Let Kids Be Kids!

• stadmin
• September 15, 2025
• 9:13 pm
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My buddy Chase d'Arnaud played in the Big Leagues for 8 seasons and now runs a world-class training facility in Long Beach; he's got a lot of truly elite High School and college players who workout with him on a regular basis. I'm talking about older teenagers who will play definitely D1 ball and college players who will absolutely end up in professional baseball.

As you might know, he and I have partnered on youth Camps down there for the past 2 Summers bringing the Spring Training curriculum and vibe with the d'Arnaud Academy name to a new area. And just like Maddux and Sloane attend my camps over the Summer, his sons attend those camps.

His boys love it and Chase will hang out at camp whenever he can; he's of course a fan of the Spring Training mojo (or else he wouldn't have partnered with me!) but one thing he said earlier this Summer after a day on the field really stuck with me: "Dan, I just love how the environment you create at camp really allows kids to just be kids. By walking around the fields, you can tell all the boys feel totally comfortable just being themselves playing with their friends here."

I, of course, appreciated the compliment and totally agree! But then I got to thinking:

His point was not just simply a compliment about how awesome our camp environment is, but about how it's becoming increasing rare for kids playing sports to get to feel like kids on the field.

It should go without saying that OF COURSE kids should be allowed to feel and act like kids and in my opinion, we should be striving to prolong this stage of their athletic lives as long as possible, not rush them through it.

Maddux turns 11 this week and as a parent, I'm already starting to see the signs of his childhood ending and adolescence beginning. The teenage years are looming on the horizon for him, which in addition to all the other big changes that come with that milestone, sports will get more competitive and serious...as they should!

While I hope that everyone playing sports in High School and beyond are still having fun, it's an entirely healthy and natural progression for the athletic environment to get more serious, competitive, and intense during the teenage years. There's a way to embrace that shift from youth sports to High School sports in a positive way (something that we sadly know is not true of a lot of High School programs), but definitely it's possible.

The single biggest problem we're facing with youth sports these days is that hyper-serious and unnecessarily intense attitudes and environments that once only existed at the High School level and beyond, are being more widely introduced at younger and younger ages.

Programs for kids that allow for personal growth while also letting them "play with joy" and feel like kids is becoming increasingly harder and harder to find.

Our sons' and daughters' time to simply be kids is very short and far too much about what's happening in youth sports these days is making their childhoods even shorter.

We've all been on the sidelines of a youth soccer game with parents and coaches screaming...at 8 and 9 year olds over their performance.

We've all seen the Dad Coach leaping off his bucket, aggressively fist-pumping, and screaming "let's goooooooooooooo!"at the top of his lungs after his pitcher records a strikeout with the same intensity as an MLB player in the playoffs...at an April Intermediate Little League game.

We've all seen videos online of children doing heavy ball workouts to increase their velo...before getting in the car to go to their friend's 7th birthday party.

Or 9U travel ball coaches getting into literal fist fights with umpires and parents on the other team.

This is happening in every neighborhood, every weekend, in every part of the country.

Don't get me wrong, we should be rooting for our kids and be excited when they do well and we should be pro-actively searching for healthy ways for them to get some extra reps in and learn new skills in a wide variety of sports, but they are not mini-professionals and they shouldn't be treated like they are.

Kids just want to play. Period.

And they want to play because it's FUN.

But when we've gotten to the point where a youth sports environment that prioritizes the kid's enjoyment above all else is the outlier, we've got a problem. A big one.

Because when sports aren't fun, kids quit. And when they quit, they miss out on all the absolutely crucial benefits that youth sports provides.

Kids who are active in sports have:

Lower rates of anxiety and depression. Lower amounts of stress. Higher self-esteem and confidence. Reduced risk of suicide. Less substance abuse and fewer risky behaviors.

But wait, there's more! They also have:

Increased cognitive performance. Increased creativity. Greater enjoyment of all forms of physical activity. Improved psychological and emotional well-being for individuals with disabilities. Increased life satisfaction.

*That's not my opinion. That's accordioning to scientific research done by the "President's Council on Youth, Sports, and Fitness," and backed by countless other studies by organizations like the PCA and Aspen Institute.*

Those are the reasons why youth sports matter.

And that's what we risk depriving of our children of when adults take it too seriously, put too much pressure on them, try find our own self-worth in their results on the field, live out our own unfulfilled dreams through them, or believe that winning is the only goal of participation.

(In a recent study that asked kids what makes playing sports fun, "Winning" ranked 48th on the list. 48th.)

Giving kids the opportunity to reap all the benefits of youth sports participation is why I wake up every morning and why Spring Training exists. It's also the only thing I want my own kids to get out their own childhood experiences playing on teams.

If as teenagers they decide to go all-in on sports in hopes of playing in High School, my wife (also a D1 college athlete) and I will 100% be supporting them every step of the way.

But until then, it's all about finding programs for them run by adults who treat them well, curriculum that's fun and active, and with practices and games that strive to teach the life lessons that will help them become good citizens and parents themselves someday.

This is why people like Chase, who did play at the absolute highest level of the game and understand that no Big Leaguers are created by age 12 (although some potential future Big Leaguers do get burned out and quit by age 12), send his kids to our Summer Camp...simply so they can be kids with their friends and fall in love with playing sports.

Let's not sprint our kids through their childhood sports experience; it's unfair to them and way more often than not and has undesirable (and completely avoidable) outcomes for everyone!

It's really that simple.

PLAY HARD, HAVE FUN!