This Summer if you are a teenager in Sanger, TX you have no excuse for being bored. Yep here's what we have to offer.
Champions Camp (6 weeks long), Girls Basketball Camp (1 week long), Boys Basketball Camp (1 week long), Volleyball Camp (1 week long), Football Camp (1 week long), Cheerleading Camp (1 week long), Choir camp (1 week long), etc, etc. etc.
Remember when sports were played during the school year? Remember when your summers were filled with watching Bob Ross paint pictures and wishing you could drive. Summers were packed with late nights of playing Mario Brothers and if you were lucky a trip to the city pool (I was never so lucky). But now all we offer kids is a relentless barrage of sports camps often overlapping and typically very expensive. How do we get by with this unsanctioned "off-season" training anyway?
But here is my question. With the addition of ALL these sports camps intended to train the atheletes in skill, speed, and performance... WHY ARE WE NOT SEEING MORE STARS ARISE?
Think about it, I don't see any more amazing athletes coming out of our high schools than I did 10-15 years ago. You would think that as much as we push our kids to excel in sports that we would see a drastic influx of gifted ball players and talented speed demons. But the output is relatively the same as it has been.
Do you see it as an advantage? Cause I sure don't.
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Husband to 1 wife, daddy to 4 kids, ravenous consumer of peanut butter.
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8 comments:
I do not understand the sports camps being so important. If they are just fun camps for kids who want to play a certain sport during summer, that's cool. Don't get me started on travel teams. What is with these being pushed on kids and parents. Who is benefiting from kids traveling long distnces to play sports.
I might have more to say about the whole issue if I wasn't so disturbed by that photo. I think I'm going to be sick.
A. Is that picture for real?
B. Didn't you stir up a giant controversy the last time you talked about little league?
C. Will you never learn, man?
A) As far as the picture goes... I'm not sure if it's real or not. I should hope not. But you never know.
B) Yes, I did stir up a controversy... One that was not adequately resolved in my mind. I just don't get it. Someone please give me ONE good reason for having non stop summer sports and camps.
C) No
That guy looks like he has a flower around his neck. thats sick out!
ps im down the the sports camps and such because it means less kids at the day care! whoop!
okay kidding but really so many camps. i have one kid at boy scouts camp, one at basketball, 7 at football, and so on. its crazy. and i have a 10 year old that has a cell phone. i know that doesnt relate to the subject but really??? what 10 year old needs a cell phone? they dont go anywhere without their parents or some adult present. or at least they shouldnt. gah.
I am by no means looking to stir up controversy. My guys are in baseball camp this week. Here is how we put it to them. "Guys, do yall want to go to this baseball camp?"
Their reply was like this;
"Are you kidding? YES!!!"
After picking them up yesterday, they loved it and could not wait to get back this morning.
One family we have met this year in baseball will be attending church with us this coming Father's Day sunday.
It's all good in my opinion.
Also, this will be the only camp they will be attending this summer that I know of. I have not pushed baseball on either of my guys. I ask them if they would like to play and they decide for themselves. I like the things they learn, especially this year, from being part of a team.
It will not bother me in the least if they come to me one day and say that they really don't want to play any more.
Thanks Oldfart... This post was not so much about parents pushing (or not pushing) their kids to do sports. I tried that already and it didn't work.
This post was more about the schools and their subtle suggestions of camp attendance. I hear from students how they are "highly encouraged" to attend these camps. I find it difficult to understand how school districts can get away with these sorts of coach-led summer events anyways but beyond that the basic mentality is "If you want to play in the Fall, then you better show up this summer."
Granted it's only 2-3 hours a day and usually in the mornings. True these camps offer exercise and training that the normal student would not get watching TV and texting, however simply because these camps are daily and multiple weeks long they fight their way into other schedules like family vacations, youth camps, summer jobs, and other extracurricular activities.
but let's put all that aside....
What I'm saying is that the school districts are claiming these camps are good because they build better athletes. I disagree. I just don't see a larger number of All-Stars coming out of our sports programs like you would expect from year round, age 2-18 type sports programs. It seems that those who are naturally gifted athletes are going to rise above the rest regardless of whether they started T-Ball at age 2 or attended every day of the summer camps.
Make sense?
Oh and Robert, for the reason for having the non stop summer camps, I can only think of this:
My wife and I both work. I don't know if we are trying to live beyond our means or not, but with the price of gas the way it is now, we are barely making it and that is after cutting out about everything but food.
Our daughter is just now old enough to be responsible enough to stay home with the two nine year olds. She is 14 and so far has done pretty well with it all. I understand that this may not seem fair to her, yet it is a good way for her to be able to establish some resposibility that many of today's kids have no clue about and came from homes with a parent at the helm. I could name a dozen.
Weekly rates at the local Camp Lion, a summer retreat so to speak for kids with working parents, They play games, have different activities and such, and is Christian based, runs $75.00 per week. Thats $150.00 a week for us which actually turns out to be roughly $600.00 a month. We can't do it. I am not looking for sympathy here. The baseball camp costs $55.00 per person a week and only runs for a week. So we saved $40.00 total this week. Actually the bottom dropped out of the sky today and they are at home with sis. We needed this rain.
Maybe its a good child care alternative. As long as the guys are having fun, I am pretty much happy. I would love to stay home, as would my wife, and raise our kids on a day to day basis but there is just no way. I am fortuante enough to have a job that allows me to run check on everybody if I need to. I usually head to the house for lunch anyway and check up on how chores are being done and what not.
There is that horrible word. Chores. I love em.
I would entertain thoughts or ideas yall may have.
Sorry Robert, I did not get to read your reply before my last comment. I had no clue that schools were doing this. I can see your point now..
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