Travel soccer at 7

[Anonymous]

Tryouts are coming up... and I am hesitant. If DS makes the team, it will be three practices a week, and games on the weekend. He will be 8 in the fall but it seems like a big commitment at that age. He doesn't love the sport, prefers basketball - he's at best, an average rec basketball player. My fear is that if he doesn't move into travel soccer, he will fall behind his peers. He's talented, but not the best player in his age group.

Question: Would you have him play travel or wait another year?

[Anonymous]

Why on earth would you make your kid practice something 3 times a week when he doesn't even love it??

Travel soccer at 8 is nuts. And I don't buy the trope that "they'll never make a top team if they don't start at 8." Travel soccer at this age is a money grab targeting the fears parents just like yourself have about "falling behind." Don't fall for it.

[Anonymous]

Wait a year. Fall birthday will drop down an age group next year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wait a year. Fall birthday will drop down an age group next year.

Plenty of kids play rec for a year or two and then go into travel. If they are talented they will be placed on a team. If they are one of the better players on their team they will move up to higher teams.

[Anonymous]

Your kid doesn't like the sport? But you are worried about falling behind the top players? Is this a joke post?

[Anonymous]

Ask yourself this: is your child getting frustrated playing rec? Are they clearly ahead of most of the other kids on the field in terms of their understanding of the game and/or skills? Have you tried adding in some additional soccer through a pre travel program and they are liking it? If the answer to all this is yes, travel could make sense for next year. We put our oldest on travel at 8 for those reasons. It was the right decision for him as he loves soccer and was not going to improve in rec. He needed to be on a team where all the kids were equally enthusiastic and skilled.

Our youngest is now 7, almost 8, and we are most likely waiting another year for travel if at all. Rec is still sufficiently challenging for him. He is doing a low key pre travel type program one extra day a week because it was cheap and we know the coach well. He really likes soccer and is happy to do it a few times a week. That being said, he isn’t quite as naturally fast and athletic as his brother and I am not convinced he would enjoy the practices if they were higher intensity. The game will also look a lot different next year when they go to 7v7 with a goalkeeper. I want to wait and see if he even still likes it once the field is bigger. I could see it going either way. A low key travel program may be the right fit for him in a couple years if rec ends up depleted. But we certainly aren’t rushing it now thinking he will miss out on some path to greatness. I’m sure he will be behind kids who start travel next year, and that’s ok. We have seen some of the really good 8 year olds not be so great by 11. If he decides he wants to work really hard at becoming a good soccer player we know how to support that. But I think it should be led by the child and what they want/need, not the parent’s fear of missing out.

[Anonymous]

He can still do both. A lot of my travel kids still do basketball. They're basically off all of December and January/Feb is futsol season which is less of a commitment.

If you think he's good enough to make a 1st or 2nd team, then he should do travel. Waiting will only hold him back. Especially when some of the larger clubs have U8 Academy so they're already ahead to begin with. Do any sport 3/4 days a wee, 10 months out of the year, and you'll improve tremendously.

Also politics start to happen. Some clubs are less inclined to move a player down a team. The longer you wait the harder it is to make a top team. Some clubs, there may only be a few spots available on the top team year over year.

It doesn't hurt to try out. Experience the coaches and other kids and families to get a feeling of the club's vibes. It's not binding and you can always decline the offer.

In reality, even if he's decent, if he doesn't love the sport... ff he doesn't enjoy putting in the work and going to practices and trainings, then it's probably best to just stay in rec. He might do it for a few years, but if he doesn't have the drive he'll eventually phase out, and it would be a waste of time and money.

[Anonymous]

I'll give you a different perspective because everyone is so obsessed with getting left behind.

When my kid was 9, we ended up leaving travel ball in early March because of a move. This meant that he missed the last 2.5 months of travel. No team practices or games. In that time he said that he wanted to get better so we developed a plan for him...lots of training at home and some private/group sessions. We are talking 12+ hours a week. In those 2.5 months and the additional 3 months of summer, he got SOOOOO much better. He is now MLS Next and visiting academies. Team practices and games are not what they need to be focused on at this age.

You don't need to be on a team to get better. Focus on the basics and ball mastery. They can become a beast at 12+ years old without travel ball.

[Anonymous]

You are putting the cart in front of the horse a little bit at this point. But, my DD also did tryouts a year ahead of time. However, she was 8 at the time and she loved soccer. She was excited and pumped up for tryouts, especially as one of her rec teammates wanted to do it also.

I will say two things:
#1) I would just go to tryouts and see how it goes and if you even get an offer. There is a chance your kid wont be pumped up about it and a chance they won't receive an offer. I have seen young kids just be too far behind to even compete with the other kids at tryouts. It was obvious that it was not a good fit as the kid was just too little and not skilled enough.

#2) If you do get an offer, you will have to be ok with dedicating a lot of time and money that possibly will not well spent. What I mean is that you will most likely be on the bottom team, which may lose a lot. And since your kid is so young, they will experience burn out from 3x weekly practices, games and tournaments. You will have to be ok with them probably not wanting to go to practice quite often to do other kid stuff.

