We love you JJ. Seriously. If you have a kid that plays in sports or have young kids just getting into sports I want you to heed this advice:
I can't agree more...
I've seen the many ugly sides of kids in sports in recent years... No I don't have children of my own, but friends and family do...
What you probably don't know is that for a short time when I lived in Green Bay I got involved in umpiring little league baseball. I wanted to take time to help teach young boys the rules of the game and at the same time instruct them a bit on how to play within the rules. I had to walk away from it after only 1 year because of terrible coaches parents.
I saw too many kids that were being fed garbage about how good they were. The umpires are wrong. These same kids were also in year round baseball leagues or specialized training. You could see the fatigue on the kids. It was as if the parents were living out some aspirations of their youth through their own kids! It was sick and wrong. And while I'm not saying this is every sports parent... there are a lot of them. I'm willing to bet you're thinking of someone right now...
I guess what I'm saying is... Sports are supposed to be fun. Now there are so many off season programs for specific sports and if you don't participate in them, you don't get playing time. It's not all about winning. It's about learning. Life skills of team work and following directions.
Look at the smallest kids playing soccer... no one knows what they are doing the kids all look like one giant swarm of bees following a ball around. Those kids are having the time of their life doing that! That's what sports are supposed to be for kids.
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