Are helicopter parents ruining youth sports?

To the question. Put me down for a YES!! YES!! YES!!

Lets look at why, shall we?

Let's start with a definition of helicopter parent.

hel·i·cop·ter par·ent

noun
informal

plural noun: helicopter parents

1. a parent who takes an overprotective or excessive interest in the life of their child or children.

   "some college officials see all this as the behavior of an overindulged generation, raised by helicopter parents and lacking in resilience"

Now let's open the floor for debate.

from ncsasports.org via Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/NCSAsports/posts/10152924957797967

http://www.ncsasports.org/blog/2015/06/29/helicopter-sports-parents-ruining-game/

Comment from another reader:

This article is ridiculous.  Who do you think started & taught their players from the beginning!  Not a coach that uses a team as recreation or in some cases a "tax write off". The upper level competitors practices daily with a parent or specialized coach.. The so called scout or representative will ask you for 3-4 thousand  to help get your child recruited to colleges of no interest academically, location or a Juco.  Not necessary, just good common sense. I guess someone should have told Jenny Finch's dad that, he was her coach from day 1 & followed her through retirement..

 Comment from TheSlav:

Many coaches are in over their head or out of heir element and emotionally attached because it is after all their kids we're talking about. For every Jennie Finch, who I don't doubt did a great job there is a ( or maybe more like 10 ) Colby Rasmus who reportedly continues to circle even though the "kid"  is in the major leagues. That's why the article is pretty spot on. As a parent, at some point you have to learn to let go. It's healthy for both parent and child that way.

MLB.com has a riff from Rick Neuheisel talking about walking Puff Daddy or some such and his son and 20 minutes in rap star asks him "So Rick, what is it you do here? He was only the football coach at the time.

Sent from my iPhone

It appears that the effects of the phenomena called "helicopter parents" are being felt far beyond the arena of youth sports, BTW.

from pjmedia.com

http://pjmedia.com/parenting/2015/07/07/surprise-helicopter-parents-breed-anxious-kids/

Surprise! Helicopter Parents Breed Anxious Kids

By Bethany Mandel

Who would’ve thunk it? When you manage every part of a child’s life, when you never leave them alone to teach them coping skills, they become anxious adults when finally allowed a little bit of room on the leash. Slate has an interesting discussion of a new book on helicopter parenting and college-aged kids.

In 2010, psychology professor Neil Montgomery of Keene State College in New Hampshire surveyed 300 college freshmen nationwide and found that students with helicopter parents were less open to new ideas and actions and more vulnerable, anxious, and self-conscious. “[S]tudents who were given responsibility and not constantly monitored by their parents—so-called ‘free rangers’—the effects were reversed,” Montgomery’s study found. A 2011 study by Terri LeMoyne and Tom Buchanan at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga looking at more than 300 students found that students with “hovering” or “helicopter” parents are more likely to be medicated for anxiety and/or depression.

Some observations as to how we arrived at this point and in this authors opinion it has truly been a long time in the making. I agree with the first development, fear of child abductions led to a tamping down of the concept of "free play" or unsupervised play by children. That horse may have left the barn, never to return. Now if parents let kids play freely like we were allowed to the risk not only social condemnation but the risk that their kids will be abducted all right, but by another entity, the state and Child Protections Services. 

Once again, we have change. But it sure doesn't seem like change for the better. 

from Business Insider

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-rise-of-the-helicopter-parent-2015-7

Many of us remember a time when, in comparison, parents were rather uninvolved in childhood.

When a parent (usually a mom) would throw the door open on weekday afternoons and tell us, "Go out and play and be home for dinner." Our parents had no idea where we were or exactly what we were doing. There were no cell phones for keeping in touch or GPS devices for tracking.

Off we went into the wilderness of our block, our neighborhood, our town, our vacant lots, our parks, our woods, our malls. Or sometimes, we just snuck a book and sat on the back steps.

Childhood doesn't look that way today and many young parents don’t relate to childhood ever having been that way.

When, why, and how did parenting and childhood change? Even a cursory hunt yields a bounty of shifts. A number of important ones take place in the mid-1980s.

In 1983, one shift arose from the increased awareness of child abductions. The tragic 1981 abduction and murder of a young child named Adam Walsh became the made-for-television movie Adam, which was seen by a near record-setting 38 million people.

....

And a fourth shift was the creation of the playdate, circa 1984. The play-date emerged as a practical scheduling tool at a time when mothers were entering the workforce in record numbers. The combination of more parents working and the increased reliance on day care meant fewer kids were going home after school, and it was harder to find either a location or a time for play.

