At what age should kids sports start keeping score?

[Maeglin]

I sincerely hope that my son someday shares my indifference to competitive team sports.

[lindsaybluth]

@Spud

Apparently it was very poorly worded, but I’m still not sure how you read into it that the visit was not on their campus and it was not at our expense (it was on their campus, and it was on our dime). No, she is not a freshman, she is a sophomore (last year is when she swept most of the stats categories). She was out most of this HS season with a broken foot… but scored in all of the games she played in and will be awarded her second varsity letter. Not sure either where you think she is a defender, or a gymnast… she is a forward in soccer. Also, I apologize that I misstated that it was a D1 school this week, Johns Hopkins is a D3 school so there is no athletic money, and the coach is able to contact her whenever he wants. Many of the schools she is talking to are D1, and she has the coach’s cell numbers and as long as she calls them they are free to talk to her.

1. You didn’t state that it was on their campus, it was implied he came to you.

2. I don’t care if she “swept stats categories”. Hilariously enough, you actually confirmed what Cyberhwk said previously - that stats matter. Which, of course, you took great relish in denying.

3. I was making a joke about her size. Her size makes her sound like a gymnast.

4. Uh, yeah, being an athlete at an academically elite school is different than being an athlete which (as you implied) at an elite athletic school. It’s not exactly noteworthy to have D3 coaches talking to you. The mistake you made was* huge*. I could have done my sport at a top ten academic school, and I considered myself a “decent” athlete. I could not have done my sport at, say, Penn State. Practically polar opposites.

@Spud

Sorry, I missed the edit window. Please re-read post #57. I clearly state that she is a sophomore, and that we are travelling there for the meeting. No idea how you thought it was not at our expense. Not so sure it was poorly worded as poorly comprehended.

I was only referring to post #91, which is what I quoted. Still, the rules for sophomores are the same for freshmen.

ETA:

@Maeglin

I sincerely hope that my son someday shares my indifference to competitive team sports.

Did I miss the new baby thread? Congrats!

[Spud]

@lindsaybluth

1. You didn’t state that it was on their campus, it was implied he came to you.

“discussing her visit there later this week” How does this sound like he came to her?

@lindsaybluth

2. I don’t care if she “swept stats categories”. Hilariously enough, you actually confirmed what Cyberhwk said previously - that stats matter. Which, of course, you took great relish in denying.

“Short and small, but the top in 4 of the 6 categories (points, goals, assists, shots on goal) they keep stats for as a freshman on the varsity team. But you know what… they don’t care so much what she did on her High school team…” Exactly how do you read this as they do care about the HS stats? (I suppose I threw that in because I love to brag about my kids). Coaches haven’t commented on this… they do comment on her success in club.

@lindsaybluth

3. I was making a joke about her size. Her size makes her sound like a gymnast.

This one I’ll give you… she does fit that physical profile better… I just didn’t make the connection, nor the defender bit (she’s way too little to play D)

@lindsaybluth

4. Uh, yeah, being an athlete at an academically elite school is different than being an athlete which (as you implied) at an elite athletic school. It’s not exactly noteworthy to have D3 coaches talking to you. The mistake you made was* huge*. I could have done my sport at a top ten academic school, and I considered myself a “decent” athlete. I could not have done my sport at, say, Penn State. Practically polar opposites.

She wants to go into medical research so she is looking at a variety of schools. JHU just happened to be the one she was meeting with the week that this thread was posted so I was using real time experiences to counter the claim that there was no need to keep score until High School. As I mentioned before this is one of about 10 schools she is currently talking to (7 of which are D1). Many of which would be considered athletically elite.

@lindsaybluth

I was only referring to post #91, which is what I quoted. Still, the rules for sophomores are the same for freshmen.

ETA:

Did I miss the new baby thread? Congrats!

You are correct… where did I say otherwise? It was said that “either she is not a freshman” to which I clarified she is not… she is a sophomore.

[Maeglin]

@lindsaybluth

1)Did I miss the new baby thread? Congrats!

Thanks! He was born back in August. I have a few years before I have to worry about any of this, though.

[lindsaybluth]

You’d be surprised…get him in the room with another 6 month old and they’ll be crawl-racing. Just you wait and see

[JakeofClubs]

What I find interesting in this discussion is the the lack of middle ground but that’s the way people are. You are either all in or sitting out.

There are times when keeping score isn’t necessary, early baseball where if you waited for three outs it would take to long, early hockey where they are learning to skate, and adult pickup pond hockey are good examples. You are playing to learn, for exercise, or just the joy of the moment when you make a play. I would also contend that it isn’t entirely true that there is no harm in keeping score. If you keep score and coach it as your primary objective, you will end up using “early” developers and not the late bloomers. Because of this, early developers are challenged less and therefore develop less. A big extremely talented kid should be moved up to forced to learn the game rather than kept down to dominate his age group. I am not saying that because it is bad for the psyche of the smaller kid but because the big kid gets it too easy and doesn’t stretch. And if you only play to win in the formative years, you sit out some kids that are only ineffective because they are small now. But if you develop and encourage them and let them play in a losing effort against bigger kids, you will develop skills that will make an outstanding player when his size catches up. You could keep score and still develop them equally but once you put the score on the board it changes things, I have seen it happen. Besides, everyone playing and every coach knows who is better on the field even without the scoreboard, is it necessary to post it for kids under 8?
Bear in mind that the reasons for this are not that I don’t want to have winners or losers, rather it is a development thing. Developing better players so they can win later in life. People who say they are against competition are hypocrites. They judge. And what is judging but a form of competition? Everything is a competition and you win some and lose some. Having children lose on the playing field teaches the valuable lesson that losing isn’t the end of the world and it should make you go out and improve yourself so you will have a better chance next time. So once the kids have had a chance to learn the game a little, the score should be kept.

I just think of all the tall 6th graders that dominate in basketball or the tall 12 year old that dominates the LLWS but neither make JV in high school. It doesn’t always happen that way but it does happen quite often.