Jenn is an ambassador for MVP Health Care’s Generation Go.  This program, as I understand it, is giving her prompts for blog posts and giveaways.  Well, her post this week was regarding youth sports and tips for getting your kids involved in them.  While I left Jenn a comment and suggest you go check out her post and leave her one also, I am going to delve into this pool but into it at the deep end – not town teams but travel teams and teenagers.

 

Let me preface all of this by saying I am not being compensated at all for this post.  My experiences are my own, experienced through years of Little League, Pee Wee football and travel soccer and AAU basketball.  The last two of these involved a lot of travel and the soccer was as competitive as a league that involved teams along the Eastern seaboard.

 

Travel teams for older kids, and even leagues like Little League and Pee Wee football, are not the same as town or rec leagues.  There is  not an “everyone plays” attitude and  there are cuts.  Not everyone makes the team.  Of those who make the team, not all are guaranteed playing time.  This is a huge difference from recreational programs and from most town programs that I know.  Travel teams are in it to win and want to be an “all-star” team almost – the best of all the local area kids who play a particular sport.

 

Generally, interest in travel teams – or in a more competitive nature – comes with adult sports – the Women’s Word Cup, which is currently being played, Olympics, et cetera – being televised. Suddenly everyone wants to be a swimmer – after Michael Phelps won gold medals and Dara Torres won races – or a soccer player.  Unfortunately, not everyone is cut out for this type of play.  Competitive clubs are not around to teach skills.  The coaches run drills, not teach how to dive or dribble.

 

First, prepare your child.  If your player is not use to cuts or not playing, have a frank discussion about this possibility.  There is nothing worse to a teenager than to have Mom or Dad complaining about his or her playing time or why “their little darling” didn’t make the team.  While having you talk to them about this topic may make you and your teen uncomfortable, it beats  the alternative.

 

Second, make sure the fit is right.  Talk to other parents about the sports expertise that is needed for a specific team.

 

Third, get the right equipment.  Even in a sport as easy to equip someone for as basketball, the coach will want a certain sized ball.  If we are talking about soccer, there are a few considerations.  Are you going to require your teenager to wear a mouthguard while playing?  What about head protection?  Concussions are real possibilities in soccer and there is a headband that can be worn to help prevent such.

 

Fourth, ask questions about the coach.  What kind of training does the coach have?  On top of sport specific training, what about first aid, CPR, concussions (now called traumatic brain injury) training?  Another consideration is will an AED be available.  If so, is the coach trained to use it?  As many will tell you, an AED (automatic electronic defibrillator) does not require training but training is what makes someone think to use one.

 

I could go on and on.  Be sure you like hotels or campgrounds – whatever your preference is.  One fall we put over 13,000 miles on the car and I didn’t go to every game.  One season we drove far to almost every game because we were the “new kids” in the league.  Anyway you look at it, enjoy and try to teach your teen that when all is said and done, it is just a game.