Specialization hits home

Well, those same people would be surprisingly wrong.

I know that these days more and more kids are making the decision to focus on training year round for a sport. The pressure to remain as competitive as possible and to train year round  has never been more evident, and it's something that I see on a daily basis.

Yet when those same realizations hits home like it has this fall for myself and more importantly for my 12 year old daughter, it's even more eye-opening.

Yes, you have read that last statement correctly. My 12 year daughter has decided to "focus" on one sport starting this fall.

My daughter is a happy go lucky 12 year old girl. She's into the Jonas Brothers and Twilight and basically the same things any other 12 year old girl likes these days.

Yet when it comes to sports, she's a pretty solid athlete. Some other have said that she's a very good player in a few specific sports, but then again I'm always my kids own worst critic especially when it comes to sports.

So after playing two seasons at a local in-house softball league, several other parents and coaches highly suggested that I take my daughter and go the travel softball route. They claimed that it would be "better" for my daughter and that she would be more "challenged" and that this level of softball would make her a better all around player.

Sounds great right? And who wouldn't want the best for their own kid? 

So off to travel softball we go, but with a very important price to pay.

My daughter has also played and has loved basketball. For the first time since she was in fourth grade she won't be playing basketball this season, instead focusing on her travel softball team and playing in a handful of fall tournaments.

Personally, I understand and support my daughter's decision, and yes this was her decision. I made sure as her father that we talked about this move and that she would need to give up one sport for the other. She had a clear understanding of it all.

Yet inside I still feel weird about all of this.

So far so good with the travel softball team and my daughter, She's made friends with the girls on the team already and the coaches seem like really good people who know what they are doing. She is really enjoying the whole experience so far and the first games begin this weekend.

But somewhere inside I still just have a weird sense that my daughter along with so many other kids/athletes out there are making these important decisions earlier and earlier.

I try to be current and hip and I try to go with the flow these days, and no question I'm hands down the coolest Dad out there :)

But in the back of my mind just like so many other parents I just hope I'm handling all of this the right way for my daughter.