Once parents started scheduling play, they then began observing play, which led to involving themselves in play. Once a critical mass of parents began being involved in kids' play, leaving kids home alone became taboo, as did allowing kids to play unsupervised.

Day care for younger kids turned into organized after-school activities for older kids. Meanwhile, concerns at the turn of that decade over injury and lawsuits prompted a complete overhaul of public playgrounds nationwide. The very nature of play — which is a foundational element in the life of a developing child — began to change.

 Excerpted from "How To Raise An Adult" by Julie Lythcott-Haims, published by Henry Holt and Company, LLC. Copyright © 2015 by Julie Lythcott- Haims. All rights reserved.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/the-rise-of-the-helicopter-parent-2015-7#ixzz3fURgB055

Agree also on the point of fear of under-achievement due to our failing educational system and falling standing of our kids versus their international peers as far as education goes. 

So we have two elements of FEAR underlying our decision making and cultural shifts. What could possibly go wrong when that element is in there? It can't possibly lead to irrational decisions could it?

The focus on self-esteem is just loony IMO, but I agree it is there and a part of the problem. The whole "everybody gets a trophy" manifestation in youth sports kind of personifies the absurdity of that response. 

And fourth, the arrival of "play-dates" is just a compensation which recognizes the problem, but instead of turning back the hands of time, so to speak, which we cannot do since we have a parental partner in big government, we have to compensate in such a way that Big Brother nods his head in approval. 

What a mixed up world we live in, huh? The first step is to recognize that this is a problem and I think the people who most fit the definition don't recognize that it may be them we are talking about. But oh well, what are you going to do?

~;::::::;( )">  ¯\_( )_/¯  

Australia vying to be world champion of inactivity (Hey, what about U.S.?)

If Australia is to be the champ, it seems like they may have to go through U.S. or Canada, Ireland, Scotland and seemingly most of the so-called developed world. Mexico scores higher than the Anglo countries, so Mexico can take a bow.

Seriously though, this article highlights many of the seemingly separate issues that we have discussed on this blog regarding youth sports and physical activity/education in general, Sports Participation and (over?) Specialization specifically, Fitness, Diet and Nutrition, Childhood Obesity and Safety -- and I believe the author shows how they may be linked together. Sometimes it is hard to see the forest for the trees and just as in many other areas in our lives, it's all about trade-offs. Great article.

Children from 100 years ago were 50% more active than kids today

( H/T for Colin Twiggs from R&I (Research and Investment) Trading Diary for the link ) 

from theconversation.com
Australia vying to be world champion of inactivity:

During her two years at Bedales, Miss Bedale measured the energy expenditure and intake of the school’s students, using methods that are still considered to be gold standards today. 

Her data provide a startling contrast to our time. Children from almost 100 years ago were 50% more active than kids today. They accumulate over four hours more of physical activity and sat for three hours less than today’s kids - every day. 

'via Blog this'

The study shows what leads to our obesity epidemic: lack of activity in general, less diversity in the number of sports children participate in and the lack of free play that kids participate due to safety concerns.

In many different ways and in many different areas -- in terms of physical fitness and activity -- we are putting kids in smaller boxes -- compartmentalizing their activities -- and inhibiting their physical activity which then retards their physical growth and development.

And it's not just children whose lives have been changed. I love this part of the article:

Post-industrial malaise

The roots of inactivity go deep into the cultural and socioeconomic logic of post-industrial societies. In many ways, the whole ethos of ease now saturates our society, and efficiency is the hallmark of modernity.

Think about it this way - nobody is in the market for a labour-creating device. Sit-on mowers, leaf blowers, self-opening doors and automatic car windows, robot vacuum cleaners, sensor lighting, dishwashers and microwaves all yield daily microsavings in energy expenditure that add up to hundreds of kilojoules.

In 1900, the average American housewife spent an estimated 40 hours every week in food preparation. Today, that time is barely four hours — and it appears to have reached an absolute minimum.

"Ethos of ease". There is a catch-phrase that could definitely catch on since it crystallizes the problem simply and elegantly. "Nobody is in the market for a labor-creating device". Touche, madame.

And the food preparation number, which ties into the whole foods versus processed foods issue and it's deleterious effect on the American diet. Priceless.

---


more from theconversation.com
Australia vying to be world champion of inactivity:

Consider, the global decline in kids walking or cycling to school. In 1970, almost 70% of Australian kids walked or cycled to school. Today, this proportion is barely 25%. The trend is similar in the United Kingdom, Brazil, Switzerland, the United States and Canada.

