Parents Little League Game Brawl in Colorado

[throwittoblythe]

I recently got really into rock climbing and there are some young kids who are extremely good at the gym I climb at. I actually end up climbing with some of them as we share tips on how to solve problems. I think it's probably a lot more healthy for the mind and body than some of the youth sports competition. There are "leagues" and "teams" but it's much more you vs the wall or you vs the mountain. It's also much better exercise than every sport I've ever played except wrestling which is very similar in terms of the total body muscles used and stamina required. Every one of these kids age 8-18 I see climbing is in incredible shape like an elite wrestler would be and they got that way just by climbing around having fun challenging themselves.

Friends of ours own and operate a Ninja Warrior gym here in MSP. The wife has been on the show multiple times. They have a kids league as well. Seems like its just as good as other youth sports. It's similar to running track in that it's about individual performance but it gets rolled up into a team competition. Those kids are all very functionally strong and fit.

 

[HFCS]

Friends of ours own and operate a Ninja Warrior gym here in MSP. The wife has been on the show multiple times. They have a kids league as well. Seems like its just as good as other youth sports. It's similar to running track in that it's about individual performance but it gets rolled up into a team competition. Those kids are all very functionally strong and fit.

My climbing gym is very urban and mostly adults 20-30...I'm an old man there at 40.

I have wondered if I were in a suburban climbing gym if the kids climbing there would be more like typical youth sports with teams and helicopter parents. The kids I see climbing, and even sometimes work on figuring out problems with, are just really having fun competing against nobody but themselves and getting in great shape. It's one of the few sports where kids aren't necessarily worse than adults in their 20s and 30s. I love baseball but one afternoon of climbing could be better exercise than a month of baseball.

 

[Cyclone.TV]

The kids playing were 7. A 13 year old can handle a game of that nature.

Not the parents, however. Not saying they shouldn't have 13 year olds do it, but supervision needs to be close by to help if parents are causing issues.

 

[Cyfan1965]

I hate to to do it to the kids but if the parents know if they cause stupid trouble like this their kids team can be banned for the year.

We had similar problems at a basketball league for 6th graders. When they had to have security for some of the parents we decided to quit the league.

 

[Walden4Prez]

My favorite are the loud mouths yelling at umps that don't know the rules. Had an old guy absolutely jump up and down and scream that a girl had struck out when she was running to first. She did, but it was a dropped third strike.

Guy didn't let it go until the end of the inning. As I walked back to the dugout from my 1st base coaching spot I mentioned to him that we play dropped 3rd strike in 12U softball. He and apparently the entire bleacher area on his side were unaware.

 

[madguy30]

I recently got really into rock climbing and there are some young kids who are extremely good at the gym I climb at. I actually end up climbing with some of them as we share tips on how to solve problems. I think it's probably a lot more healthy for the mind and body than some of the youth sports competition. There are "leagues" and "teams" but it's much more you vs the wall or you vs the mountain. It's also much better exercise than every sport I've ever played except wrestling which is very similar in terms of the total body muscles used and stamina required. Every one of these kids age 8-18 I see climbing is in incredible shape like an elite wrestler would be and they got that way just by climbing around having fun challenging themselves.

Really great stuff here. I'm not a climber but it's something that requires patience, problem solving (like you said) and collaboration and in my limited experience celebrations of actual achievements that fit the individual. I'm sure there's stuff that's more competitive but there's also something empowering about someone making the decision on how far they want to go and I think that's a general theme in the activity.

Exercise wise that's also core strength which is (sadly) a big deal vs. the trends in obesity and sedentary behaviors.

 

[HFCS]

My favorite are the loud mouths yelling at umps that don't know the rules. Had an old guy absolutely jump up and down and scream that a girl had struck out when she was running to first. She did, but it was a dropped third strike.

Guy didn't let it go until the end of the inning. As I walked back to the dugout from my 1st base coaching spot I mentioned to him that we play dropped 3rd strike in 12U softball. He and apparently the entire bleacher area on his side were unaware.

I actually feel for the 13 year old umpire. I officiated a few wrestling tournaments as a high school kid and in college. Even in college I'm sure I looked like a 13 year old to the parents. It was hard for me not to go up to some of them after a match and explain the rules.

Who knows, maybe this young umpire lives and breaths baseball. I was certainly an expert on the rules of my sport at 13. More than I am now actually.

 

[IASTATE07]

Not the parents, however. Not saying they shouldn't have 13 year olds do it, but supervision needs to be close by to help if parents are causing issues.

Who says there wasn't a league official there? Things could have escalated quickly regardless of who was umping. Adults need to be adults.

 

[HFCS]

Really great stuff here. I'm not a climber but it's something that requires patience, problem solving (like you said) and collaboration and in my limited experience celebrations of actual achievements that fit the individual. I'm sure there's stuff that's more competitive but there's also something empowering about someone making the decision on how far they want to go and I think that's a general theme in the activity.

Exercise wise that's also core strength which is (sadly) a big deal vs. the trends in obesity and sedentary behaviors.

The first time I climbed something with inversion where I was hanging under the wall I practically fell over when I got back on the ground because my abs were so tired.

I definitely look at the kids around my gym and think it would have been pretty awesome to do as a kid (indoor climbing barely existed when I was a kid and didn't have any mountains). It would be incredible cross training for a serious football player or wrestler too.

There's also something great about sports where officials or judges or even direct competitors aren't so important. I'm not really a golfer but I've always loved watching the US Open where a tough course is really the main challenge and the judge.

