<p>Youdontsay,
Don’t I know it! We did the baseball thing for years (both kids played). Starting in the 4th and 5th grades, Little League was not good enough- you “had” to do the AAU, comp teams, summer leagues, elite teams, showcases, not to mention lessons on the side and summer camps at universities. It really got to be ridiculous. Most of the kids who did all these things didn’t get any further than those who didn’t- although their parents (usually dad) would make sure the varsity coaches all knew that their son was involved on all those extra teams, to make them look better. The worst experience we had was when a couple parents on our son’s school team decided to increase their kids’ chances of playing by starting a smear campaign against some of the other players and their parents. It really got ugly. Now that we’re done, I realize what an emotional toll all that took on us. It’s hard for Johnny to compete with Billy when there’s another game of politics going on in the background that he’s completely unaware of.</p>
<p>OK, end of rant, sorry to get off track.</p>
<p>(Oh, we did have our son take a handful of pitching lessons when the coach started having him pitch. We were told he was doing some things incorrectly and would blow his arm out if he didn’t fix the problems.)</p>