In some ways, sports participation is going the same way. While overall yearly participation in sport is increasing, kids are playing fewer different kinds of sports. In 1985, 40% of Australian children played three or more sports every year. By 2000, only 11% of children reported playing this number of sports within the same period.

--

Free play — climbing trees in the backyard, mucking around in parks or bushland, informal ball games — is also declining.

In 1957, 12 to 14-year-old kids were asked to nominate their favourite play spaces. Four out of five boys and three out of five girls nominated outdoor spaces (parks, backyards, the local creek). When the survey was repeated in 2000, only 35% listed outdoor spaces.

In the 1960s, 83% of kids were allowed to play unsupervised in the neighbourhood. When those kids from the 1960s grew up and became parents, only 25% allowed their own children to play unsupervised in the neighbourhood.

Smaller Towns Produce More Female Athletes: Discovery News

Interesting findings from this study that strike a similar them with the results found in the Relative Age Effect stuff. As far as athletic development, it's somewhat surprising that the attention effect may put a dent in the "big fish in a small pond" knock.

This quote speaks volumes, IMO. Apparently, results follow.

"If you have early success it changes your self-concept -- you believe you have talent."
Abernethy said this belief is nurtured because the talented regional athlete is picked in all the representative teams and gets more attention from coaches.


Smaller Towns Produce More Female Athletes: Discovery News:

Dani Cooper, ABC Science Online

Hometown: Chapel Hill, N.C. | Discovery News Video

March 5, 2009 -- When it comes to developing elite female athletes size makes a difference, a team of sports scientists has found.

Smaller towns and cities produce a disproportionate share of professional sportswomen, a recent paper published in the Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport shows.

The Australian-Canadian study looked at the place of birth of all American-born female athletes playing in the Ladies Professional Golf Association and the Women's United Soccer Association.

Using U.S. Census and the sports association data, they found that about 57 percent of all female American adolescents were born in cities with a population less than 500,000.

However, almost 85 percent of professional female golfers and about 80 percent of professional female soccer players were born in these less-dense communities.

The discrepancy was even greater as the size of the cities and towns grew smaller."

While 26 percent of females were born in cities of less than 50,000 population, these same centers accounted for 38 percent of all professional female golfers and 40 percent of all professional female soccer players.

Co-author Bruce Abernethy, of the Institute of Human Performance at the University of Hong Kong, said the findings support their earlier work that found elite male athletes are also more likely to come from smaller towns and cities.

Abernethy, who is also attached to the University of Queensland's School of Human Movement Studies, said however place of birth is unlikely to be the critical factor in developing sports expertise.

Rather it is "a proxy for describing different types of developmental environments, experiences and opportunities."

Abernethy points to the virtuous circle created for talented sports people growing up in a small town.

"It is much easier to be the best 13-year-old hockey player if you are living in a town with a population in the thousands, then it is in Sydney or New York," he said.

"If you have early success it changes your self-concept -- you believe you have talent."
Abernethy said this belief is nurtured because the talented regional athlete is picked in all the representative teams and gets more attention from coaches.

Their success also encourages them to practice more, which enhances their skills.

He said an equally talented child in the city will be in the middle ranks of their sport so will not get the same attention or develop the same self-concept.

Abernethy said other environmental factors also play a role.

"Smaller communities provide an environment that allows children a greater amount of independent mobility and physical safety," he and his colleagues write.

"When coupled with an abundance of space to play, these factors may facilitate diverse types of sport participation, a characteristic associated with the acquisition of sport expertise."

Abernethy said young athletes in country areas, because of less safety concerns, are not dependent on parental supervision to practice. This allows them to undertake what he calls "deliberate play," which is unstructured play that develops innovative skills they then use in their sports.

He said in country areas young players are also more likely to play against adults at an earlier age.

As a result they have to enhance their strategic thinking as they cannot rely on physical size to help them win, he said.

Abernethy said city-based sports administrators need to think how they can "create the environments that happen more naturally in towns." This could include rethinking the age-based structure of most junior sports.

The flaw in this system is that the physically bigger players are often picked as being talented, when it is only their size that allows them to dominate.

Once they hit grade sport and play against adults, they no longer have the size advantage and have not developed the strategic skills to go on.

THE LONG ODDS OF MAKING IT AND RETURN ON INVESTMENT

I was happy to see another source detailing the chances that a typical baseball parent has for maneuvering their child from the "travel-ball/Little League/PONY ball world to the higher levels. It's clear at times that a reality check is in order.