 

[VeloClone]

We had an experience just Tuesday night. My daughter's soccer team (U-14) was playing a team that included two of her friends and former teammates. It was a pretty physical game with some pretty hard clean shoulder to shoulder contact and some fouls that were across the line - some of them called and some of them not. Both of my daughter's friends on the other team are really big girls and both had their share of rough contact including some fouls that were and some that weren't called. The teenage (~17) center was doing a fairly good job. With about 2 minutes left in a 4-0 game the other coach went ballistic about a sideline foul that was called on one of our players - apparently he wanted a yellow card for it. It wasn't even the most egregious foul of the game. He started yelling at the center and then started yelling at my daughter's coach for "encouraging that kind of rough play". Unfortunately our coach calmly engaged with him after about a minute of the other coach going ballistic and yelling at both coach and center. When the game ended our coach started to go to the other goal for the handshake line when their coach stepped in front of him and started yelling in his face and jabbing his finger a few inches from his face. Finally our coach walked away but I thought the other coach was going to start throwing punches.

I wish our coach would have just ignored him but when a coach starts talking smack about one of your players it is hard to not stand up for you player. I have been in that situation before. The center probably should have blown her whistle and warned both coaches when it got to them going back and forth but I get her reluctance when their coach has 12 inches and 100 pounds on her and clearly has a temper.

To their credit, neither fan base engaged at all. It could have gotten stupid if any of the fans had done or said anything to escalate the situation. That coach wouldn't have needed much egging on to get really stupid.

 

[HFCS]

I get this, but honestly the thing my oldest especially enjoys about sports is the competition. If you remove the direct competition against other people he wouldn't care at all.

Yeah I was the same way as a kid. I'm not sure I even liked wrestling yet it was my entire life at times growing up, not from any coach or parent pushing me but pushing myself. There are lessons to be learned competing against others but there's a different type of equally valuable lesson to be learned challenging yourself.

 

[thatguy]

 

[Tornado man]

Who says there wasn't a league official there? Things could have escalated quickly regardless of who was umping. Adults need to be adults.

Very true. Many supervisors or others in authority are very timid in directly confronting or addressing abusive fans.

 

[cyclonpediaJoe]

My parents always sided with the authority figure when I was a kid. Be it a ref, coach, teacher etc.

“Well, what did you do?”

Even through high school, if we would have argued with the ump, we would be sitting.

 

[VeloClone]

Very true. Many supervisors or others in authority are very timid in directly confronting or addressing abusive fans.

When my daughter started reffing the parents were encouraged to go and support our young refs. They said that we needed to refrain from ever engaging or saying anything when people were getting out of line but to instead just document any way over the line behavior. Just let the refs on the field deal with it. That can be tough when you see a 230 lb., 30 something "man" constantly berating your 14 year old girl.

 

[JMA1125]

My kids reffed youth rec soccer while they were in middle school. There was only one time my son had a small problem, and that was when a parent was making some snide comments to him during a 10U game. The parent spent more time riding his own kid (poor kid). I was at that game and was keeping a close eye on the situation. My son handled it well.

If you’re ever at a game please take a moment to thank the ump/ref or tell them good job. It’s really rare to hear that and it goes a long way.

My son also plays 15U USSSA baseball. What I’ve seen recently is kids yelling back at their parents. I’ve heard dads yellling at boys to do this or that or about a mistake and the boys yell back at their dads to shut up!!

As for me, I limit all comments to “Let’s go” and “Nice job”.

 

[madguy30]

I get this, but honestly the thing my oldest especially enjoys about sports is the competition. If you remove the direct competition against other people he wouldn't care at all.

Yeah I was the same way as a kid. I'm not sure I even liked wrestling yet it was my entire life at times growing up, not from any coach or parent pushing me but pushing myself. There are lessons to be learned competing against others but there's a different type of equally valuable lesson to be learned challenging yourself.

It's a fine line and really comes down to having multiple experiences but not going overboard. The teamwork and competition is good, but there's also the internal part of it. If done right, both can teach how to compete and succeed with others but also cope when things don't work out.

And some just can't get through the competitive part of it no matter what they're doing. I'm a fisherman and I have colleagues that I can talk fishing with, but I wouldn't fish with them because I know they'd make it a competition and ruin the experience.

 

[harimad]

My nephew has played travel ball the last 4 or 5 years. I've yet to see anything like what I've seen at the local little league that he played in and I coach in. I'm not saying it doesn't happen at travel ball, but from my experience it has been more relaxed at USSSA than Little League.

Daughter is a first-year 16U softball player. In my experience, these parents are weeded out early on. The craziness that I saw at 10U began to disappear at 12U and is completely gone at 16U. Teams will cut a girl because of her parents.

 

[BillBrasky4Cy]

I umped behind the plate for all of my son's 8U Little League games this year. The format is kid pitch with coach relief so their are no walks. My goal calling the game was to get the boys to swing the bat because most coach's would basically come in and feed the kids soft toss which teaches them absolutely nothing. I would talk to the coaches on the other team prior to every game and basically let them know that the strike zone is going to be big and the boys need to swing. The number of parents heckling me was absolutely ridiculous. I even had to turn around a few times and point to the word VOLUNTEER on my coaches badge.

 

[BillBrasky4Cy]

IMO the privatization side of youth sports has caused a lot of this. Anytime money comes into play all rationality tends to go out the window.