High-Level Youth Sports are Expensive...

Unfortunately, most high-level youth sport programs have extraordinary costs. And this is often a disadvantage for young athletes who can't afford proper training.

Hockey, figure skating, lacrosse, soccer, dance, swimming, and other sports can cost anywhere from $500 per year to more than $10,000 per year, including travel. This is nuts and there's not a lot you can do to avoid it.

NHL blogger Alan Adams discusses this issue further in the following article: Brian Burke: Money, Parents Hinder Youth Development.

I'm a huge believer in free-form sports. You know what I mean--playing kick ball outside in the yard or meeting at the park for a pick-up soccer or basketball game. Yet at some point high-level coaching and training and organized competition is necessary for young athletes who desire to persevere and progress in a sport.

If you can't afford the costs of high-level programs, what should you do? Well, I only recommend pushing the financial limits only if your child desires to persevere. There are sponsors, scholarships, and plain good will out there. You'll have to talk to coaches, parents, local program directors to find a potential route to success.

Progressing in youth sports is not always an easy path on the pocketbook. If your child is determined, driven, talented, and bugging the hell out of you to participate in a sport, then I encourage you to search for ways to help your child succeed. Just do it!

Girls, please toughen up...

Your twelve-year-old daughter runs across the field with her arms flapping and and swinging, holds up her lacrosse stick, and misses the ball. Yikes!

I'm fired up after seeing this scenario over and over again in a real-life youth lacrosse games. Perhaps I'm wrong, but as I see it, parents are babying their daughters too long.

Dads, I know you get out there and teach your sons to run, throw, and catch a ball at very young ages. But what about your daughters? Oh, my. Are you keeping those girls in the kitchen?

Your daughters are just as capable of learning athletic form and strategies as your sons. Even at young ages, there are travel teams in soccer, softball, and other sports that available for girls or boys. And I've seen young girls demonstrate just as much talent and good form as the boys. Go, girls!

Let's face it, many of us go easier on our daughters. There is no need for twelve-year-old girls to run around a field in a beehive like a bunch of preschoolers. Girls are not any more fragile than boys.

Please encourage your daughters to participate in sports with good form and with some strategy.

Sorry that I'm ranting, but I thought some of you could use a pep talk.

Kim