You claim the US is "insane" for having kids play sports year round, and then when informed of reality, you claim that having kids play sports for only part of the year seems "imbalanced" unlike the superior system in your country where they play, uh, "all year round."
There's definitely a communication breakdown here.
To be clear: American sports are extremely a la carte. Kids can play as many or as little as they like. Different sports happen during different seasons. For example in our area schools boy's tennis is in the spring and girls' tennis is in the fall. This is because the courts are outdoor, there aren't enough courts for both to play at once, and too cold in the winter. Summer is generally too hot and kids are on vacation. Winter sports are indoor sports like volleyball, swimming, basketball, etc. If kids are really serious about a sport they can play nearly year round if they like because there are leagues that operate apart from schools.
No, I used "insane" for training every day of the week, instead of just once or twice per week. "Imbalanced" is doing highly intensive every day training for a few months and then nothing the rest of the year.
I'm not calling the system in my country "superior", I'm just pointing out that it's generally once or twice a week all year round. And I think that's a more balanced approach.
But of course the systems are completely different because in the US it's attached to schools, whereas here it's all independent.
Ah, I see. I figured there was a communication break somewhere.
every day of the week
I don't know of any school sport that is "every day of the week." Even football is usually 4 days of practice + 1 game per week, 3-4 months a year.
If that is your idea of "insane," fine, we can differ.
highly intensive
The vast majority of school sports are pretty casual, quite honestly. For example I used to help the local high school tennis coach. I'm not sure those kids broke a sweat on most days.
Football tends to be the most intense. But even then not every day is intense. Usually in the beginning of the week you might focus on strength and cardio. Thursday is more of a strategy day. Kind of a rest day physically because tomorrow, you play. Then Friday is your game.
There are surely exceptions to the rule. When I was in high school there was a nearby team that trained basically year round from what I heard. When their long time coach retired he did it on the last day of the season. He said he chose that timing because their off-season weight training routine started the next day so he was handing things off to the new coach then and there. That sounds pretty excessive to me, but also, if you went to that school and chose to be a part of that sport you knew what you were getting into. So if that's what somebody else wants I'm not going to say they were wrong as long as they enjoy it.
For context please note that even in that "fanatical" school we are talking about perhaps 40-50 kids from a class of maybe 500. This is not the norm for children even in that school. I would point to our childhood obesity epidemic as evidence that, in general, we are not exactly inundating our children with intensive exercise regimens.
You claim the US is "insane" for having kids play sports year round, and then when informed of reality, you claim that having kids play sports for only part of the year seems "imbalanced" unlike the superior system in your country where they play, uh, "all year round."
There's definitely a communication breakdown here.
To be clear: American sports are extremely a la carte. Kids can play as many or as little as they like. Different sports happen during different seasons. For example in our area schools boy's tennis is in the spring and girls' tennis is in the fall. This is because the courts are outdoor, there aren't enough courts for both to play at once, and too cold in the winter. Summer is generally too hot and kids are on vacation. Winter sports are indoor sports like volleyball, swimming, basketball, etc. If kids are really serious about a sport they can play nearly year round if they like because there are leagues that operate apart from schools.