Foley's Friday Mailbag for 5/19/17

[Tom McAndrew]

The first 3 questions are about Penn State: 1) how can they afford all the talent, 2) is their level of dominance good for the sport, and 3) what % of commits eventually defect from Penn State

For those keeping track, this is week 33, and despite promises he tweeted, no response to Flo's article about Olympic reffing corruption from Foley.

You can read this week's Mailbag at THIS LINK.

 

[Dogwelder]

"There are fewer and fewer casual high school wrestlers."

That is sad. I wonder what's causing it. College admissions criteria? (Are colleges only interested in high achievements?) I'm gonna read up on this phenomenon, starting with the essay that someone linked in the Talkbacks.

 

[tikk10]

If there's any identifiable consistency with Foley it's that each week he comments on current topic debates whose parameters (the pro/con arguments) are public and known to most people who pay attention to wrestling media, a group which I'm increasingly convinced doesn't include Foley, despite his fairly active Twitter account. And he even admits as much occasionally, suggesting that he's not followed x topic in a while, or used to attend y but no longer. Often all it would take to school himself is ten minutes of Googling which he can't be bothered with.

So I don't get why people keep writing to him (or for that matter even why he gets his own topic heading here for every weekly column--everyone here seems to despise him; Tom?). I do find him interesting from time to time and I don't question his love of the sport, but he's a lazy writer who too often can't be bothered to try. When he does have an interesting point (like the opening piece on casual HS wrestlers), I don't necessarily trust whatever factual basis he's citing. Like Tom Friedman he seems prone to spin anecdotes into data.

Today he feigns expertise about Penn State's scholarship situation, which has been discussed ad nauseam on comment boards and has even addressed directly by Cael, stating that guys have taken less to wrestle at PSU. And though he does find an interesting way to make a similar point, if he was actually informed he'd probably have mentioned that Cael has addressed it head-on and work out from there.

 

[RandyL]

excellent observation re Tom Friedman.

 

[Dogwelder]

"There are fewer and fewer casual high school wrestlers."

That is sad. I wonder what's causing it. College admissions criteria? (Are colleges only interested in high achievements?) I'm gonna read up on this phenomenon, starting with the essay that someone linked in the Talkbacks.

I found one article about early specialization in sports that summarizes the causes: [text in brackets are my comments]

"ROOTS OF [early] SPECIALIZATION
Perceptions of the East [Americans notice that Eastern Europe sports programs start young]
Getting Ahead [Parents want an edge in sports results, in school admissions, in economic benefits]
Labeling [Kids get labeled as talented]
Pursuit of Scholarships [Families chase scholarships, despite low odds]
Pursuit of Professional Contracts [A very small but visible percentage go from high school to pros]
Sporting Goods Industry [The training/industrial complex advertises]
Expertise Research ['deliberate practice', '10,000 hours', …] "

(from: http://nyshsi.org/wp-content/upload..._Youth_Sports_in_Society-Malina-CSMR-2010.pdf )

BTW, it's not that I had never heard about early specialization before Foley mentioned it. It's just that I can never remember the reasons I read for why it's happening NOW and not before. I suppose the culture is simply evolving due to, I'm guessing, economic anxiety, college-admissions anxiety, greater resources and attention to parenting, greater media exposure of what can be done and what others are doing, and ???

 

[hlstone]

If there's any identifiable consistency with Foley it's that each week he comments on current topic debates whose parameters (the pro/con arguments) are public and known to most people who pay attention to wrestling media, a group which I'm increasingly convinced doesn't include Foley, despite his fairly active Twitter account. And he even admits as much occasionally, suggesting that he's not followed x topic in a while, or used to attend y but no longer. Often all it would take to school himself is ten minutes of Googling which he can't be bothered with.

So I don't get why people keep writing to him (or for that matter even why he gets his own topic heading here for every weekly column--everyone here seems to despise him; Tom?). I do find him interesting from time to time and I don't question his love of the sport, but he's a lazy writer who too often can't be bothered to try. When he does have an interesting point (like the opening piece on casual HS wrestlers), I don't necessarily trust whatever factual basis he's citing. Like Tom Friedman he seems prone to spin anecdotes into data.

Today he feigns expertise about Penn State's scholarship situation, which has been discussed ad nauseam on comment boards and has even addressed directly by Cael, stating that guys have taken less to wrestle at PSU. And though he does find an interesting way to make a similar point, if he was actually informed he'd probably have mentioned that Cael has addressed it head-on and work out from there.