FROM DALLASNEWS.COM:
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/spt/stories/070608dnsposcholarship1.3b76d39.html


It has often amazed me how much parents are willing to spend for the off-chance that their child will compete for a partial baseball scholarship at the NCAA level. Given that baseball is considered a minor sport, with only 13.7 scholarships available for a 25-30 man roster, well do the math. A typical player will only receive a 1/4 or a 1/3 scholarship anyway.

Some parents are willing to "invest" $10-$25,000 honing their game and getting exposure, on the off chance they will be offered a chance to play NCAA ball or get drafted to play professionally.

Given that nowadays many schools per year costs exceed that amount PER YEAR, you're laying out money you have almost no chance of ever getting back. Maybe better to put the money in a pre-paid college program and have the player walk-on, from a Return on Investment standpoint.

As referenced in the article as well, according to the Michigan High School Athletic Association, there are 30 TIMES more college scholarship dollars available for academics than athletics.


The Long Odds of Making It

Numbers from the NCAA:
BASEBALL:
High School Student-Athletes:....455,300
HS Senior Student-Athletes:......130,100

NCAA Student Athletes:...........25,700
NCAA Freshman Student-Athletes:...7,300

NCAA Student-Athletes Drafted:..........600
High School Student-Athletes Drafted:...650

% HS to NCAA..............5.6%
% NCAA to Professional...10.5%
% HS to Professional......0.5%

Far be it from me to squash any ones dream and since I do umpire and coach in both baseball and softball, to the extent the travel-ball phenomena grows up here in Illinois, I would stand to benefit every step of the way. It just seems like many parents have no idea what the landscape is at each level of play and get a rude awakening when they finally find out exactly how the game is played.

The problem is all of this romantic talk of allowing children to "pursue their dreams" too often denigrates into a "pursuit of the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow". The pot of gold may be a college scholarship or a pro contract, but it puts the kid in the unenviable position of being a commodity when all they really want or need to be doing before they are approaching adulthood is playing a game.

It is both sad and disturbing to hear nine and ten-year old girls parroting that the reason they like to play softball is because they could get a college scholarship. WHERE DOES THAT COME FROM? Not to be with their friends, or because it's fun. Because they could get a college scholarship. OK, have fun with that.

The parents who spend countless dollars on travel-ball and expensive pitching/hitting lessons and/or personal training end up going to the field with a sense of entitlement. They've paved the way for their child and are ill-prepared for the potholes in the road that occur when a call doesn't go their son's way or the coach doesn't play their Johnny over Billy. The umpire must be an idiot, doesn't he know their son is the next Ted Williams or Greg Maddux? The coach must be an imbecile, how can he not see their child's innate ability, to say nothing of the abilities bought and paid for.

This weed of entitlement then carries itself to baseball fields all the way up the line to high school ball and in some cases college baseball. But the weed begins it's growth in the youth fields of travel baseball.

The funny thing is, purely from an analysis standpoint, you would think that the more games that you are playing to determine your future, the less relative importance each individual game, each individual call, each individual coaches decision has on determining the future of Little Johnny and Little Billy. You're increasing the overall sample size from which to make a decision. If there's no future benefit to doing that, then the entire premise for playing more games falls flat.

If the coach sits Johnny one game to give Billy some AB's, Johnny's parents are all over the coach asking why Johnny the Stud is sitting. Or they sit by the fence fuming all game, making life miserable for other parents. Not to mention that they are demonstrating to Little Johnny how NOT to be a good team player.

If an umpire calls strike three on a pitch on the black, the same type parent is all over the umpire, as if that on call, that one AB will determine the kids future.

The real irony of the situation is this: even if the college or pro scout of these parents best baseball wet dreams happened to be at the game in question - and observed the situation in question - I can guarantee you from all of my experience, the scout would learn more about the kid and judge him from how he acted after the adversity happened.

Like scouts don't know that occasionally a close strike goes the pitchers way, they've only seen thousands of ballgames. They watch how the kid acts after he K's. If he keeps his head up, doesn't act out demonstrably about the call, he probably gains points in the scouts eye. More importantly would be how he responds the next AB. Did he learn anything from the previous AB? Does he make proper adjustments based on that knowledge?

It's not so much that you fail in baseball - it's a game of failure - it's a matter of how you respond to the failures that inevitably come your way.

Random Inspirational Quote:
"Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail."

