How bad are athlete's parents?

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mywayorcyway

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I can confirm from my wrestling career that you do not get a chance for a kick out at 2....

And the lights in most gyms are quite bright

When I was a freshman in high school some friends tried to get me to go out for wrestling instead of basketball. I was north of 6' tall and weighed about a buck ten. They convinced me to grapple with the 103 lber for fun. He had me twisted into a pretzel in three seconds.

No thanks, I'll stick with hoops.
 
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NenoFone

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My pet theory is that --

We are physiologically and psychologically cavemen. Humans were hunter-gatherers for 200,000 years before being serfs/peasant farmers/slaves for roughly 12,000 years before we developed a modern economy and society ~250 years ago.

Evolution has not kept up.

When we were hunter-gatherers, athleticism, tribal oneness, and violence was the name of the game. They directly led to food, safety, survival, and reproduction.

The practical circumstances of our lives and bodies started diverging from that with the agricultural revolution around 10,000 BC and completely decoupled from that around 1700 with the industrial revolution but, again, our brains/bodies have not.

So when we have instances to let those old instincts fly... tribal loyalties, hatred for the other side, violence and blood-lust, the desire for conquest and domination, man oh man all those old, barbaric sorts of ways and thoughts come out in us.

Sports and politics are those two places where we can be cavemen again and enjoy it. And we do it enjoy it -- hating Iowa/the opposite party shoots your brain up with dopamine. We are programmed to do that, to feel that way, to hate, because feeling hatred of outsiders, fear of any unknowns, avoiding unnecessary risks, and relying on your tribe were how you survived as a hunter-gatherer. That naked ape is far from gone, however, and you can see it breaking out of our civilized veneer from time to time in moments.
Love it! I tell my girlfriend that I'm screaming at the ref not because I have anything against him(her), but because I'm getting my primal rage out. You just can't get that rage out in everyday life.
 

VeloClone

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Jan 19, 2010
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When I was a freshman in high school some friends tried to get me to go out for wrestling instead of basketball. I was north of 6' tall and weighed about a buck ten. They convinced me to grapple with the 103 lber for fun. He had me twisted into a pretzel in three seconds.

No thanks, I'll stick with hoops.
I went to elementary school in a school district that was huge in wrestling. There was one family that was all about wresting. The youngest boy was in my class and he was long and lanky. By the start of junior high he was about 6'2" and 145#. Why he followed in his brothers' footsteps and wrestled instead of playing basketball I'll never know. I moved to a different school district, but I saw that he was 6'7" by the time he graduated in a 1A school. He would have been the tallest player in the entire conference. I get doing what you grew up doing and probably love it, but he never amounted to anything on the mat - I don't think he even ever started. It was disappointing.
 

Ms3r4ISU

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When I was a freshman in high school some friends tried to get me to go out for wrestling instead of basketball. I was north of 6' tall and weighed about a buck ten. They convinced me to grapple with the 103 lber for fun. He had me twisted into a pretzel in three seconds.

No thanks, I'll stick with hoops.
So, you didn’t catch onto the joke before that?
 
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tec71

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The only thing better than emailing your kid's future high school coach is to start emailing college coaches. Be like "Coach Campbell, I was watching the game Saturday and I have a few ideas. In 8th grade we ran the single wing. I think that Brock Purdy could do some real damage on 889, and if you follow it up with 889 Buck Lateral Pass it'll be a touch down."
 

KLP630

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Sep 6, 2013
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circumstance i heard about-

girls bb coach who coached for close to 25 years was forced to resign b/c superintendents kid didn't play. supers wife started a petition to get him fired/to resign.

great coach. that program wont see near the wins/conf titles it had under him for a long time
Yes on this one for certain. Supt. and his wife unhappy over daughter's playing time and start the petition. Mind boggling for certain, shame on the school board for going along with the witch hunt as well.
 

BCClone

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Not exactly sure.
I watched my cousin's son wrestle (and he is... 11? 12?) a few weekends ago.

He wrestled a girl (and I guess they do coed at that age). Pinned her. Had her dead to rights, shoulders and mid-back on the mat, and the ref called it.

Thing was... the ref did not count it off. I am no expert when it comes to wrestling, but it is my understanding that is a courtesy but not required/expected by an official.

The girl's mom lost it. Chewed out the ref for 15 minutes.

When he eventually stopped responding, she went to the announcer and the organizer of the tournament. Kept on chewing and chewing and chewing... like having a few seconds of count would have helped when she was screwed anyways.

I sneaked by and heard a snippet of the exchange...

Organizer... "She's 11, how much does this really matter to the outcome of her life?"
Woman... "If it was your child, you would understand!"

It was around then she finally gave up. They never claimed their second-place award.

What about youth sports makes people go a little crazy?

No count required. Usually done in the 10 and under to avoid 5 second matches or headlock wins. By 5th grades skills should have started to be developed.
 
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BCClone

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Not exactly sure.
I went to elementary school in a school district that was huge in wrestling. There was one family that was all about wresting. The youngest boy was in my class and he was long and lanky. By the start of junior high he was about 6'2" and 145#. Why he followed in his brothers' footsteps and wrestled instead of playing basketball I'll never know. I moved to a different school district, but I saw that he was 6'7" by the time he graduated in a 1A school. He would have been the tallest player in the entire conference. I get doing what you grew up doing and probably love it, but he never amounted to anything on the mat - I don't think he even ever started. It was disappointing.

Had a sons friend and my son riding in a vehicle one time. He’s from a huge wrestling family. He loves basketball. I asked him what sport he will play later. He responded, wrestling. I asked why not basketball, he responded, because of my dad.
 

BCClone

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Not exactly sure.
There is a private school in my area, had a successful team sport (not want to give too many details since it just occurred) and during the season pressure started building on the coach, whole area heard rumblings about it. Come tournament time coach is gone. Turns out a large donor went in and demanded their kid should start, kid was first in and played a lot but didn’t start. AD told the coach to start the kid or else the donations will end from this person. The coach didn’t start the kid, all of a sudden the coach is canned.

Although I will also say all coaches aren’t up and up. Had one who would blatantly lie to me and was bad at it because one time he changed his story three times in a 5-10 minute span. I would ask him about what he said to me in conversations he brought up and he would look at me and say, I never said that. He routinely pulled kids out of classes to talk about issues he wanted addressed even though he had them for three hours at night and they only had that class 40 minutes in a day. He had parent meetings and would pre-condone any bad behavior he knew he or his assistant coaches would do so he felt he justified the poor behavior.
 

CyState85

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May 8, 2019
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circumstance i heard about-

girls bb coach who coached for close to 25 years was forced to resign b/c superintendents kid didn't play. supers wife started a petition to get him fired/to resign.

great coach. that program wont see near the wins/conf titles it had under him for a long time

This one is 100% true and totally unfair for the coach. Several trips to state, 450+ wins, over a dozen players went on to play collegiately, and it ends because a JV role player wasn’t getting varsity minutes.
 
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