My kid is a really good student/athlete. She has visited over 15 Universities at the age of 12. She will visit 3 more this summer. She only wants to attend PSU. It is her dream and I would pay any amount of money to have her attend the School she wants to attend.

Just so you know, we travel a lot and do not contact coaches. I just like to show the kid around college life.

 

[PSU James]

IS it good for parity in college wrestling?--absolutely no.

IS it good for wrestling overall? HELL YA.

Many people outside the wrestling world know Jordan Burroughs and Kyle Snyder from world and Olympic championships.

If we can get the best wrestlers in one room for 4 years TOGETHER and even more in the NLWC, USA wrestling will be that much better off. USA WILL win more olympic golds and more world medals. People will be drawn to the sport....kids will start following more and more. Maybe even wear t shirts with David Taylor, or MARK Hall, Jason Nolf......perhaps even one with Willie wearing is headgear.

Wrestling is better off overall when the best sharpen the best. IN MY OPINION.

 

[psualt]

I found one article about early specialization in sports that summarizes the causes: [text in brackets are my comments]

"ROOTS OF [early] SPECIALIZATION
Perceptions of the East [Americans notice that Eastern Europe sports programs start young]
Getting Ahead [Parents want an edge in sports results, in school admissions, in economic benefits]
Labeling [Kids get labeled as talented]
Pursuit of Scholarships [Families chase scholarships, despite low odds]
Pursuit of Professional Contracts [A very small but visible percentage go from high school to pros]
Sporting Goods Industry [The training/industrial complex advertises]
Expertise Research ['deliberate practice', '10,000 hours', …] "

(from: http://nyshsi.org/wp-content/upload..._Youth_Sports_in_Society-Malina-CSMR-2010.pdf )

BTW, it's not that I had never heard about early specialization before Foley mentioned it. It's just that I can never remember the reasons I read for why it's happening NOW and not before. I suppose the culture is simply evolving due to, I'm guessing, economic anxiety, college-admissions anxiety, greater resources and attention to parenting, greater media exposure of what can be done and what others are doing, and ???

These studies always seem to skirt one of the other major issues....many coaches do not want their kids playing other sports. A lot of coaches give lip service to the multi sport athlete. The wrestler, who often makes a very good football player, is often not given a fair shake by the football coach, for what he sees as a lack of commitment. Often, they just want guys to get bigger. The baseball coach doesn't like that his team starts practicing on February 1 and the wrestler may be a no show till early to mid March. It happens all the time. Pretty soon that wrestler realizes he'll get more bang for his buck by concentrating on the sport he loves full time. Smaller schools seem to get it since they have a limited number of athletes.

 

[Tom McAndrew]

These studies always seem to skirt one of the other major issues....many coaches do not want their kids playing other sports. ... Smaller schools seem to get it since they have a limited number of athletes.

You're correct, to a degree. The high school coaches usually work with each other, and try to accommodate multi-sport athletes. In addition, the high school sports governing bodies of most states have established schedules of when official practices can take place for each sport which eliminate most of the conflicts, unless an athlete/their team goes really far in the state playoffs in a fall or winter sport. (And disregarding the spring football practice schedule, which has only been around in the past decade in PA.)

I think you would be more accurate if you pointed at the coaches of travel/tournament teams. Many of them try to start specialization at a pretty early age, in part because their teams get involved in a year-round schedule. Another motivation for these coaches is that their teams earn a national ranking based on how they do in every competition, and many tournaments will only invite/accept teams that are above a certain ranking. Wrestling has some unique aspects to it, in that it's more of an individual sport than a team sport, and there are competitions in both folk and freestyle outside of the traditional school competition timeframe.

Wes Phipps was one of the only recent wrestlers at PSU that had not specialized in wrestling. He was a 3-sport star, and the expectations of many fans, and also stated by Willie after he verballed, was that he had a lot of talent that would be refined when he focused solely on wrestling. Alas, injuries, more so than his lack of specialization, was the biggest obstacle he encountered while at PSU.

 

[Tom McAndrew]

If there's any identifiable consistency with Foley it's that each week he comments on current topic debates whose parameters (the pro/con arguments) are public and known to most people who pay attention to wrestling media, a group which I'm increasingly convinced doesn't include Foley, despite his fairly active Twitter account. And he even admits as much occasionally, suggesting that he's not followed x topic in a while, or used to attend y but no longer. Often all it would take to school himself is ten minutes of Googling which he can't be bothered with.

tikk, it would be hard for anyone to do a better job of diagnosing the biggest problem many have with Foley.

