Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) has become the new norm for young children. You may more commonly hear it referred to as "travel ball." And it's a higher level of competition than your average rec league at the local park district.
Although we are all told that sports are supposed to be all about fun, let me tell you, AAU sports are not fun. Its coaches worry way too much about winning to make themselves look good and scream at you with very little constructive criticism involved.
After playing years of competitive sports starting at a young age, I am now tired of it. I am completely done with sports and had no desire to be involved at all after high school. Kids need a break and really need to decide if they like a sport and want to make that time commitment before they start playing at an elite level. There's no longer town ball that kids are able to play with their friends because all of the "good" kids are playing travel ball.
The time commitment is so huge that they can say goodbye to friends on the weekends and very little time during the week with having so many practices and school to worry about too. This also limits kids to one sport because of the time constraint. Aside from this, A kid's athletic talent and promise at the age of 10 years old, or even 14, has nothing to do with their ability and no meaning other than they are probably taller, more muscular, and more physically developed than most kids their age.
Parents are spending thousands of dollars to travel the country with a 10-year-old to watch baseball games. This also tears kids down due to the fact that the person who is the best on the court in middle school is almost guaranteed not to be the best in high school. So what does the kid that was good in middle school and now a nobody in high school do? Quit.
The kids are being told they are the best of the best and then can't handle failure when they actually see someone who's actually at the next level. All of this travel and practice is for nothing. We can clearly see that major athletes have started their career late and have become one of the best athletes in the world.
Another thing is that it is not fair to the kids whose parents can't afford the travel ball because now recruiters get all of their kids from travel or club tournaments, not high school games. Of course, every parent's goal is to have them reach the division 1 level, but what happens after they spend all that money and then their kid doesn't want to play after high school because they're tired of it. After tons of fighting, I'm sure, we just have to hope that their parents accept it.
So let's take it back to the time when it didn't matter what team you were on at the age of 9 and it was all about having fun. I am not saying that travel ball is a bad thing because I think that it's great for high schoolers who have really figured themselves out and know a sport they want to pursue for the rest of time.
