Article updated: 11/24/2012 1:30 PM

Parents pushing kids to extremes in sports

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Tyler Henson, 11, practices batting outside his home in Oak Forest. Tyler and his brother both play on separate year-round travel baseball teams and also manage to play football and basketball on their local park district teams. It means that sports has become their family's main focus, with their parents spending thousands of dollars each year for travel and gear.

Associated Press

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Shawn Worthy watches as his 16-year-old daughter Soleil practices putting at a golf course near their home in Aurora, Colo. Worthy, a professor at Metropolitan State University of Denver with an interest in sports psychology, questions the extreme emphasis that parents put on youth in sports. (AP Photo/Ed Andrieski)

Associated Press

Billy Hirschfield, 16, lifts weights during a workout at NX Level, an elite training facility in Waukesha, Wis. The 6-foot-6, 270-pound high school junior and varsity football player is being recruited by major college football teams.

Associated Press

Dylan Henson, 14, watches a kicker's ball at his local park district football practice in Oak Forest. Dylan and his younger brother both play three sports, including year-round travel baseball. It means that sports has become their family's main focus, with their parents spending thousands of dollars each year for travel and gear.

Associated Press

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Parents driven by a desire to help their children stand out are often traveling hundreds if not thousands of miles a year for athletic games and tournaments. Some parents send their children to personal trainers, or to the growing number of so-called elite training facilities that have opened in recent years. For many, sports has become their family's main focus, with their parents spending thousands of dollars each year for travel and gear.