So I don't get why people keep writing to him (or for that matter even why he gets his own topic heading here for every weekly column--everyone here seems to despise him; Tom?). I do find him interesting from time to time and I don't question his love of the sport, but he's a lazy writer who too often can't be bothered to try. When he does have an interesting point (like the opening piece on casual HS wrestlers), I don't necessarily trust whatever factual basis he's citing. Like Tom Friedman he seems prone to spin anecdotes into data.

As for why he gets his own topic heading for each column, I think it's because his column is rather unique. No other wrestling columnist seems to have a weekly column that addresses one or more subjects, and also answers questions submitted to him. I think SHP, Vais/C. Pyle, Andy Hamilton, Willie, Alex Steen and probably several others could do a better job than Foley, but either their publications don't afford them that opportunity, or they choose not to do it on a weekly basis. (Vais and Willie do a variation on the column on FRL, and that frequently gets linked here, especially if any part of it deals with PSU.)

 

[Gebmo]

My kid is a really good student/athlete. She has visited over 15 Universities at the age of 12. She will visit 3 more this summer. She only wants to attend PSU. It is her dream and I would pay any amount of money to have her attend the School she wants to attend.

Just so you know, we travel a lot and do not contact coaches. I just like to show the kid around college life.

That speaks to me. I find it humorous how people assume PSU must be cheating because there is no way families would pay more to go to PSU when they can go cheaper elsewhere, like that is all that matters.

I’ve posted on HR about this, but my son (Senior at PSU this coming year) could have gone to a half dozen other schools with scholarship (academic) money, overall half the cost or less of PSU at a couple of them. He got zip from PSU. It would have killed him to go anywhere else. Since we have the means, not even a question.

My daughter graduated ASU last year, same thing. You do this once in your life. We have been blessed with the means to let them go where they really desire (well, to some extent anyway....also takes some sacrifice), so that is what we did. Why is it so hard to think that wrestlers are any different, especially when there are so many other advantages to PSU wrestling?

The reasons that PSU may cost you more, but will pay off in the end are growing and growing, especially for wrestlers. I expect the trend of many high caliber recruits to PSU to continue in the years to come, regardless of scholarship money.....and the questions will continue also....

 

[dunkej01]

That speaks to me. I find it humorous how people assume PSU must be cheating because there is no way families would pay more to go to PSU when they can go cheaper elsewhere, like that is all that matters.

I’ve posted on HR about this, but my son (Senior at PSU this coming year) could have gone to a half dozen other schools with scholarship (academic) money, overall half the cost or less of PSU at a couple of them. He got zip from PSU. It would have killed him to go anywhere else. Since we have the means, not even a question.

My daughter graduated ASU last year, same thing. You do this once in your life. We have been blessed with the means to let them go where they really desire (well, to some extent anyway....also takes some sacrifice), so that is what we did. Why is it so hard to think that wrestlers are any different, especially when there are so many other advantages to PSU wrestling?

The reasons that PSU may cost you more, but will pay off in the end are growing and growing, especially for wrestlers. I expect the trend of many high caliber recruits to PSU to continue in the years to come, regardless of scholarship money.....and the questions will continue also....

Truth.

Many cant handle the truth.

Annoymous message boards and click bait whores dont want to acknowledge the truth.

Yet it remains the truth.

 

[Bob_Anderson]

Nice troll attempt by jammen in the comment section. What a jealous a-hole.

 

[jammenz]

You may not be aware but most schools celebrate getting a top 100 recruit, and some schools have never even gotten one.

p.s. 39 schools scored less than 10 points at the last NCAA's.

 

[tikk10]

You may not be aware but most schools celebrate getting a top 100 recruit, and some schools have never even gotten one.

p.s. 39 schools scored less than 10 points at the last NCAA's.

You could set up a GoFundMe page for them maybe.

 

[ChristianPyles]

The first 3 questions are about Penn State: 1) how can they afford all the talent, 2) is their level of dominance good for the sport, and 3) what % of commits eventually defect from Penn State

For those keeping track, this is week 33, and despite promises he tweeted, no response to Flo's article about Olympic reffing corruption from Foley.

