Our country's sports leadership better not blast the former East Germany for measuring, weighing, and analyzing their babies for future athletic prowess too much, at the risk of sounding hypercritical. In today's sports page, I read about Neiko Primus, considered by our "measuerers" to be the best FOURTH grader basketball player in the United States. It scared me and saddened me. Such is the basketball world the AAU has created for today's youngsters. My grand daughter, 14 year old Carson Guite, plays on an AAU team out of Petaluma, CA. She's good and if she continues to work in high school, could very well get a scholarship to play in college, a result that would save her parents lots of money.
But the pressure for Neiko and other youthful phenoms looks very different from my granddaughter's. The financial nature of the AAU basketball subjects kids like Neiko to a great deal of pressure in their lives, pressure that no amount of good parenting will be able to completely eliminate. And for kids with parents with poor parenting skills, the results could be tragic. Greedy parents can do a lot of damage to their children by instilling in them unrealistic expectations of athletic greatness. The let down when it happens - and it mostly does - can be devastating. It is at an older age, how much more at a young age? Fourth grade? Is this insane or what?
The reality is there's not much this blogger can do except to voice his opinion to lighten up on the young age groups. Give them a chance to climb trees or play curb baseball or ride their bikes. When should organized practices and organized games begin? How about middle school? Will this ever happen? Not a chance. Why? Because there's too much money being made off our youngsters by the people who run AAU. Kid's mental and physical health vs money. Guess what wins? It's no contest.
In the spirit of simple play and fun, no pressure, let's stay young, here's an old rhyme
Come on In Anonymous
Come on in,
The waters fine.
I'll give you
Till I count to nine.
If you're not
In by then,
Guess I'll have to
Count to ten.
1 comment:
Whether you're great at it or not there is a joy in playing basketball. The coaches and parents involved in this are replacing joy with a work ethic. They fall back on the same line stage parents always return to which is to say that "he wants this". That may be true to an extent, but has the child been given alternatives? Probably not.
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