JUST LET THEM PLAY PEOPLE!!! IT'S BASEBALL. GET A LITTLE PERSPECTIVE AND A CLUE.

JUST PLAY: WIFFLEBALL, HAPPY 54TH B-DAY

Happy 54th Birthday Wiffleball. One of the greatest childhood games.

http://sportsreviewmagazine.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1208



The Field and the Rules haven't changed much. You learn how to hit a variety of pitches without the threat of Little League elbow. And you learn how to hit a variety of breaking pitches and off-speed pitches just by sheer repetition.



It seems as if maybe the game is growing outside of the backyard and the playground as well. Maybe someday, we can see a National Wiffleball Tournament, perhaps on ESPN8, The Ocho? Or maybe they can just replace all the poker they've been showing. Or maybe instead of the Nathan's Hot Dog eating contest.

It seems as if Indiana is the current cradle of Wiffleball, judging by the rankings:

http://www.whiffleball.org/

Super 20 Whiffleball Teams on the Planet Earth

The World Whiffleball Commission's computer rankings of the Super 20 Whiffleball

Teams on the Planet Earth as of August 1, 2006.

1. Club Ripped; Munster, Indiana
2. Blue Ribbon Builders; South Bend, Indiana
3. Funky Plastic Offspring; Bloomington, Indiana
4. Cult West; South Bend, Indiana
5. Looney Wifflers; New Carlisle, Indiana
6. LoweRiders; Addison, Illinois
7. MILF Hunters; Mishawaka, Indiana
8. Warning Track Power; Mishawaka, Indiana
9. Wildcat Baseball; South Bend, Indiana
10. Network Design; Mishawaka, Indiana
11. Colt 45's, London, Ohio
12. Screamin' Seaman, Byron Center, Michigan
13. Balco Boys, Mishawaka, Indiana
14. South Side Crows, South Bend, Indiana
15. Swingers; St. Joseph, Michigan
16. Lombard Lightning, Lombard, Illinois
17. J.A.W.G.; Grand Rapids, Michigan
18. Monon Yankers, Olathe Kansas
19. Hayes’ Heroes; Mishawaka, Indiana
20. The Sure Things, South Bend, Indiana

Honorable Mention:
Red-Headed Stepchild, Mishawaka, Indiana, 10th Street Crime Family; Bloomington, Indiana, The Alpha Team; St. Louis, Missouri, The Crooks; South Bend, Indiana, Middlebury MudHens; Osceola, Indiana, Deuce’s Wild; Munster, Indiana, Cornbread Reds; Lawrenceville, Georgia

AWESOME GAME.

JUST PLAY: STICKBALL

Stickball, still the consummate city game, shown here being played in Harlem. Note the fancy scoreboard. And the materials are simply the end of a broomstick, minus the bristles and a "spal-deen", a pink ball about the size of a hand-ball made by Spaulding. They cost about $1 apiece, if that. No fancy gloves required and you really learn to field a pop-up or grounder with these babies.

So for less than $5 dollars, kids can have enough equipment and materials to play baseball on a daily basis. You can draw a strike-zone on the wall of almost any building that can be used as a backstop. That's' your catcher and umpire. Further disputes are settled by odds-evens shoot or force of personality, as most disputes are settled by kids on the playground.



A great picture of the greatest stickballer of all-time, Willie Mays.

Here's a web site with some history and rules of the game.
http://www.streetplay.com/stickball/

So for the life of me, I can't understand when I hear people say that economics is a barrier to entry for kids to play baseball. IT'S NOT. You needs a few friends, a broomstick and five dollars. Even for most kids today, the five dollars can't possibly be the hard part. Plus they can play this game for hours at a time without any parental supervision or interference. That would seem to remove some of what's wrong with youth sports today.

Kids were playing this game on NY city streets back when dinosaurs roamed the earth. They can certainly play it today. Step away from the X-Box once in a while.




In doing the research for this blog post, I came across this site that documents the sports programs of prominence in Harlem, NY. Note the photo of what appears to be a successful (winning) Little League program. Further below I added details about the legendary Rucker Park. The premier summer basketball league in the country.

http://web.honorscollege.cuny.edu/student-projects/neighborhoods/harlem/sports/sports.htm

A neighborhood is defined by the ways it comes together, and a common manner of achieving this has been through athletics. Few activities bring together such masses of people from diverse outlooks and unite them under a common banner, and in Harlem it has not been different. Since the formation of Harlem as a black community, the teams of the neighborhood have carried this identity with pride and proved it in sports contests. Not only have sports reflected the area’s makeup and pride, they have also ensured its continuing strength and resilience as a place of opportunity. Today many Harlem sports organizations have gained national fame and because of its unique history the neighborhood is a focal point of black pride for sport enthusiasts everywhere. The sports we chose to focus on here – baseball, basketball, and boxing – are the most historically important in knitting together Harlem’s diverse inhabitants and are also continuing to thrive in the area.

