What's the Hurry?

I have been blessed to have become a Grandpa, or as my two youngest grandchildren call me "Papa.'' Along with the title comes certain expectations. I now have a tent swing, a candy dispensor, and a play store in our basement. Papa now has a portable basketball goal in his garage that can be adjusted to different heights.

Another aspect of being a Grand parent is attending your grandchildren's events. I have now seen soccer, T-ball, and basketball games. Viewing these events has served to only reinforce my strong feelings about youth

sports. I can't help but ask the question. What's the hurry?

During my 1st year at my last teaching and coaching position, I witnessed elementary games for grades 1-6. I was very disappointed in what I saw. I saw young boys being placed in a situation I felt they should not have been placed in. I saw coaches yelling at young men and some parents doing the same. My almost immediate response was why should these players be under this much pressure? The youngest players had almost no skills and certainly had very little understand of the game. So we changed the process. Some people did not like our new approach..

Some time ago I went to my Grandson's T-Ball game. I saw much of the same issues as I had witnessed at the elementary basketball games. The T-Ball players lacked skill, fundamentals, and understanding to play a game. These facts did not prevent parents from yelling at their child. Do young children need to experience "game" pressure at this young age?

What's the hurry to play competitive games? It seems some parents feel if they do not start their child in a sports program as soon as possible their child will fall behind. I was a head boys basketball coach and when we started our "feeder" program we did two things which you may or may not agree with. 1st, we played no

competitive 5 on 5 games vs other schools until 4th grade. We started teaching basketball skills for grades 1st through 3rd grade on Saturday mornings for 8 weeks. We also ran a week long summer camp for grades 1-3.

We wamted our youngest players to have some skills before they were exposed to actually game experiences.

It's a beautiful game morning, noon, or night!"