If your child plays a less "popular" sport, what has the experience been like?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The experience is fun but it's not like the rest of the school comes out to watch you. You do it because you enjoy it and you enjoy the kids you do the sport with. More limited social experience. A couple of gathering during the season. Maybe a gift exchange if in the winter.

No one watches you in golf, and very few students watch tennis.

This is a good point as well as the PPs. Nobody's watching or socializing around the sports. So just pick one you like and your circle will be made up of that. That's fine.

It's not like the 80s when you were cool on the football team and your GF wore your jersey and they all wore big class rings with football on them! And when pep rallies were cool! (Pep rallies haven't been cool since the 1990s)

Didn’t grow up in the 80s, so not sure what you are talking about. But girlfriends most definitely wear players jerseys and pep rallies are still a thing.

Football is the only sport that has good game attendance throughout the season. Basketball is ok for rivalry games.

Football also has a lot of social activities throughout freshman year, so it’s kind of worth it to do it just for that. But only you can decide how much risk you are ok with.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes and this is why my talented tennis son wants to do football even though he will never start. I want to support him but I also feel like it’s a poor choice.

Poor choice because he’s good at tennis or poor choice because you are concerned about the physical risks of football?

If the former, butt out. If the latter, tell him no football.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One of my kids plays football, and it is great because he brings his gear to school and all; they practice at school, so I just pick him up after. It's been great for him socially as well. I had a very negative outlook about it, but he's yet to be injured, and our school's group of kids and parents are great. Football has been much easier than driving another kid around for a niche sport.

Not that you can see, anyway...

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4346237/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The experience is fun but it's not like the rest of the school comes out to watch you. You do it because you enjoy it and you enjoy the kids you do the sport with. More limited social experience. A couple of gathering during the season. Maybe a gift exchange if in the winter.

No one watches you in golf, and very few students watch tennis.

That is true for most sports: it is mostly the parents who come and watch the games. The only exception might be if the team is really good, but different sports will attract different crowds. A really good team in an unpopular sport will not attract the crowds who show up for a mediocre team in a popular sport.

Students go to football and basketball games because they are social events.

[Anonymous]

NP here. It's funny that the OP think tennis is a "less popular" sport. My kids play squash .. now that's a really unpopular sport

Having said that, it's been a great experience for them. Yes, they have to explain to some people what squash is. Yes, we've been on trips to tournaments where the flight attendants would see the racket bags and ask if they play tennis (they've learned to just say yes to avoid a long explanation) ... but other than that, it's been a great experience. The squash community in the DMV is really nice. They've made friends from around the country that they met in tournaments. They've also learned some social skills because they sometimes have to play with adults.
They also play other sports, but squash is their passion. I'd say let your kids play whatever sport they are passionate/good at without overthinking its popularity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The experience is fun but it's not like the rest of the school comes out to watch you. You do it because you enjoy it and you enjoy the kids you do the sport with. More limited social experience. A couple of gathering during the season. Maybe a gift exchange if in the winter.

No one watches you in golf, and very few students watch tennis.

That is true for most sports: it is mostly the parents who come and watch the games. The only exception might be if the team is really good, but different sports will attract different crowds. A really good team in an unpopular sport will not attract the crowds who show up for a mediocre team in a popular sport.

Students go to football and basketball games because they are social events.

Thats true, but even at the youth levels there is a much different vibe. The basketball games you have to buy tickets 3rd/4th grade. They have access to great refs though.

I've tried soccer and swimming as a parent so far. I think they may be considered less popular, though I think soccer is on the cusp of being big in the US, its already a money sport. That being said the non-revenue/less popular sports the coaches are definitely more concerned about my bank account, whereas with basketball, the coaches were more concerned about selling tickets. It's a good thing and bad thing. The coaches in popular sports were generally higher quality, more competitive and better at developing talent, the referees and facilities are better and there are plenty of them. The non-revenue sports tend to be more personalized, "making sure the kid is happy", but suffer from lack of facilities soccer fields or pools. The basketball coaches are less so concerned about kids being happy. So in summing. I think swimming and soccer would have been a better experience if I had more money to spend on it but knowing that my kids will be able to compete at basketball, I wasn't willing to spend money on it and the coaches didn't treat us very well.

[Anonymous]

My middle schooler girl is really into tae kwon do, not competition level but a purple belt and some sparring. It’s rough because she doesn’t have any friends in TKD and her studio skews on younger side. It actually seems dangerous when she spars with kids half her weight and 2-3 grades younger.
She hit the pause button for a semester but hopefully we can find a better studio so she gets back into it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If he doesn't know how to play a sport already, he can find success in football, wrestling, xc, track without years of prior training.

Golf and tennis he might not make the team - the other kids have been getting private lessons since they were toddlers.

Kids getting lessons since they were toddlers doesn’t mean they are any good years later. And who says the goal is to be the best? Maybe kids just want to play a game.

[Anonymous]

Tennis is very popular, doofus

[Anonymous]

We’re from the DMV and tennis is popular. And very very expensive. Your child can do it for fun and make the tennis team depending on the school, but will not get far because there are kids training and competing 6-7 days per week, all year long. We travel to Florida for training multiple times per year, and aren’t the only ones who do that. Plus the better tournaments are NOT in the DMV most of the time, you have to travel once your child reaches a certain level.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We’re from the DMV and tennis is popular. And very very expensive. Your child can do it for fun and make the tennis team depending on the school, but will not get far because there are kids training and competing 6-7 days per week, all year long. We travel to Florida for training multiple times per year, and aren’t the only ones who do that. Plus the better tournaments are NOT in the DMV most of the time, you have to travel once your child reaches a certain level.

Indian?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anyone can be on the soccer team, but only the country club kids do the tennis.

Not true

The better tennis teams are packed with kids that have probably spent $10-$20K on tennis before 9th grade.

How would that much be spent?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anyone can be on the soccer team, but only the country club kids do the tennis.

Not true

The better tennis teams are packed with kids that have probably spent $10-$20K on tennis before 9th grade.

How would that much be spent?

You can very easily spend that when you consider private lessons are $100-$200 an hour, group sessions at $50-$75 and tournament travel. My guess is the elite juniors easily spend in the $40K- $50K range per year

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anyone can be on the soccer team, but only the country club kids do the tennis.

Not true

The better tennis teams are packed with kids that have probably spent $10-$20K on tennis before 9th grade.

How would that much be spent?

You can very easily spend that when you consider private lessons are $100-$200 an hour, group sessions at $50-$75 and tournament travel. My guess is the elite juniors easily spend in the $40K- $50K range per year

I went with my 9th grader DS to IMG academy between 12/20/24 and 01/08/2025 (I left early while DS is still there until next week). There were so many Asian and Indian folks that sent their kids there during the winter break to train for both golf and tennis. I met five other folks from the DMV with their kids there. FWIW, those kids attend the best public or private schools in the DMV, schools like Churchill, Sidwell, NCS, Langley, etc... It is EXTREMELY competitive to make the varsity team at these schools without extensive training. YMMV.

[Anonymous]

My kids play tennis and love it. They go to a school that isn’t very competitive in tennis and many of the team players are new to tennis and/or it isn’t their main sport. But this has given my kids and opportunity to shine, has given them some great leadership opportunities, and they are able to mentor and teach members of their team. While their team isn’t winning any titles, it’s still been great experience. Plus they can spend the rest of the year competing on their own in tournaments. Individual sports are great