Baseball
by Ray Pettit

Location: Marcus Garvey Park (labeled as Mt. Morris Square on map)

Baseball seems like a mismatch with Harlem, as a slow game in the bustling center of change that Harlem stands for. Still, baseball has found room to survive and thrive within the neighborhood, as seen in the recent accomplishments of the Harlem Little League team. In 2002, this unheralded team reached the Little League World Series Semi-Finals, enough to not only “capture the attention and love of Harlem,” as Howie Evans said in the local Amsterdam News, but garnering national attention as well. Harlem is also home to the East Harlem Stickball League, which plays authentic stickball every summer in varying locations throughout the neighborhood. These young ballplayers and older stickballers are not the first players to be based in Harlem; the sport has an extensive history in Harlem. Two Major League Baseball teams, the Yankees and the Giants, played on the Polo Grounds along the Harlem River. The stadium has been torn down and replaced with housing, along Frederick Douglass Boulevard and 155th St. However, a plaque still exists on the exact spot that Willie Mays, a resident of Harlem, made “The Catch.” Harlem Baseball fans were not limited to these two teams though, for many Negro League teams, such as the Cuban Stars, the Black Yankees, and the Brooklyn Royal Giants (who were based in the now absent Harlem Oval on 125th St.) played in the area. From the highs of Babe Ruth on through Willie Mays and the Little League World Series team, Harlem has seen its fair share of baseball excitement, and it continues thrive.

Basketball
by Andy Lawler

Location: Rucker Park

Today when people think of basketball and Harlem, their thoughts turn to one team, namely the Harlem Globetrotters. However, the Globetrotters were actually founded in Chicago. The owner correctly assumed the name Harlem would be effective in drawing the target crowds for an all black basketball team, and his lie reveals the power Harlem had as a black sports neighborhood. The team actually based in the neighborhood was the Harlem Rens (short for Renaissance and also variously known as and descended from the Spartan Braves of Brooklyn, Spartan Five, and New York Renaissance Big Five). Not only was the team created in Harlem, but in 1923, when the Rens were formed, it became the first full-salaried, black professional basketball team under owner Robert Douglas. In the 1920s, the team and its games were an afterthought, as dual admittances with a dance at one of Harlem’s many clubs. The team grew in popularity as the game matured, and was nationally hailed until it folded in the 40s. Unsurprisingly, people continued to play basketball in Harlem and in 1946 Holcomb Rucker started a basketball tournament that has gained legendary status. Discontinued briefly, Holcomb’s son Phil has brought the tournament back on Friday’s during the summer, and EBC games are played Monday through Thursdays. Legendary players both new and old have played at this Mecca of street ball, including Julius Erving, Wilt Chamberlain, Allen Iverson, Kevin Garnett, and Stephen Marbury-just to name a few. Some lesser-known but equally important players built their reputations outside the NBA at Rucker, including players like Pee Wee Kirkland and Joe “The Destroyer” Hammond. Today Harlem is one of the most popular locations basketball players go through to establish themselves, due to its past and continuing vitality.

JUST PLAY!!! What a concept, Mother knows best after all

So we find from a study published in 2005 that kids are
not getting enough exercise (duh) but that the solution might
be easier than we've all been trying to make it.

It seems as if our Mom's have been correct all along. I remember many
times being told "just go out and play" by my Mom, probably
after we whined how there was nothing to do indoors or there was
nothing on the 3 channels of TV we were treated to back in the
day.

Of course, Mom's wisdom is always intuitive and anecdotal, not acceptable
in scientific circles until it's proven by some study or another, but one has to
wonder why it took so long for science to confirm Mom's wisdom.

And too, the climate nowadays is we've built up such a fear in parents that if they
send their kids out to play and something happens to them while they're more than 50 meters from their parents, that Big Brother will take their kids from them and label them unfit parents. Therefore, kids are virtual prisoners of their own homes.

They times they are a changin'. Just not always for the better.


Also, check out the website The Early Show , The Wide World of Youth Sports, From Little League to Travel Teams
From the Author of Little League, Big Dreams. http://earlyshow.blogspot.com/2006_07_16_earlyshow_archive.html

published by Charlie Euchner, of New Haven, Connecticut. Mr.Euchner, is author of "Little League, Big Dreams" an intimate view of the hype and hustle of the Little League World Series.

