Do most kids niche down to 1 sport by middle school?

[Anonymous]

Its fine to keep going with multiple lower effort activities if it makes her happy. Look at thr field hockey team at your high school to determine how competitive it is. If it's very competitive she might want to try adding on more FH training. But even that doesn't seem like a large lift.

[Anonymous]

My 5th grader still plays sports, but the teams get more competitive next year so he is thinking of dropping to two. I think you find a mix of kids who find their passion and dont want to do other things, and that easy rec teams are harder to fill, so kid naturally drop to less and focus on those more.

[Anonymous]

We are having a similar dilemma with our 11-year-old son, OP. He does have one sport that he focuses on more, and two others that he does either seasonally or in a lower key way. Because he is fairly athletic he has been able to have a decent amount of success in all three sports. But that is starting to change as the gap between him and the kids who have already specialized is starting to widen. He just can’t compete with kids doing a sport 4-5 times per week that he is only doing 1-2 times per week or only a few months out of the year. It has already resulted in him not making a team for one sport that he was able to make in the past. It’s really hard to know whether to just keep having him do all three sports at whatever level he can make/manage, or to go “all in” on the sport he is most focused on. It feels like he’s even going to fall behind on the main sport as many kids his age have dropped other sports tend to specialize in that one. And then there’s the huge question mark of puberty and how that changes things.

It doesn’t help that it’s really hard to make the high school teams for all of the sports. Dabbling in the sport just doesn’t cut it and even committed athletes don’t make JV. I have started trying to have conversations with him about goals, but I don’t know if he’s mature enough to truly reflect on it yet. He is a hard worker when at a practice, but I wouldn’t call him one of those kids with an unusual inner drive, at least not at this age. I too hate that we even have to think about these things right now. As a parent, I am just hoping he can participate in a sport he enjoys at the high school level.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:pare down to?

niche (noun) = a small and specialized field of activity or the physical recess in which to place a small item.

niche (verb) = placing the item into the recess (rarely used)

You do not "niche down".

"Niche down" is used online these days to describe social media influencers picking a specific narrow topic to focus on. So that might be where OP got the phrase.

[Anonymous]

Most kids are doing more than one sport, but they have generally intensified their involvement. They'll be swimming 3+ times a week, plus playing a rec sport and a school sport, for instance.

[Anonymous]

My 4th grader plays softball, fh, and swim. She plays fh travel all year and play softball in spring while swimming in fall. Her plan this to focus on math after entering MS while keeps fh. No idea if she can manage it but good to know she will try her best. She is very mature and always efficient.

[Anonymous]

Middle school is when many sports are just starting. Try as many as you want.

[Anonymous]

Niche down so trendy

[Anonymous]

DD played varsity in FCPS at two sports she had not tried until the summer before 9th Grade.

[Anonymous]

Mine (8th) is about to drop soccer, but only because it conflicts with cross country. I wish they weren’t both the same season. He doesn’t want to play indoor or club.

[Anonymous]

Making a high school team much more about general athleticism thanspecific advanced training in the sport.

Being recruited to college or Olympics is a different story.

[Anonymous]

I am impressed you are able to manage all that. I think it's great.

[Anonymous]

My son used to play tackle football in the fall, wrestling in the winter, and rec soccer in the spring through elementary school. When he got to middle school, he made the decision to focus on soccer and wrestling. So now, he does travel soccer in the fall/spring and wrestles in the winter. He looks forward to the start of each season, so breaking it up has helped.

He'll probably play three sports his freshmen year (freshmen football, wrestling, JV soccer), but I don't see him getting past freshmen football due to his small size.

I will say playing different sports is good physically and mentally. Grateful he hasn't had any major injuries, and the new seasons were always s fresh start, so he never got bored or burned out.

[Anonymous]

I would leave the door open

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Making a high school team much more about general athleticism thanspecific advanced training in the sport.

Being recruited to college or Olympics is a different story.

This has not been our experience at DMV high schools--at least not on the boys' side, anyway. There are a couple sports/schools where a strong athlete with minimal experience could jump into playing in HS, but otherwise it's very competitive.