The Physical Movement #207: Insanity Is Defined By Recruiting 12 Year-Olds.
More and more credible sources are speaking out to stop the craziness.
We first must digest how offside some of the youth sport practices are before we can move in a better direction.
Change is needed for the physical, social and mental well being of our youth athletes.
This week in The Physical Movement, we explore the backwards nature of our youth sports structure and its impact.
A damaging mentality has crept into many youth sports.
In October of last year, TPM explored some of the new youth sport models that were emerging. They new models are emerging because we have lost our way.
If you missed it:
Somewhere along the line, our priorities have gotten messed and many have stopped to re-evaluate why they are doing what they are doing. Huge numbers of kids are getting cast aside.
Let’s start with some background and context:
Cooperstown, New York, USA (home of the baseball hall of fame) hosts one of the most popular and historic youth baseball tournaments in the world. This 12 and under tournament is where I first got wind of multiple teams bringing in young players from all over the country to play on their “elite” team. Some are flown in to play.
Sounds crazy. Read on.
Eric Cressey is the founder of Cressey Sports Performance and Director of Player Health and Performance with the NY Yankees. He has worked with youth through pro athletes for many years, and specializes in training baseball players.
Coach Cressey has spoken out on this recruiting practice for 12u and the youth elite model in general. Recently he posted on his facebook page some perspective for all of us involved.
When you read this, you might need to re-read in order to fully digest.
How insane is it that some teams in the travel baseball industry are “recruiting” 12-year-olds to play for their teams? Either they don’t understand development, or don’t care about it.
Here’s the model: recruit standout players to your program, win more games (even if it means overusing kids and sacrificing their health), and then use good players and win-loss record to recruit more players to your program. Along the way, carry bloated rosters so that full-pay families can subsidize the freebies you hand out to the best players as a recruiting tool.
At the end of the summer, you’ve got some frustrated parents and kids in the group that didn’t get innings. A lot of those kids quit baseball, and others go to other programs where they know they’ll play. But they can’t make up those lost ~4 months.
Meanwhile, the travel ball program gets a few more trophies, some good social media content, and a host of new unsuspecting prospects to prey on the next year.
It’s actually the EXACT OPPOSITE of a strong developmental model. You take loads of reps away from less-developed kids at a crucial age. Meanwhile, the better players are told how awesome they are, so many actually get comfortable and stop trying as hard. They practice less and compete more, missing out on crucial fundamentals. They get big heads instead of big skill sets.
Wild fact: over the years, we’ve had several seniors in HS who were MLB draft prospects who’d shut down from pitching in the fall of senior years. Travel ball organizations have offered them a bunch of free gear to just wear it and sit in their dugouts for marketing in Jupiter in October, but not even play.
We have big leaguer who had Tommy John surgery at age 16 and couldn’t play that summer, but a travel ball organization has his picture plastered all over their facility because he was committed to play for them – but never actually did.
The big leagues is absolutely packed with kids who were late bloomers. Puberty is the best pitching and exit velocity program of all-time, and different kids hit it at different times. Travel ball “recruiting coordinators” might be fringe talent evaluators, but they aren’t even close to casual observers to long-term athletic development because of their bias.
I’m more convinced than ever that traveling a lot for baseball before the age of 15 is a complete waste of time and money. Get your reps close to home, eat Mom’s home cooking, sleep in your own bed, train, play multiple sports, and learn to be a great teammate.
If you’re contemplating a new program, ask about their churn rate; how many kids don’t come back the following year? What are the roster sizes? When they’re showering you with sunshine, be sure to protect against downside.
Eric Cressey
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