This a highly recommended reading for any youth baseball coach. Enjoy.

Charles Slavik, NSCA-CPT,*D
President, Eagle Baseball Club, LLC
Kane County, Illinois Finest Baseball & Softball Training
Phone: (813) 335-8678
EMail: theslav1959@yahoo.com

<"( );::::::;~ ~;::::::;( )">

>
> THURSDAY, July 20 (HealthDay News) -- Kids have
> energy to burn, and
> experts currently recommend that children get an
> hour per day of
> exercise to help ward off heart trouble as adults.
>
> But a new study suggests more activity may be
> needed.
>
> "Current guidelines for physical activity in
> children may underestimate
> the necessary level for maintaining good health,"
> said lead researcher
> Lars Bo Andersen, from the Norwegian School of
> Sports Science, Oslo. "We
> would suggest 90 minutes per day to prevent
> clustering of heart disease
> risk factors," he said.
>
> His team's findings are published in the July 22
> issue of The Lancet.
>
> In their study, Andersen's team selected over 1,700
> children, aged 9 or
> 15 years, from schools in Denmark, Estonia, and
> Portugal. In addition to
> measuring each child's amount of daily activity, the
> researchers also
> measured risk factors for cardiovascular disease,
> such as blood
> pressure, weight, waist circumference, insulin
> resistance (a precursor
> for diabetes), and blood cholesterol.
>
> While previous studies into childhood activity
> simply asked kids how
> much exercise they got per day, Andersen's team
> equipped children with
> accelerometers -- devices that measure everyday
> activities such as
> moderate-intensity play and walking to school.
>
> Most of the activities picked up by the
> accelerometer involve everyday
> activities and not high-intensity sports, Andersen
> noted. "If you think
> about the changes in physical activity that have
> happened over the years
> [and] which may have contributed substantially to
> the obesity epidemic,
> it is very likely that the decrease in activity is
> in mainly free
> activities," he said.
>
> After four days of monitoring, Andersen's group
> found that the combined
> risk factor score for cardiovascular disease
> decreased as physical
> activity increased. The lowest risk factor scores
> were found in the
> 9-year-olds who did 116 minutes of moderate to
> vigorous intensity
> activity and the 15-year-olds who did about 88
> minutes daily.
>
> The researchers also found a dose-response
> relationship between health
> and physical activity, meaning that ordinary play
> activities do seem to
> be important for kids' health, Andersen said.
>
> He noted that a "clustering of heart disease risk
> factors occurs even in
> healthy children, and the risk is more than three
> times higher among
> sedentary children compared to the physically
> active. We should do more
> to create a society where physical activity is a
> natural part of
> everyday living, and we should find effective
> strategies to increase the
> physical activity level among children."
>
> Simple changes in children's routine and environment
> can help, Andersen
> said.
>
> "We need to make it possible to live an active
> lifestyle, which means
> that children should play outside, they should walk
> or cycle to school,
> they should train their motor skills in school PE
> lessons," Andersen
> said. "Few parents or politicians have been aware of
> the health
> consequences of low habitual physical activity,
> because our children are
> not ill -- yet."
>
> One expert agreed that physical activity for
> children needs to be
> reinforced at school and throughout daily life.
>
> "The message here is clear: Move your body or lose
> your health," said
> Dr. David L. Katz, an associate professor of public
> health and director
> of the Prevention Research Center at Yale University
> School of Medicine
> in New Haven, Conn.
>
> Unfortunately, levels of physical activity continue
> to decline in
> industrialized countries where technology does more
> and more of what
> muscles used to do at both work and play, Katz said.
> "The trend is
> especially noteworthy for children, as competing
> demands squeeze both
> physical activity and recess out of the typical
> school day, and
> [TV/computer] screen time replaces playground or
> backyard time," he
> said.
>
> The case for ensuring that kids remain active is
> compelling, Katz said.
>
> "For example, when schools don't have time for a
> dedicated hour of
> physical education, bouts of brief activity could be
> provided in the
> classroom during each session of the day. We have
> developed just such a
> program at my lab, under the name 'ABC (activity
> bursts in the
> classroom) for Fitness,' and are currently
> evaluating its benefits," he
> noted.
>
> It seems ever more difficult for adults and children
> alike to maintain
> healthful levels of physical activity, Katz said.
> "We must find ways to
> put motion into our daily routine, and especially
> that of our children.
> Nothing less than their health, quality of life, and
> perhaps even life
> expectancy is at stake," he said.
>
> More information
>
> For more on exercise in childhood at the American
> Heart Association
>

> .
>
>
>
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> News articles are produced by HealthDayNews and are
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> For more information on health topics in the news,
> visit the
> healthfinder® health library
> .
>

http://earlyshow.blogspot.com/2006_07_16_earlyshow_archive.html

>
> Saturday, July 22, 2006
Just Play
The best thing parents can do for their kids, a new
international study says, is to show them the door.

