Am I spending too much time on travel soccer?

[Anonymous]

We just moved to a neglected area in Mexico city, our kids just played in the streets every day and played in some informal local league. We moved back to a nicer suburban area in the us this year and our boys have been invited to join a local DA program, playing up a year for more challenge.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We just moved to a neglected area in Mexico city, our kids just played in the streets every day and played in some informal local league. We moved back to a nicer suburban area in the us this year and our boys have been invited to join a local DA program, playing up a year for more challenge.

Around here they could suck, but if you tell the Club your kid just spent a year playing in Mexico or Spain or Italy it’s the golden ticket. Kind of like a coach with a foreign accent landing coaching jobs. We have an American kid in our club that came from playing in Argentina who is average at best—but the coaches were salivating hearing where he came from.

So you just moved to a shitty Mexican city and then moved back? Drugs?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We just moved to a neglected area in Mexico city, our kids just played in the streets every day and played in some informal local league. We moved back to a nicer suburban area in the us this year and our boys have been invited to join a local DA program, playing up a year for more challenge.

Around here they could suck, but if you tell the Club your kid just spent a year playing in Mexico or Spain or Italy it’s the golden ticket. Kind of like a coach with a foreign accent landing coaching jobs. We have an American kid in our club that came from playing in Argentina who is average at best—but the coaches were salivating hearing where he came from.

So you just moved to a shitty Mexican city and then moved back? Drugs?

Oh stop it. It is entirely possible they could be better for having lived and played there. Like foreign kids who play basketball in the States and return home? And what kind of other rank assumptions do you make about people and places? Take that somewhere else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is easy to get sucked into travel sports and the demands on parents/families. My son has a great time practicing/competing at games/tournaments and his favorite is the occasional overnight stays for games as well as carpooling with other players. It has given us an amazing bonding experience with our son to enjoy the sport he loves playing the most. My son is obsessed with soccer, watches euro games on tv, we go to dc united games and he really enjoyed the world cup. He plays fifa mobile on his phone and fifa on his ps4. I also dont have any illusions that he will go pro and/or play in college. For now we use it as his outlet to let off his excess energy and socialize with his friends. I figure at some point he will want to dial it back some or start to get interested in something else. For now we have the financial flexibility for him to play and enjoy it as a family. I would say one draw back is that having multiple children you have to divide and conquer sometimes and my spouse feels we lose out on some family time on the weekends. We usually make up for it during the off season.

Anyone involved in this level of travel sports loses family time. Significantly so.

[Anonymous]

If you have to ask, the answer is yes.

We are nearing the end of the line, our youngest now 15. I will say that in the 15-18 years we've been in the game, the time commitment has increased 50-75 percent. Our oldest did not have out-of-season tournaments that included both days of the weekend, and the in-season schedule was much less demanding in terms of travel and expectation. It has bled into this monstrosity and for one, I'm glad we are done with it.

I was at a park recently where a tournament was going on, seemed to be maybe 9U/10U. Kids were out there all day. The players themselves, between games, looked positively bored. And the ones I really felt for were the younger siblings, the 5- and 6-year-olds dragged along for 8 hours at a field.

[Anonymous]

We loved cheering them on on their zero pressure Saturday morning rec league basketball games in the winter and their B Team swim meets in summer. That was it. It allowed for all of us to have a balanced life.

Eh. We were only able to have one kid and he wanted to try travel soccer. I can't say he's become a Jr. Lionel Messi, but he's become a much better player than he was previously in rec, because he received training from a coach who wasn't someone's random dad. If a kid wants to get better at a sport, and you have the time and money, why not? His travel team lost a lot of games, but no one seemed to care. The kids were happy regardless.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

We loved cheering them on on their zero pressure Saturday morning rec league basketball games in the winter and their B Team swim meets in summer. That was it. It allowed for all of us to have a balanced life.

Eh. We were only able to have one kid and he wanted to try travel soccer. I can't say he's become a Jr. Lionel Messi, but he's become a much better player than he was previously in rec, because he received training from a coach who wasn't someone's random dad. If a kid wants to get better at a sport, and you have the time and money, why not? His travel team lost a lot of games, but no one seemed to care. The kids were happy regardless.

Love this post. Wish most travel soccer parents had this kind of perspective!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

We loved cheering them on on their zero pressure Saturday morning rec league basketball games in the winter and their B Team swim meets in summer. That was it. It allowed for all of us to have a balanced life.

Eh. We were only able to have one kid and he wanted to try travel soccer. I can't say he's become a Jr. Lionel Messi, but he's become a much better player than he was previously in rec, because he received training from a coach who wasn't someone's random dad. If a kid wants to get better at a sport, and you have the time and money, why not? His travel team lost a lot of games, but no one seemed to care. The kids were happy regardless.

Love this post. Wish most travel soccer parents had this kind of perspective!!

+1.