This time, though - when is the right age to start enforcing the rules during a game? We're about mid-season now with the basketball and soccer teams this summer, and that question is front and center. Not for the 5-year-old soccer league - where they've been doing great. ...except for the one team which likes to try to slide in front of other players... The issue is the 8 and 9 year olds playing basketball.
In basketball, there are a lot of rules. Not a lot like baseball, but quite a few. Traveling, double-dribble, and then a bunch that are a lot more picky - 5 seconds, over-and-back - not to mention fouls. About this age, most leagues start to enforce the rules - resulting in turnovers or free throws... This is a good thing - the kids are old enough to start to follow the rules, and the games look more like "real" games.
All works well, until different "refs" work the games each week, and call wildly different games. Is it so hard to have some consistency - and some basic guidelines? I'm not talking about calling things to the letter - but if someone takes more than 2-3 steps... that's traveling when you're 8. If you're dribbling with 2 hands, or constantly picking up your dribble and restarting, that's double-dribbling.
Why? At this age, cheating actually gets you somewhere. Look how fast you can be if you don't need to dribble - or if you can pick up the ball whenever you want. And if not now, when? Some schools start playing competitively in 5th grade, and I know traveling teams start in the 3rd and 4th grades...
My apologies for the rambling this time. If your son or daughter is 8 - or older - and their games don't begin to resemble "real" games... it's time to ask questions.
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