Starting soccer at 11
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Anonymous
| My son is interested in playing soccer in a rec team. He has been playing baseball foe the past 4 years but wants to try soccer. Is it too late to start on a rec team? Will his lack of experience playing be painfully obvious? Anyone switch to soccer at this age? Thanks for the advice, opinion, etc! |
Anonymous
You should be ok on a rec team. We have friends who’s boys started soccer at around 10 and 11 from never having done soccer before. I think he played baseball too. I don’t think the lack of experience will be that obvious if playing with other kids of the same level. |
Anonymous
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It’s fine. Request a team with other kids from his school.
Have him practice kicking the ball around before the season starts. |
Anonymous
| 11 is actually a good time to switch, a lot of the better kids in have moved up to other levels by this time, so Rec is much easier and not as competitive (I say this as a parent of a Rec kid and one on a higher level team). Go over the rules of the game before they start practices so they know what offsides means, when to do a corner kick, etc. How to do a throw-in with both feet on the ground. But then let them learn as they go! |
Anonymous
| Your son will enjoy a good rec program. Not sure where you live, but some of our kids played rec (or "house") for Vienna Youth Soccer and it was a good experience for them. |
Anonymous
| Just prepare him for being one of the weaker players (most likely). Rec has some very good players. Some Rec parents are as crazy as they come and will be frustrated by your son's lack of ability...often more so than his teammates. I know you said that he lacks experience but he should know the rules as someone pointed out or that will be frustrating for everyone. He should know the fundamentals as well. You said he has played baseball the past 4 years. Imagine that he continued to play and a kid joined and didn't know the rules and couldn't catch very well. How would that go? The answer is...it depends. It depends on the teammates, the coach, the parents. The upside and what you should focus on is that he will improve rapidly because of his inexperience. It takes time. |
Anonymous
Vienna would be a good option |
Anonymous
Anywhere close by to their house way where neighborhood kids play is a good option. |
Anonymous
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I hope not, my 11 yr old DD wants to play soccer this spring also so she's going to do a rec team. She played when she was 4-6 and didn't like the chaos at that age so switched to swimming and tennis, but lately has come back around to wanting to do a team sport (also trying field hockey).
She's doing a winter skills clinic to learn some of the basics, just as a confidence booster. Might be something to look for around your area? My backup plan was to hire a high schooler for a few one-on-one training sessions before practices started. Anything to just get a little bit further down the learning curve. She's tall and athletic so I think she'll catch up eventually (to at least a solid rec-level player, I mean) but I have no doubt the first couple of seasons will be a little rough until she gets some basic technical skills down. We'll try to find some good camps for her this summer too. |
Anonymous
An athletic kid will be far from the worst player on most rec teams even if they have never seen a soccer ball before. |
Anonymous
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My cousin (DMV area), a travel-level lacrosse player, started playing soccer at that age and ended up stopping lacrosse to switch to travel soccer. Fast forward a few years and he landed a D1 full scholarship for soccer. He won accolades throughout his college soccer years. He just graduated college.
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Anonymous
| Totally fine, OP. There are plenty of decent YouTube videos that cover the basics if he'd like to watch a few before he starts playing. Good luck! |