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Let's look at the monster jr sport has become and what people who have kids involved - are afraid to say..
What age do you start a kid in a regular sport and specialize?
I think the sooner you get a kid involved in sport the better however, the sooner you specialize in a sport is not always a good thing.
Let's look at hockey for example..
Kids start at 4 or 5 years of age, that's ok - but the kids that do nothing but hockey ( specializing ) is NOT a good thing. Parents get sucked into this bucket of goo that has become a business and not a sport. Some 5 year old kid scores 5 goals a game and the downward spiral begins.. All of a sudden the parent thinks they have the next Wayne Gretszky and the coach wants to exploit the kid with out thinking of the long term development of the child. Now the parent has joined a AAA team and - power skating Monday, dry land Tuesday, practice Wednesday, game Thursday, practice Friday, tourney sat/sun - this is a regular week and the cost of supporting this lifestyle is enormous - sometimes making a mortgage or rent payment late in order to make sure the 5 year old is not missing out and the fear that the coach will cut them if a payment is not made...That's real life!
Kids need to do a few things and parents need to get out of the rat race.
1) Kids need to skate for the season only and join a soccer or baseball team for the summer. Don't let a coach tell you that you cant have your 5 year old kid play another sport during the year cause it conflicts with the practice game schedule - He is 5 !
2) If you hope to have your kid make the big leagues you need to get rid of the attitude and thinking you have the next big one at 5 years of age. - Put your kid in multi sport environment and don't specialize till they are through puberty.
3) Join a track and field club!! make them an athlete first! every professional sport player has 1 thing in common, they are athletes!! Get your kid running and training from as young as 7, develop work ethic and fitness. Then apply this to the sport they chose.
4) When you reach high school age, the rat race begins again - some high school coaches take ownership of you and try to intimidate, don't let this happen -to some HS coached you are points only and your LTD (long term development) is not important to them..Make sure this is addressed right from the day you step into HS.
so, what does this have to do with the topic of this thread???? Simple, this scenario takes place in thousands of homes everyday and parents will almost kill to see their kid in the media ... covering Jr sports is a huge undertaking but it can create a wide variety of visitors to the site - getting to the kids is important for future subscribers but selling the parents with using their kids in a story will generate unbelievable amount of traffic over time...
I have a lot to say about jr sport but this is just a touch of the troubles that IMHO are hurting long term development in sport in Canada..
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