busted selling those "bubble spots" for as much as ten grand apiece. Other coaches trade them for favours from some of the more willing moms. These are not isolated incidents. The difference in social prestige from a AAA parent to a AA parent is enormous, and these parents live vicariously through their kids. In football there's a lot of fake addresses going around. In hockey the escalation is where the parent of a kid who's just missed the cutoff at tryouts hires a PI to follow all the other kids around to see if they can catch anyone playing out of their zone. Every organization the country (on the order of 1000) has had to do something like "suspend" parents, which has led to all kinds of very interesting legal challenges on whether their rental of the ice gives them authority over the stands or whether the city who owns the rink has the ability to bar someone from a public space. Restraining orders against parents are the new thing, since they have fewer legal loopholes, but they're very onerous for the league.
Parents have literally bought leagues. Just buy a whole club. It can be tricky because the NSO is quite strong but there's actually a pretty good outlaw league communities. Hockey Canada is the governing body, they say which organization gets which territory, but you can start your own league if you want, you just won't have their recognition, can't use their insurance, can't play against any other recognized league. Still, expect every decent-sized city to have some second-rate outlaw league going around saying whatever ridiculous {censored} about the main league in some gigantic, expensive scheme to make their kid a superstar for a brief, shining moment. Hell if their league ever actually took off their kid would be right back where he started!
The goalie racket is the worst. It's like the QB camp silliness, but they have no recourse. You have to decide on becoming a goalie by age 8 or it is too late. The "right" goalie equipment is custom fitted, so expect to buy new stuff every year as he grows. The best example is Carey Price (currently the best goalie in the world). He's from the middle of nowhere in BC but to do all the right things his dad BOUGHT AN AEROPLANE and flew him back and forth to practice three times a week, plus games. Because his little local pond league wasn't good enough.
The problem is made worse because it's an early-adopter sport. If you can't skate well by 6 you'll never be a great skater. You may become decent, even good with enough effort, but you'll never glide effortlessly around the ice. And no amount of athleticism will cover that glaring whole in your skills. Every superstar was a superstar his whole life, so parents see survivor bias and assume all kiddie superstars become grownup superstars.
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Post by fantom on Feb 16, 2017 21:59:58 GMT -6
I'm not sure I can do it justice, but here goes. It came out a bit gonzo, which may actually add to the effect. Parents losing their minds over the games played by 6-15 year olds. Parents fistfighting in the stands or parking lots, fake addresses to play for the "right" team, etc. There have been more than a few homicides, usually manslaughter after one of these brawls. Playing time in lower level houseleagues is (supposed to be) real simple. Every three minutes of running time five kids come off the ice at door A and five kids go on the ice at door B. Daddy coaches will do nutty things to get their son a little extra tick. They'll make sure he's first off the ice, which might be worth one or two shifts in a game. They'll set a screen of coaches and shuffle better players ahead. Duplicate jerseys to switch at breaks. Put a suspended player in another kid's jersey. Spend a day at any rink and you'll see stone cold sober parents go absolutely ballistic at each other. Otherwise perfectly civilized people screaming obscenities at volunteer coaches and teenaged refs. Washed up NHL goons will literally hold hockey camps to teach preteen children how to fight, including the inscrutable, unwritten, and inviolable etiquette. It's considered a smart investment, because if your son ends up a marginal player he can get farther if he's willing to goon it up It's important to get how the socioeconomics of hockey work. It's an expensive sport by any measure. You get no economies of scale, icetime is the most expensive part of it. The team provides none of the equipment. You don't see celebrities start charitable hockey leagues for the underprivileged. Expect a lot of white collar parents heavily invested in their kids' success. Parents are used to being able to spend money to make their kids better. It works fantastically at lower levels-the kid who did summer hockey and power skating has an impossible advantage over the other kids, and youth hockey more than perhaps any other sport lends itself to the single best player dominating. These kids are invariably touted as "future stars" and the Gretzky comparisons begin. The social capital of your kid being a hockey superstar can't be understood by people who don't live in a sport monoculture. For several years you can basically buy talent for your kid. More skating lessons, carbon fibre stick, bonus tournaments, travel select teams, there's no kind it to how you can spend your money, and it works because skating is so fundamental to hockey and so difficult to do well and so hard to practice without expensive ice time that he who spends more gets better. When a parent has dropped six figures they expect a return on that investment. So when that kid turns out to be a perfectly normal, good-not-great hockey player, some turn to desperation... Travel leagues are generally split into AAA, AA, and A categories (some areas, often rural, will have B, BB, C, etc.). Tryouts are in August just before the season, and right after parents have shelled out tens of thousands on gear, camps, whatever. A hockey team carries 18 skaters and 2 goalies. No more, often less. You can't tag along as a project and develop. You either make it or you don't. And not making the higher level means less practice, less game time, less coaching, and now you fight the stigma of not already being a AAA player. You'll never catch up. Coaches have been busted selling those "bubble spots" for as much as ten grand apiece. Other coaches trade them for favours from some of the more willing moms. These are not isolated incidents. The difference in social prestige from a AAA parent to a AA parent is enormous, and these parents live vicariously through their kids. In football there's a lot of fake addresses going around. In hockey the escalation is