You can read this week's Mailbag at THIS LINK.

It won't happen.

 

[RoarLions1]

If there's any identifiable consistency with Foley it's that each week he comments on current topic debates whose parameters (the pro/con arguments) are public and known to most people who pay attention to wrestling media, a group which I'm increasingly convinced doesn't include Foley, despite his fairly active Twitter account. And he even admits as much occasionally, suggesting that he's not followed x topic in a while, or used to attend y but no longer. Often all it would take to school himself is ten minutes of Googling which he can't be bothered with.

So I don't get why people keep writing to him (or for that matter even why he gets his own topic heading here for every weekly column--everyone here seems to despise him; Tom?). I do find him interesting from time to time and I don't question his love of the sport, but he's a lazy writer who too often can't be bothered to try. When he does have an interesting point (like the opening piece on casual HS wrestlers), I don't necessarily trust whatever factual basis he's citing. Like Tom Friedman he seems prone to spin anecdotes into data.

Today he feigns expertise about Penn State's scholarship situation, which has been discussed ad nauseam on comment boards and has even addressed directly by Cael, stating that guys have taken less to wrestle at PSU. And though he does find an interesting way to make a similar point, if he was actually informed he'd probably have mentioned that Cael has addressed it head-on and work out from there.

Can't argue this, though I would offer the following advice...park your brain, at least a little, while reading his pieces. Makes them more enjoyable.

 

[Pennstate1985]

You may not be aware but most schools celebrate getting a top 100 recruit, and some schools have never even gotten one.

p.s. 39 schools scored less than 10 points at the last NCAA's.

It's disingenuous to call Marstellar a transfer when he never enrolled at PSU to begin with. It really is amazing how few transfer with the lineup as stacked as it is. Kudos to Cael and company.

 

[Dogwelder]

It won't happen.

Trump will release his full tax returns before Foley gives a full response to the UWW corruption article.

 

[El-Jefe]

You may not be aware but most schools celebrate getting a top 100 recruit, and some schools have never even gotten one.

p.s. 39 schools scored less than 10 points at the last NCAA's.

Please list the Division 1 schools that have never gotten a top 100 recruit.

 

[El-Jefe]

Trump will release his full tax returns before Foley gives a full response to the UWW corruption article.

Foley will vote for Trump before he responds to the UWW corruption article.

 

[tikk10]

Can't argue this, though I would offer the following advice...park your brain, at least a little, while reading his pieces. Makes them more enjoyable.

Roar, there's no end of things I'd enjoy more if I could learn to park my brain. But I'll add Foley to the list

 

[jammenz]

It's disingenuous to call Marstellar a transfer when he never enrolled at PSU to begin with.

I said Hammond and Law left, whereas Marstaller and Nevills decommitted.

 

[Flying_Tiger]

I said Hammond and Law left, whereas Marstaller and Nevills decommitted.

 

[jammenz]

Please list the Division 1 schools that have never gotten a top 100 recruit.

Do your own research, it isn't that hard. But I'll give you a hint: Start with the 13 schools that scored 1 point or less at the last NCAA's.
I will give you one school. Gardner-Webb scored 3 points but their top recruit in the last five years is #132 Austin Trott.

 

[dicemen99]

Do your own research, it isn't that hard. But I'll give you a hint: Start with the 13 schools that scored 1 point or less at the last NCAA's.
I will give you one school. Gardner-Webb scored 3 points but their top recruit in the last five years is #132 Austin Trott.

Nice, so now you are using programs like Gardner-Webb to compare with PSU to reach in your attempts. I expect better from you, especially coming off the HOF Downey troll. Although maybe a letdown after a something like that is inevitable.

Gardner-Webb, Minnesota, PSU, Wartburg - wth the difference, right? It's all NCAA wrestling...

 

[El-Jefe]

Do your own research, it isn't that hard. But I'll give you a hint: Start with the 13 schools that scored 1 point or less at the last NCAA's.
I will give you one school. Gardner-Webb scored 3 points but their top recruit in the last five years is #132 Austin Trott.

2017 91 Denton Spencer Camden County GA 138 Gardner Webb

If the research isn't that hard, then perhaps you should've done it before making a false assertion. #FAIL

 

[El-Jefe]

Key point neglected: Hammond got his engineering degree in 3 years and left for grad school.

Who's the last Minnesota Nebraska athlete to graduate in 3 years, let alone with an engineering degree?