But yeah, if you decide to start a year early and trying to make a higher team is important to you, you will probably see great growth that is not apparent until the following year when your kid plays at their appropriate age level. Also, I will say the best young kids who play now either started very early and/ or they were just natural athletes that would be good at all team sports. There are no walk-ons without significant soccer training on the top teams in the U-little ages.

The other thing to consider is his B-Day? Most likely, all leagues will move to School-Year groupings -vs- Birth-Year groupings starting in the 26-27 season. So, while he would be young for his Birth-Year team now, he would transition into being one of the older kids on his School-Year team. And that would most likely prove to be a big boost to his relative ability level... so there is a bright-light at the end of your tunnel in that regard.

My DD started a year early, because she loved it and was good at it already and we are committed to the resources that are required to play at a higher level at the older years. Attempting to do what it takes to play at the higher levels, is an endurance task that will take a decade to complete.

-Good luck either way!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'll give you a different perspective because everyone is so obsessed with getting left behind.

When my kid was 9, we ended up leaving travel ball in early March because of a move. This meant that he missed the last 2.5 months of travel. No team practices or games. In that time he said that he wanted to get better so we developed a plan for him...lots of training at home and some private/group sessions. We are talking 12+ hours a week. In those 2.5 months and the additional 3 months of summer, he got SOOOOO much better. He is now MLS Next and visiting academies. Team practices and games are not what they need to be focused on at this age.

You don't need to be on a team to get better. Focus on the basics and ball mastery. They can become a beast at 12+ years old without travel ball.

While this may be true, this requires a kid who loves soccer and has an inner drive to improve. Nothing OP has said suggests this is the case. It sounds like OP's son is naturally good at soccer but it's not their favorite. If OP signs their kid up for travel they could end up in a situation where they are essentially dragging their kid to practices.

Look, I get it. My kids are both pretty talented in the sport that I excelled in growing up. I see the potential and know exactly what to do at which ages to maximize their potential. But the problem is, they like it but don't love it. They aren't interested in the more intense path that I took. They prefer other sports that frankly they aren't as talented in. As a result they are falling behind other kids who are taking the more intense path. But I have to accept that as a parent. I am not going to sign them up for some intense year round program when they aren't asking for more. I don't want them looking back on childhood and resenting me for making them spend hours per week doing something they enjoy less than other things, just because I thought they could be good at it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'll give you a different perspective because everyone is so obsessed with getting left behind.

When my kid was 9, we ended up leaving travel ball in early March because of a move. This meant that he missed the last 2.5 months of travel. No team practices or games. In that time he said that he wanted to get better so we developed a plan for him...lots of training at home and some private/group sessions. We are talking 12+ hours a week. In those 2.5 months and the additional 3 months of summer, he got SOOOOO much better. He is now MLS Next and visiting academies. Team practices and games are not what they need to be focused on at this age.

You don't need to be on a team to get better. Focus on the basics and ball mastery. They can become a beast at 12+ years old without travel ball.

+1
But, this approach takes a parent who knows how to put together an effective training plan.
-But yes, I would agree that this approach can do wonders for a kid's individual skill level -vs- just doing the team trainings. Most team trainings skip out on the individual skill building or doing skill repetitions that can make a kid better.

[Anonymous]

Can you just play the kid up a year in Rec? Is your DC still doing 4v4 in Rec?

We played our DD up a year in Rec instead of travel so she could do the actual 7v7 games where it was at least a little more than everyone chase the ball around.

Also as someone else mentioned there are lots of "pre-travel" classes and workouts that arent that expense to get some more skill work in.

[Anonymous]

I can't fathom why anyone would want to do this for a kid who doesn't love the sport (and fwiw, if they did, I'd still argue you can easily hold off at least another year without issue).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:He can still do both. A lot of my travel kids still do basketball. They're basically off all of December and January/Feb is futsol season which is less of a commitment.

If you think he's good enough to make a 1st or 2nd team, then he should do travel. Waiting will only hold him back. Especially when some of the larger clubs have U8 Academy so they're already ahead to begin with. Do any sport 3/4 days a wee, 10 months out of the year, and you'll improve tremendously.

Also politics start to happen. Some clubs are less inclined to move a player down a team. The longer you wait the harder it is to make a top team. Some clubs, there may only be a few spots available on the top team year over year.

It doesn't hurt to try out. Experience the coaches and other kids and families to get a feeling of the club's vibes. It's not binding and you can always decline the offer.

In reality, even if he's decent, if he doesn't love the sport... ff he doesn't enjoy putting in the work and going to practices and trainings, then it's probably best to just stay in rec. He might do it for a few years, but if he doesn't have the drive he'll eventually phase out, and it would be a waste of time and money.

Are you a coach? Feeding into the fear $$$

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can't fathom why anyone would want to do this for a kid who doesn't love the sport (and fwiw, if they did, I'd still argue you can easily hold off at least another year without issue).

Same. DS loves the sport and we still held off on travel soccer. He has other interests and he and we don't care about him falling behind his peers or anything like that. He plays rec in the fall and spring and plays for his middle school team. But he also wanted to do track in the spring and other activities. Don't push travel soccer on a kid that doesn't love the sport. He will be just fine if he falls behind his peers and only ever plays rec.