Is swimming "eating its young?" Are they being burned out with mindless yardage? Do they have to do volume training for long events? Are we missing masters swimmers who were burned out as youths? As to the kids, what can we do to stop the cannabalism?
Parents
Former Member
This post has really made me sad. The emphasis today on organized sports is way off base. What I don't see today is kids just playing for the sake of having fun. When we were kids, we would come home after school and "go out and play". I loved playing softball as a kid. We would play for hours without adults, referees, umpires. We played a game of baseball/stickball sometimes with just two people, a pitcher and batter. We played it in the school playground between two three storey brick buildings of the school. A single was below the line on the wall, a double was above the first floor windows, a triple was above the second floor windows etc. It was not only fun, but we were practicing and honing our throwing and catching and batting skills.
glenn,
thank you for the stick ball memories! i was a street urchin (no organized sports until i joined the swim team in high school). i like to think that the kids i grew up with are none the worse for the lack of organized sports. i do love my swim time now!
This post has really made me sad. The emphasis today on organized sports is way off base. What I don't see today is kids just playing for the sake of having fun. When we were kids, we would come home after school and "go out and play". I loved playing softball as a kid. We would play for hours without adults, referees, umpires. We played a game of baseball/stickball sometimes with just two people, a pitcher and batter. We played it in the school playground between two three storey brick buildings of the school. A single was below the line on the wall, a double was above the first floor windows, a triple was above the second floor windows etc. It was not only fun, but we were practicing and honing our throwing and catching and batting skills.
glenn,
thank you for the stick ball memories! i was a street urchin (no organized sports until i joined the swim team in high school). i like to think that the kids i grew up with are none the worse for the lack of organized sports. i do love my swim time now!
