How far do you travel to practice?

[Anonymous]

Might be willing to do more by HS, but 15-20 for my elementary kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m in for a long commute this fall as my son made a high level team that is over an hour away. What’s the longest you would commute? Am I crazy?

You may be crazy but it really depends on your family, your child and your goals. I can name 5-6 families off the top of my head who have 1 hour commutes each way to practices for various sports, but these are kids likely to play in college and they didn't start this until either high school or late middle school. If your child is younger I'm not sure of the benefit. If he can make a high level team far away he should be able to make a high level team closer or he can play an age group up.

[Anonymous]

I meant they didn't start with the far away team until late MS or HS. The children I'm thinking of started playing their sports in elementary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m in for a long commute this fall as my son made a high level team that is over an hour away. What’s the longest you would commute? Am I crazy?

You may be crazy but it really depends on your family, your child and your goals. I can name 5-6 families off the top of my head who have 1 hour commutes each way to practices for various sports, but these are kids likely to play in college and they didn't start this until either high school or late middle school. If your child is younger I'm not sure of the benefit. If he can make a high level team far away he should be able to make a high level team closer or he can play an age group up.

This. HS, yes. Under 12, no.

[Anonymous]

Yeah, our plan is to only start driving more if our kids need to to compete at a high level and not until late middle school or high school. I've already looked at the commute if that were the case and it's only 45 mins max for the options we have and that assumes traffic. Right now, it's 20 minutes to practice. An hour is a nope for us but it really is about your family. It's not possible for us because I have 3 kids and they all have different activities that they need to get to.

If a long commute is your situation, I think it would be a good investment for your kid to become truly responsible and independent when it comes to school work and getting ready for practice. My kids all do their homework before practice without any reminding or nagging (they get carsick so it's not an option to do them in the car). They also snack/fuel as necessary before practice to account for later dinners and come departure time, they are expected to be dressed and ready to go. These little things help to get out the door more efficiently and without as much disruption to your work day.

[Anonymous]

Op here. Thanks for all replies. He’s going onto 10th grade so not a youngster. Not many clubs in our area and this is a great offer. It will be hard logistically as I have two other kids.

[Anonymous]

There is always someone willing to do it. A player on my kid's high level, older (15U, 16U, and 18U) hockey teams traveled back and forth between Williamsburg, VA and Leesburg, VA for 3 seasons, 3 times a week for practices (3 hours each way). I would never have done that, but they did.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op here. Thanks for all replies. He’s going onto 10th grade so not a youngster. Not many clubs in our area and this is a great offer. It will be hard logistically as I have two other kids.

How many practices a week? Just remember that grades count in sophomore year and all that time in a car might affect his grades.

[Anonymous]

Ironically my kids club team practices have always been super easy to get to, less than 15 minutes but his brothers school practices take a roundtrip of an hour and a half.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op here. Thanks for all replies. He’s going onto 10th grade so not a youngster. Not many clubs in our area and this is a great offer. It will be hard logistically as I have two other kids.

Forget family dinners at home!

Between you and your spouse, life will be split. Dinner, chores, putting other kids to be. Winter is the worse. It's a tough life.

We did something similar for a year and we all got burned out, including our son. He's going to be a Junior and will commit to high school sports and local Club now. But yes, we had to explore the opportunity.

[Anonymous]

30 mins drive each way is not bad. Very doable

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wow, my limit is 10 minutes. If it's not happening in Vienna, our family won't be a part of it.

I generally feel the same but not a strict 10 min limit. We are in Vienna and it can take 30 min to get to Oakmarr at certain times of the day with traffic. So I’m putting my max at around 30 min, in traffic.

[Anonymous]

Oof. That sounds rough. We are traveling about 25 minutes now (used to be 6 min) and that is killing us.

That's a lot of time lost, OP. hope it's worth it.

[Anonymous]

We have been doing a 40 minute one-way commute 2 to 3 times a week. Its a late night but being on the team has motivated my DC so much that he works really hard to get home work done and has shown its important to him. I take a laptop and work, watch netflix etc and honestly the drive and time together with my kid has been priceless.

[Anonymous]

We travel 2.5 hours one way for DS. He's on a D1 path, talent pool here sucks. We plan to move before school starts.