 

[jammenz]

Nice, so now you are using programs like Gardner-Webb to compare with PSU to reach in your attempts. I expect better from you, especially coming off the HOF Downey troll. Although maybe a letdown after a something like that is inevitable.

Gardner-Webb, Minnesota, PSU, Wartburg - wth the difference, right? It's all NCAA wrestling...

You are not following the conversation.
Foley was asked what percentage of "big boy" commits defect from Penn State and responded "Can you name any in the last five years?"
I said "It depends upon how you define "big boy commit" and named #41 Law and #71 Hammond. Others contend that top 100 wrestlers are not "big boy" enough.

 

[jammenz]

2017 91 Denton Spencer Camden County GA 138 Gardner Webb

If the research isn't that hard, then perhaps you should've done it before making a false assertion. #FAIL

Is that like #5 Beard to Northwestern? Stick to wrestlers actually on the roster.

 

[Hotshoe]

Gardner-Webb? Please. 2600 in enrollment. You might as well add a thousand and wrestle Lycoming.

 

[El-Jefe]

Is that like #5 Beard to Northwestern? Stick to wrestlers actually on the roster.

Unlike Beard, Spencer signed. The research wasn't that hard, perhaps you should've done it before making yet another false assertion.

So, no, you don't get to move the goalposts when you don't like the score.

 

[Cletus11]

You're correct, to a degree. The high school coaches usually work with each other, and try to accommodate multi-sport athletes. In addition, the high school sports governing bodies of most states have established schedules of when official practices can take place for each sport which eliminate most of the conflicts, unless an athlete/their team goes really far in the state playoffs in a fall or winter sport. (And disregarding the spring football practice schedule, which has only been around in the past decade in PA.)

I think you would be more accurate if you pointed at the coaches of travel/tournament teams. Many of them try to start specialization at a pretty early age, in part because their teams get involved in a year-round schedule. Another motivation for these coaches is that their teams earn a national ranking based on how they do in every competition, and many tournaments will only invite/accept teams that are above a certain ranking. Wrestling has some unique aspects to it, in that it's more of an individual sport than a team sport, and there are competitions in both folk and freestyle outside of the traditional school competition timeframe.

Wes Phipps was one of the only recent wrestlers at PSU that had not specialized in wrestling. He was a 3-sport star, and the expectations of many fans, and also stated by Willie after he verballed, was that he had a lot of talent that would be refined when he focused solely on wrestling. Alas, injuries, more so than his lack of specialization, was the biggest obstacle he encountered while at PSU.

High school, way too late. Specialization starts at 8 years old now. Unless the kid is just some type of uber athlete, it is nearly impossible to play multiple sports anymore at a high level (except for football as that is the only sport that really has only one defined season). the local soccer program just said to the 10 year olds in my district that they MUST commit to a 12 month schedule, no other sports allowed if you want to be on the #1 top traveling team. And if you don't make that #1 traveling team as a 10 year, the chances of making the high school team years later is slim as those same kids get the elite coaching and are playing top competition year round. Same goes for a lot of sports. Other than football, I am not sure if there is a spot that you cannot play year round starting at 8 years old. What you are seeing a lot of now is kids burning out early. Just quitting the sport when they get to high school because they have lost all enjoyment of it. See it happening a lot. One local kid who was a really good player recently stopped playing and it was all the talk. he admitted the day he quit playing was the happiest day of his life as he no longer had the pressure anymore. Kids was 16 years old.

 

[Dogwelder]

Unlike Beard, Spencer signed. The research wasn't that hard, perhaps you should've done it before making yet another false assertion.

So, no, you don't get to move the goalposts when you don't like the score.

Uh oh. You got trolled into a pointless argument about nothing!

"He'll troll you. That's what he does! That's ALL he does!" -- Kyle Reese

 

[Tom McAndrew]

It won't happen.

I took a rare (for me), 2-day vacation from the board, so I missed your reply.

Very interesting post.

