Are kids still doing it all? Rise of travel sports and scheduled kids.

[Anonymous]

It's not just sports. If you put your child in ballet/dance, you can see it start to intensify a lot from mid-elementary or even early-elementary on, especially if it's a studio with competition teams and/or performance "companies."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Soccer was pretty popular where I grew up, and I remember there being three primary levels:

- "house" soccer, AKA rec
- "select" - a bump up from house but games were still in the metro area, not as expensive as travel
- "travel"- was competitive and only the really good kids made the team

My kid is still young and on the rec team, but I hope there is some middle ground like the above.

Ideally, this is the way it would happen but, sadly, it doesn't really exist any more. Youth sports are irreparably broken because there's too much money in the system. A lot of people can make money from sports (leagues, venues, trainers and coaches) and parents are willing to spend that money in the hope that their kid can just keep up.

[Anonymous]

It might have just been your circle, OP. I grew up in the 80's and 90's and travel soccer was huge where I lived. Kids went off to Canada for hockey camps. Kids were nationally ranked in tennis. NYSMA was big for the band/orchestra kids.

[Anonymous]

Coaching on rec sports teams is volunteer parents. So if your kid wants actual skills teaching, travel clubs are how you get that. Through about age 10, rec sports are great but if your kid has passion and wants to grow, travel leagues exist for that.

We continue to play rec sports as secondary, just for fun activities, but they come second to the travel team commitment.

Growing up in the 90s my sister was on travel soccer. I played rec. She went on to play in college. It was definitely a thing back then for good athletes.

[Anonymous]

My brother is 45 and he played travel soccer growing up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Soccer was pretty popular where I grew up, and I remember there being three primary levels:

- "house" soccer, AKA rec
- "select" - a bump up from house but games were still in the metro area, not as expensive as travel
- "travel"- was competitive and only the really good kids made the team

My kid is still young and on the rec team, but I hope there is some middle ground like the above.

Still works this way, at least in MoCo. Check out MSI soccer and SAM soccer for that in-between select level.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Soccer was pretty popular where I grew up, and I remember there being three primary levels:

- "house" soccer, AKA rec
- "select" - a bump up from house but games were still in the metro area, not as expensive as travel
- "travel"- was competitive and only the really good kids made the team

My kid is still young and on the rec team, but I hope there is some middle ground like the above.

Ideally, this is the way it would happen but, sadly, it doesn't really exist any more. Youth sports are irreparably broken because there's too much money in the system. A lot of people can make money from sports (leagues, venues, trainers and coaches) and parents are willing to spend that money in the hope that their kid can just keep up.

This is MSI Soccer’s model. They still have Classic soccer and some of the coaches are paid so you can get development too.

[Anonymous]

It’s been this way for awhile now. If a kid wants to have any chance to make a high school team, travel teams or extensive training/lessons will generally be required. The age at which one must start (lest they fall behind) keeps shifting ever downward.

I don’t think most parents enjoy this, or even approve of the general concept TBH- but usually set principles aside for their kid’s well being.

I don’t think it is about college apps for most- they just want their kid to have an activity or sport that he/she can enjoy in high school. Acceptance into top schools is a total crapshoot regardless.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't get why so many parents are signing their youth kids up for travel. Are rec and local teams terrible from 2nd grade and on? Does every halfway decent kid have to join a travel team if they want to play?

If you have a dedicated athlete, then yes, you really do need to go to travel and club to get the training you need and yes for some kids, for some sports and in some areas, that would mean a transition in 2nd grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't get why so many parents are signing their youth kids up for travel. Are rec and local teams terrible from 2nd grade and on? Does every halfway decent kid have to join a travel team if they want to play?

As a parent heavily involved in our rec league and with 3 kids playing rec, the answer is yes. When everyone good leaves for travel, it's hard on the kids who legitimately care and want to play who stay in rec for whatever reason. You find a unicorn team where the players are really working and the coaching is good, but so often it's something parents seem to view as extra babysitting. They aren't fun to sit on the sidelines with because they aren't even there, they don't help out with much (leading to burnout for the few volunteers who do step up), and they don't care if their kids don't care and take the whole team down with a bad attitude. Joy.

This is true.

DD is "pretty good" at basketball. But we keep her in rec because of other activities (band & theater).

This is exactly the child who should be in rec basketball.
But for a kid that wants to play at a higher level, who plays year round, who lives and breathes the sport with a passion - no offense, but she doesn’t want to play with your daughter. She wants to play with other kids who feel the same about basketball.

[Anonymous]

Rec is fine until about age 10. The better players will leave for more competitive teams and the rec teams are left with mostly the bad players.

My kids have played soccer since preschool. My older son played only rec soccer and played tennis as his main sport. By the time he was 12, his friends either moved to travel or quit rec soccer to focus more on their other sports. His 7th grade team was so bad. DS used to get so upset at how bad his teammates were. My second son tried out for travel basketball in 7th and did not make it. He was also upset at how bad his rec basketball team was.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I played travel sports in the 1980s and 90s, as did my siblings.

I didn’t know anyone who did (mid 90s graduate of northern Va. HS)

[Anonymous]

The time and financial commitment is a bit too intense for me. My kid would have to do alot of convincing for me too allow travel or tons of activities in general, I don't want overly busy kids

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't get why so many parents are signing their youth kids up for travel. Are rec and local teams terrible from 2nd grade and on? Does every halfway decent kid have to join a travel team if they want to play?

As a parent heavily involved in our rec league and with 3 kids playing rec, the answer is yes. When everyone good leaves for travel, it's hard on the kids who legitimately care and want to play who stay in rec for whatever reason. You find a unicorn team where the players are really working and the coaching is good, but so often it's something parents seem to view as extra babysitting. They aren't fun to sit on the sidelines with because they aren't even there, they don't help out with much (leading to burnout for the few volunteers who do step up), and they don't care if their kids don't care and take the whole team down with a bad attitude. Joy.

This is true.

DD is "pretty good" at basketball. But we keep her in rec because of other activities (band & theater).

This is exactly the child who should be in rec basketball.
But for a kid that wants to play at a higher level, who plays year round, who lives and breathes the sport with a passion - no offense, but she doesn’t want to play with your daughter. She wants to play with other kids who feel the same about basketball.

Totally agree. But honestly, those kids are pretty rare. Instead, the kids who are average, get pulled into the travel world. And those kids would often be better served on rec. "Travel" used to mean elite. Now, it means whatever parent is willing to cut the check

And even though my daughter plays rec, she's probably better than 30-50% of the travel players we've seen. That's not to say that she should be playing travel; its that those other girls should be playing rec.

Or, some sort of level in between.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't get why so many parents are signing their youth kids up for travel. Are rec and local teams terrible from 2nd grade and on? Does every halfway decent kid have to join a travel team if they want to play?

My ten year old is a really good athlete and we really focused on the rec leagues. The past 2 basketball seasons were really hard on him because the level of play didn’t challenge him at all and really just frustrated him. So now he’s doing travel basketball and he’s really happy. Thankfully, the travel isn’t bad like hockey which is crazy.