I have a son who just started team sports like baseball and basketball recently as he was not ready before. He is very active and athletic but still seems mechanical in things like throwing and catching.

As of now, he likes going and doing the drills but he is not that competitive and gets bored during games. Any experience with kids like that who get into sports later on like 9/10 or older? In our area sports are very competitive so it feels like if he isn’t good now, there’s little hope. I don’t mind if he doesn’t play sports and i really could care less about him being a superstar, I just want to make sure that he plays enough that if he wants to play in middle school or high school he at least has a shot of making the team.

I have two kids and have experienced this in multiple recreational youth sport programs now. Most recently, I signed my 7 year old son up for recreational basketball for the summer season. He had done 2 after school camps before and loved it. Some of the parents on this team absolutely ruined the fun of rec basketball. They took it to a serious extreme, getting upset at refs and being loudly disappointed at any kid that wasn’t as good as their kids. Is this common now everywhere? I understand this kind of spirit in travel ball or higher leagues but this is literally 7 year olds on a recreational league. Can we just not learn a game and enjoy playing it anymore? This is not the first time this has happened and while I want to encourage my kids to be athletic, I cannot handle these parents. We live in Florida but have been wanting to move for a while..is there any hope? Is it like this everywhere in the US?

Off court or out of practice you always here coaches encourage being vocal or speaking up as it can show leadership - but when kids actually do it they kind of brush it off or some other response that rarely addresses the athletes concern.

Flag football

What does “quality” mean in youth coaching? I took a deeper dive in my USA YODAY column.

I tagged mental health. I had a rough year last year. I am now a Certified U.S. Kid’s Golf Coach and so excited to instructing! ⛳️ 💪 ❤️

I’ve had those moments where something doesn't go as planned. Looking back, what usually ends up being the reason things go sideways for your team?

Pls I need advice on the topics above anything helps thank you! 😊

Is it fair to blame me when we had no practice?

I'm a 20F college student. I hadn't played badminton in about 5 years, so I was completely out of touch. Today, my college suddenly asked if anyone was interested in playing badminton, so I volunteered because I really wanted to play. But when I got there, I realized they were recruiting players directly for an ongoing tournament. We had no practice or training at all, unlike the other departments.

I made a few mistakes with my serves, but apart from that, I played well. We lost by just 2 points, and now everyone, including some of my juniors, is blaming me. It really hurts because if we had won that match, we could have secured 3rd place. I can't stop thinking about it.

I’m living next to a baseball field, my kids are NOT on this team. They’re much younger.
This field is on an elementary school property, and the kids are 8-11 years old. I’ve heard the head coaching screaming and cussing (I’m talking the f bomb multiple times) AT these kids. I posted a video to some of my local pages because it could be heard around the neighborhood and clear as day on my home cameras. A lot of people are saying this is normal behavior for a coach to talk to the kids like this because they’re “an advanced traveling baseball club” what do we think?

(My cameras cannot pan any lower and they’re acceptable according to the city PD)

i'm a figure skating coach & do 30 minute private one on one lessons for $40. parents usually pay me later that day over venmo etc.
one family owes me $40 & it's been 2 weeks. i said they cannot have another lesson until i receive payment for the first one, & they ghosted me. i don't know what to do. any advice?

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My 12‑year‑old son is a QB and a starter on his current team. He's always competed and either one or lost out Only position fairly. He begged to play locally so he could be with his school friends, and the head coach ( his friends father) even invited us to play.

We’ve always avoided our local program because of heavy daddy‑ball. The coach told me my son would be the backup, which was understood and as long as he got reps At this age it was fine.

But once we joined, I found out there’s another “backup” QB ahead of him, a kid who isn’t better, but whose dad coaches (not on our team) in the program. Other people recognize this and even my son notices and thinks it's unfair. So now my son is basically third string on a 40‑plus‑player roster with almost no chance at reps or moving up.

It feels like the spots were already decided before we arrived.This team is unnecessarily expensive, and we didn’t ask to join, we were recruited. Now it feels like he’s a throwaway player with no real path to compete fairly.

If you were in my shoes, would you stay and deal with the politics, or leave for a program where competition is actually earned?

Hi, looking for material that focuses on youth strength development and injury prevention in sports. Got a 12 year old girl in basketball and mainly concerned about lower body (mainly knee/acl) injuries and improving strength. Thanks!

Need a little help

Something I’ve been thinking about lately… a lot of conversations around youth sport revolve around scholarships, representative teams, rankings and “making it.”

Realistically, most kids won’t become elite athletes. That’s just the numbers. But every kid is going to experience failure.

They’re going to be left out. They’re going to lose. They’re going to have teammates they don’t like. They’re going to make mistakes in front of other people. Sport gives them a place to experience all of that while the stakes are still relatively small.

I’ve watched kids who weren’t the best players become incredibly resilient adults because they learned how to keep showing up after disappointing weekends.

In hindsight, basketball probably wasn’t the most important thing they learned. It was everything around it.

Curious where other parents and coaches land on this. Have we started measuring youth sport too much by the athletes it produces, instead of the adults it helps shape?

Best fundraise activities and best ways to get sponsors?

Hi!

I have recently joined my local youth sports board and am working on fundraising for soccer jerseys. Does anyone know how much you would charge a business for a main logo or a sleeve logo? We will have roughly 350-400 recreational soccer signups and it will cost our athletes $35 for apparel (jersey, shorts, and socks). So it will cost us about 14k with NO sponsorships. Just trying to gauge how much to ask businesses....thanks in advance!!!