where the parent of a kid who's just missed the cutoff at tryouts hires a PI to follow all the other kids around to see if they can catch anyone playing out of their zone. Every organization the country (on the order of 1000) has had to do something like "suspend" parents, which has led to all kinds of very interesting legal challenges on whether their rental of the ice gives them authority over the stands or whether the city who owns the rink has the ability to bar someone from a public space. Restraining orders against parents are the new thing, since they have fewer legal loopholes, but they're very onerous for the league. Parents have literally bought leagues. Just buy a whole club. It can be tricky because the NSO is quite strong but there's actually a pretty good outlaw league communities. Hockey Canada is the governing body, they say which organization gets which territory, but you can start your own league if you want, you just won't have their recognition, can't use their insurance, can't play against any other recognized league. Still, expect every decent-sized city to have some second-rate outlaw league going around saying whatever ridiculous {censored} about the main league in some gigantic, expensive scheme to make their kid a superstar for a brief, shining moment. Hell if their league ever actually took off their kid would be right back where he started! The goalie racket is the worst. It's like the QB camp silliness, but they have no recourse. You have to decide on becoming a goalie by age 8 or it is too late. The "right" goalie equipment is custom fitted, so expect to buy new stuff every year as he grows. The best example is Carey Price (currently the best goalie in the world). He's from the middle of nowhere in BC but to do all the right things his dad BOUGHT AN AEROPLANE and flew him back and forth to practice three times a week, plus games. Because his little local pond league wasn't good enough. The problem is made worse because it's an early-adopter sport. If you can't skate well by 6 you'll never be a great skater. You may become decent, even good with enough effort, but you'll never glide effortlessly around the ice. And no amount of athleticism will cover that glaring whole in your skills. Every superstar was a superstar his whole life, so parents see survivor bias and assume all kiddie superstars become grownup superstars. Pretty far cry from the days when kids grew up playing on ponds.
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Post by tog on Feb 17, 2017 9:04:43 GMT -6
Do away with football below the Freshman HS level and you just killed off the Sport. If you think for one minute that a kid that has never played football pre HS but has played all the others Sports is just going to show up out of the blue his 9th grade year...you are a fool. Youth Sports, all of them are fast becoming a specialization thing. Like it or not....agree to disagree all you want....I live it every year. Its a real thing. May as well do everything possible to keep football in the conversation regardless of what you may think otherwise. I disagree. Kids who don't play organized youth football still play football. It just won't be organized, padded football. They'll play 2 on 2, 4 on 4, or whatever in their yard or whatever patch of grass that they can find. None of my HS teammates played youth football because there was no youth football. One thing that we all had in common was that we couldn't wait to get to HS so that we could play on a real football team. P.S.: Very few of our OL played youth football. Couldn't make weight. this is my thought as well I didn't play until 7th grade. Before then we played "kill whoever has the ball" on our own. Most of the time that then escalated into rock fights where it was full on every man for himself hide behind cover and then throw rocks at each other until an adult came by and told us to stop or someone got hurt bad enough that even we as ignorant little kids recognized it was time to stop and either got that hurt kid some help or ran away to avoid getting in trouble. This bill was written by someone that would have ran away instead of help.
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Post by jgordon1 on Feb 17, 2017 10:03:40 GMT -6
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Post by mahonz on Feb 17, 2017 10:23:25 GMT -6
Thanks for the Link. I have seen this with my own two eyes. Flag is not the answer if your number one concern is safety. When I coach tackle I never worry about safety outside of making sure everyone is fitted properly and playing with their heads up. When I coached flag all I did was worry, every day. I had ZERO control.
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Post by 19delta on Feb 19, 2017 8:59:41 GMT -6
We have a proposal in our district to change junior high football from a tackle to weight training and 7 on 7.
If it passes at the BOE meeting next month, I will not be surprised if the other schools we play will go to a similar program within the next couple years.
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Post by 33coach on Feb 19, 2017 13:31:00 GMT -6
I just spent the morning watching the biggest flag football league in the area play. And here are my notes from the 7th grade teams:
Offense: 1) every QB except 1 shotput the ball. No ability to throw on the run.
2) every receiver turned his back to the endzone and stopped mid route to catch the ball
3) corners locked in man had no ability to turn hips and look. Also just turned around and backpedaled with the recievers like 3-flys-up
Is that what you want your freshman crew to look like come spring? If not... Get a good youth football program going.
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Post by coachd5085 on Feb 19, 2017 13:35:56 GMT -6
I just spent the morning watching the biggest flag football league in the area play. And here are my notes from the 7th grade teams: Offense: 1) every QB except 1 shotput the ball. No ability to throw on the run. 2) every receiver turned his back to the endzone and stopped mid route to catch the ball 3) corners locked in man had no ability to turn hips and look. Also just turned around and backpedaled with the recievers like 3-flys-up Is that what you want your freshman crew to look like come spring? If not... Get a good youth football program going. I am going to be honest, I think your area is just bad at football. Flag QBs probably have to throw on the run more than tackle football qbs. Receivers not catching on the run, and db's not being fluid are technical issues, not something caused by flag vs tackle.
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