As in: Scoot. G'wan. Play ball. Play tag or kick the
can. Anything, It doesn't matter what. Just get out of
the house and do something physical.

The study followed 1,732 9- and 15-year-olds from
Denmark, Estonia, and Portugal. Rather than relying on
the reporting of those kids and their families -- the
stadard survey technique, but very flawed since people
often overestate their good habits and understate
their bad ones -- the researchers strapped devices to
the kids' hips to monitor their activities.

"Just making sure children play outside will double
the amount of physical activity they get," says Lars
Bo Andersen, one of the authors of the study recently
published in Lancet.

Double. What social program has that kind of success?

t's as simple as that. You don't need expensive camps
and leagues. You don't need to groom your kid to be a
big leaguer. You don't need legions of coaches and
parents to instruct kids what to do. You need to get
the kids out of the house and away from the Four
Appliances of the Apocalypse -- the TV, computer,
stereo, and refrigerator.

As I investigated Little League and other youth sports
programs for my new book Little League, Big Dreams, I
found myself troubled by the supercharged environment
of kidball.

Kids start specializing in sports before they become
teenagers. Their families spend thousands of dollars
on private coaches, memberships in athletic clubs,
travel teams, even psychological counseling. Many of
the kids get very good at their sport of choice --
much better than their parents and grandparents. But
they lose out on the well-rounded experiences of
exploring different activities.

And as the uberkinder athletes get propelled forward
in big-time tournaments, the lesser athletes tend to
drop out. Experts estimate that as many as two-thirds
of all kids in organized sports leagues stop playing
in their early teen years.

The usual response to social problems in America is to
start programs. No matter what the issue -- literacy,
obesity, violence, you name it -- the impulse of
repormers is to start a program or get more funding
for government programs.

But programs don't always work -- or they work in ways
that can worsen the problem.

That's the beauty of this study. It sends the clear
message that kids just need to get out of the house,
playing ball in the street or park, swimming in the
pool or lake, running around in fields and woods.
Don't supervise the kids. Don;t organize them. Don't
tell them the rules of the games. Just get the out of
the house to play.

Sometimes physical fitness is less about training than
knocking around.

"We don't need to be getting kids running in the gym
on treadmills," Nick Cavill, a reseacher at Oxford
University, told the Associated Press. "We need to
encourage kids to play."

Even short bursts of activity can have beneficial
effects -- both physically and psychologically. Play
should be playful, not grinding work to get better at
competition. If play is fun -- if it's really play --
kids will grow up loving physical activity. And
they'll be open to trying new things.

"There's a value to five and ten-minute bouts of
activity, where kids will run for a little while and
then stop," Cavill told AP.

That's the point that almost always gets lost in youth
sports today. The adults can be so domineering -- in
positive ways as well as negative -- that kids don't
have much say over what they do and when. I happen to
think coaches have lots to teach kids, and that
organized leagues and other programs can give the kids
all kinds of new ways to enjoy sports.

But kids don't get enough opportunity to say no mas in
organized leagues and tournaments. Coaches set rules
for all aspects of their lives -- not only how hard to
practice for games, but also whether they can play
other sports, take vacations with families, mess
around in the pool.

Many coaches in the Little League World Series last
year acknowledged pressuring their kids to play beyond
their physical capacity because they were so intent on
winning. Even when the kids and their parents pleaded
for a break, the coaches pushed them. many went home
with fractures in their shoulders and elbows from
overuse. One parent told me he was taking his son out
of the local competition -- the boy is now playing
ball in a nearby town -- to get away from the
pressures of friends and neighbors.

Most people realize that Little League tournaments --
not to mention travel teams -- can push kids too hard.
The flip side is true, too. Some parents are too lax
and allow their kids to slink around the house
watching TV and plinking away at the computer.

In both cases the answer is simple: Just send the kids
outside -- and tell them not to come back until
lunchtime.

posted by Charlie Euchner at 8:07 PM 1 comments