 

[vhsalum]

High school, way too late. Specialization starts at 8 years old now. Unless the kid is just some type of uber athlete, it is nearly impossible to play multiple sports anymore at a high level (except for football as that is the only sport that really has only one defined season). the local soccer program just said to the 10 year olds in my district that they MUST commit to a 12 month schedule, no other sports allowed if you want to be on the #1 top traveling team. And if you don't make that #1 traveling team as a 10 year, the chances of making the high school team years later is slim as those same kids get the elite coaching and are playing top competition year round. Same goes for a lot of sports. Other than football, I am not sure if there is a spot that you cannot play year round starting at 8 years old. What you are seeing a lot of now is kids burning out early. Just quitting the sport when they get to high school because they have lost all enjoyment of it. See it happening a lot. One local kid who was a really good player recently stopped playing and it was all the talk. he admitted the day he quit playing was the happiest day of his life as he no longer had the pressure anymore. Kids was 16 years old.

Interesting to me is how Americans can completely misappropriate the European system. So while the European system focuses on specialization at an early age, it doesn't focus on competition. THAT is what is burning out Americans in the current system. The second, and probably the most important failure of the American system is the involvement of parents in the coaching system. You just don't see that in the European system. They are, in general, college educated coaches. Combine our love for competition with adults who's passion for their own children to win far exceed their children's and you have America's sports training culture.

We can't get over the fact that parents will have to be more involved because our sports population is far greater than that of any European system. We can definitely get over the competition-driven focus we have. It's nauseating as a coach. Parents believe "mat-time" is the most important way to develop. Damn straight it is. There's a mat right there, get to practice. Rant over. LOL

 

[hlstone]

Interesting to me is how Americans can completely misappropriate the European system. So while the European system focuses on specialization at an early age, it doesn't focus on competition. THAT is what is burning out Americans in the current system. The second, and probably the most important failure of the American system is the involvement of parents in the coaching system. You just don't see that in the European system. They are, in general, college educated coaches. Combine our love for competition with adults who's passion for their own children to win far exceed their children's and you have America's sports training culture.

We can't get over the fact that parents will have to be more involved because our sports population is far greater than that of any European system. We can definitely get over the competition-driven focus we have. It's nauseating as a coach. Parents believe "mat-time" is the most important way to develop. Damn straight it is. There's a mat right there, get to practice. Rant over. LOL

That is a well written post.

Who pays the college coaches to train the kids?. (parents in the USA volunteer)

I coach and want the kids to win, I play all of the kids every game, but we win. Winning is fun.

My kid does Lax, Field Hockey, Band, A-student, plus all the other crap she does. I like the well rounded person. Just my opinion .

 

[vhsalum]

That is a well written post.

Who pays the college coaches to train the kids?. (parents in the USA volunteer)

I coach and want the kids to win, I play all of the kids every game, but we win. Winning is fun.

My kid does Lax, Field Hockey, Band, A-student, plus all the other crap she does. I like the well rounded person. Just my opinion .

To answer your points:

Who pays? In Europe's soccer and basketball systems, the club pays for the coaches and, in general, pay for the education of each of the athletes in their system.

Winning IS fun. No one is taking that away or saying it's not important. But competition is embedded our DNA as Americans. It's embedded in the DNA of the British, the Dutch, the South Africans, the Russians. We don't have a monopoly on the joys of winning. We just compete too much, too often and too young of an age and experience level. We focus on it far earlier than we should.

The well-rounded person is slowly being driven away. Your opinion is not wrong. It's just harder and harder to do. Excelling at one thing is an amazing plan and gift, if it comes with that focus intrinsically. Our system is about force-feeding the value system of winning before most kids are ready or are prepared for.

 

[a_mshaffer]

there is a specializing in existence with all sports. However, those that are gifted enough to play at a higher level can still play multi-sports, and should. Parents are caught up thinking the dedication to one sport will make the difference. Maybe in some of the minor sports but not at the major level (baseball, football) where there is serious $$. There is a litany of reasons on why anyone should not focus on one sport.

Have yet to hear a professional athlete tell young kids to focus on one sport.

 

[Lyons212]

You have all these club coaches who basically talk out both sides of their mouth. They will tell you kids should play multiple sports, makes them a better athlete...OTOH, the coach expects your child to work those other sports around their sport year round. That is the problem with the current sports culture.

It is very difficult for a kid to play multiple sports above the rec level because most want a year round commitment. An example, I coached a low level travel soccer team with optional practices in winter/spring and league play based upon interest. I had one kid who would miss soccer games in the Fall because of lacrosse tournaments and would miss practices in the Fall because of basketball practice.

That is what burns kids out, too many competing priorities which also means too many demands on their time and bodies. When you have multiple games on the weekends and three practices a week for all your sports, you are setting yourself up for burnout and injury.