Pull the plug

[west33]

What gets me is jr high coaches and varsity coaches around are worse than some of the pee-wees. So I disagree to wait to go to jr high where coaches are bad too! A lot of politics in varsity too! Just watch some games and you will see the poor coaching. So don't knock pee-wee! A lot of schools give teachers at the school 1st crack over outsiders too! Just so they can make a measley 2000 and get their retirement package up. Seen that too! Some don't know the first thing about sports and just do it for the retirement.

[knowitall]

If you can't blame the officials, blame the coaches. Give me a break.

[Colonel Mustard]

Tackle football for 3rd graders is ridiculous. 5th or 6th grade, OK, but why these schools are starting in 3rd grade, I don't get it. I haven't heard of anyone starting tackle in 1st grade, but it's probably coming. They put little girls in tutu's and put them on stage when they are still in diapers, so 1st grade tackle football is probably next.

[say_oww]

Youth football is a joke. I'm not going to spend much time on this subject other than to point out that little kids brains are programed to throw rocks, chase cats and play with lego blocks. Just because parents want to relive their football years through their kids doesn't mean it is right. Their brains are growing, their necks are little and 99% of youth coaches are there so that they can give their kid the ball every play. I believe that 7th grade is the earliest that a kid should play. For those of you who would argue that point may I point out that my father, brothers, myself and my son all played college football and none of us played a snap of tackle football until the 7th grade. Flag football is a good teaching tool but contact is out of the question. All that pee wee football does is alienate the kids. It also expands the heads of those kids and parents who are a little more developed than the rest of the pack... Just my two cents and if this offends you then you are in the 99% and you will NEVER understand it.

Excellent post! The big difference between football and other sports is the full contact aspect of the game. A brain injury at an early age is a lot worse than one in the adolescent or even teen years. I just don't get why so many guys are willing to risk their child's health for a few thrills. Any knowledgeable strength coach will tell you shouldn't lift until you can shave and that could be applied to tackle football as well.

[say_oww]

So just because u and ur family made it to a small college level not playing pee-wees means everybody should sit tight and that will work for all! Ridiculous! I will tell u more pros and college players by a landslide played pee-wee before 7th grade! lol...

One axiom that can be applied to any sport is that you don't use professionals as an example when teaching or coaching youth sports. 99% of professional athletes are there because of their God-given physical makeup and not because they started playing when they were nine years old.

[Sykotyk]

I don't think it's that youth sports sour kids on the game, but just that for a lot of kids they get burnt out. Especially if they're already singled out as 'not good enough'. We're talking kids that haven't even hit puberty yet deciding how good they are.

That can turn a lot of young kids off a sport long before they've ever reached the point of know whether they'll be good at it or not in high school.

Also, is this perverse mentality that somehow you can coach a player to be better. Fundamentals, yes. Athleticism, no. Not everyone is going to have a shot at college, even as a walk on. Most aren't going to be all-state or even all-league. They'll play to play and have fun doing it. But they're not going to become an all-pro just because someone taught them to tackle properly. Parents, mostly, seem to expect too much from the coaches.

[Manfred]

......Not to mention they expect too much from their own kids.

[WPIAL~Titan]

Fantastic post GURU.

I told my son everything you said in your post when he begged me to play youth football in elementary school. He didn't play a snap of tackle football until 7th grade, and he has been a 3 year started at a AAAA high school.

Youth football is expressly and solely for the testosterone laden fathera and the mommies who believe their 3rd grader will be the next Walter Payton or Joe Montana. It is harmful to the elementary aged kids who get hammered by clueless daddies
while being fed salt pills with no water during 2-a-days in 90f heat to "toughen" them up.

What a joke.