You are walking on dangerous ground here.

"Children's Sports" are an area in America where the
psychopathology of our society/culture is most overt. The
changes over the last 20 years have been profound and not for the
better.

This appears to be a situation best handled with your hat - you
grab it and run.

While your child will not appreciate not being allowed to
participate in [over] organized sports, these involve "over
achiever" parents who expect their children to serve as proxies
for them in attaining the "success", they are failing to attain
in their jobs. Participation will almost inevitably result in
the acquisition of highly undesirable attitudes and perceptions
almost guaranteed to cause problems in their adult life, as well
as being a major PITA for you while they are at home.





On Thu, 22 Sep 2005 01:02:31 -0400, Spehro Pefhany
wrote:

Hey, guys, sorry for the OT post. I don't initiate many such threads,
hope you can be tolerant, this is the most likely group I contribute
to where folks could offer decent advice.

What is the situation like in typical Little League and similar
baseball leagues in the US and Canada? Do you have 9-year olds being
blackballed by high level people, pressure groups of parents dictating
terms to coaches (and that being tolerated by the overall management
levels, with the same people on multiple levels?).. and mediocrity
being awarded with loyalty and hard work penalized?

Little league is not very strong here in Ontario, but their list of
rules and so on looks pretty well thought out. I don't know how well
they are implemented. Presumably as America's national sport, all the
possible problems have been encountered and dealt with. Or perhaps
not. What's your opinion?

Unfortunately, the situation seems a lot murkier (unpleasant, vicious
etc.) in C*BA/S*BA. I'm just wondering if this is a function of the
level (AAA) of the sport my kid has been playing and the ambitions of
parents (and thus widespread, and something I have to deal with or get
out), or if it's a specific failure of the organizations in this
geographic area-- where hockey and soccer more dominate the landscape.

The organizational structure of these groups is on a par with pre-war
Iraq in terms of concentration of powers (and possibly some of the
personality types as well).

My knowlege in this area is quite limited- I've avoided both the
sports and most dysfunctional organizations.

Any comments, advice etc? Thanks, guys, this is really gnawing at me.



Best regards,
Spehro Pefhany