How to choose a sport for very athletic kid?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'll preface this by saying I'm not athletic and have no clue about sports. But my 2nd grade boy is really sporty and at this point there aren't enough hours in the week to do all of the sports. All things being equal, how do I figure out which sports are most desired for boys for, say,college admissions? For example, he's been invited to be on a competition gymnastics team, but it is a lot of hours per week. He also likes baseball, soccer, wrestling, running. And he seems to enjoy them all equally. How did you help your kid choose, or did you just let them do 2 + hours of sports per day, every day?

The best kids at 8-12 are 99 percent of the time not the best at 17-18 so throw that college admission pipe dream out the window right now

Disagree. The kids that are the best at 17-18 were also athletic and fell anywhere from very good to the best. I've been around youth sports in various capacities and rarely see a college athlete that was a dud as an 8-12 yo. Obviously, there are also plenty of kids that were very good to the best at 8-12 end up at the same place as the kids who were never any good.

OP, my view is let your kid play as many sports as they want and you can afford (both time and money) to support for as long as possible. I don't think any of the sports you listed are early specialization sports. I'm not a big soccer player, but it does seem like a sport that requires a big commitment, but at that age, you should be able to play club soccer + other sports.

What I have seen is that if you pair a very athletic kid as young as 8 or 9 with an excellent training program, that kid is very likely to end up an excellent, recruitable player by HS age. PP’s are correct that size or other body type variables are limiting factors for some sports, but not for most. I also recognize that it’s no easy feat to find coaches who can both accurately assess athletic ability in younger kids and provide them outstanding training. But for kids lucky enough to have those traits and end up with great training, I’ve noted burnout is much less of a factor. Burnout is definitely a reason why you don’t see some great youth athletes ending up as top players at older ages.

Ah I guessed it. You’re a ping pong player!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'll preface this by saying I'm not athletic and have no clue about sports. But my 2nd grade boy is really sporty and at this point there aren't enough hours in the week to do all of the sports. All things being equal, how do I figure out which sports are most desired for boys for, say,college admissions? For example, he's been invited to be on a competition gymnastics team, but it is a lot of hours per week. He also likes baseball, soccer, wrestling, running. And he seems to enjoy them all equally. How did you help your kid choose, or did you just let them do 2 + hours of sports per day, every day?

The best kids at 8-12 are 99 percent of the time not the best at 17-18 so throw that college admission pipe dream out the window right now

Disagree. The kids that are the best at 17-18 were also athletic and fell anywhere from very good to the best. I've been around youth sports in various capacities and rarely see a college athlete that was a dud as an 8-12 yo. Obviously, there are also plenty of kids that were very good to the best at 8-12 end up at the same place as the kids who were never any good.

OP, my view is let your kid play as many sports as they want and you can afford (both time and money) to support for as long as possible. I don't think any of the sports you listed are early specialization sports. I'm not a big soccer player, but it does seem like a sport that requires a big commitment, but at that age, you should be able to play club soccer + other sports.

What I have seen is that if you pair a very athletic kid as young as 8 or 9 with an excellent training program, that kid is very likely to end up an excellent, recruitable player by HS age. PP’s are correct that size or other body type variables are limiting factors for some sports, but not for most. I also recognize that it’s no easy feat to find coaches who can both accurately assess athletic ability in younger kids and provide them outstanding training. But for kids lucky enough to have those traits and end up with great training, I’ve noted burnout is much less of a factor. Burnout is definitely a reason why you don’t see some great youth athletes ending up as top players at older ages.

Ah I guessed it. You’re a ping pong player!

Wait—you can be recruited to college as a ping-pong player? Tell us more!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is a lot of advice here. I’m no different I suppose. My would be:

1. Take a hard look what your family can do. Set aside what you want to do and focus first and what is possible to do. What can you afford? What can you do time wise? Plan for other activities of course and education. You have to take into account future time demands particularly with other kids.

2. As in pretty much everything - ability grows slowly over time. You don’t sit down at the piano for the first time and play Chopin. Learning and improving take years. But, at young ages we really are just starting. So - no - kindergarten is not a cut off.

3. While not a huge factor at young ages, it is important to think long term and guide kids into activities that they are more likely to be physically suited to undertake. This is a little less impactful for girls than boys, but obviously still exists. A couple obvious examples - if your kid is going to be over 6 feet tall then gymnastics is not going to be a very good competitive sport for them long term. Knowing roughly where your kid will be in terms of size and speed is going to be very helpful in guiding them to sports that they can be comfortable competing in.

4. Do not expect your kid to drive decisions. They get input. But, do not expect a 10 year old to be aware of family finances, time and travel demands of the new job, time demands of siblings etc. Be a parent. We do what we can.

5. Do understand the environment you are in. Look at the likely high school your kids will attend. High school seems a long time away, and it is. But, unless you are considering options to move to an area where the high school has 500 kids what your kid is doing at younger ages has some affects on what your kid can do in high school. There are sports in high school that a rank beginner can participate in and even eventually do well. Some sports don’t even really get started until high school (football and running sports). There are also a good many sports where you have to have been playing for many years to have a chance of making a high school team.

6. Be aware and willing to allow kids to try new sports and switch sports. My daughter played college soccer and played club soccer starting a 9. Over the years she played with many girls who ultimately decided to switch from soccer to other sports that they played in college at a high level (Big10 and SEC). Do not get locked in. As a parent one of your ongoing jobs is to continually assess and advise your kids on available options. They lack the knowledge and experience to do that.

A quick note on college sports having had a daughter who played college soccer for 4 years - it is not a think that works well for very many. For the athletes it is “who you are and what you do”. In a D1 school there is very little time to do anything else. In a D3 school - that holds true for the semester you are playing. The head coach is not your buddy, and may well not even be particularly friendly (even if they like you). They don’t work for you. You work for them. They get paid by having teams do well and obey the rules by not getting into trouble and getting decent grades. Teammates are not unfriendly but if you get cut, get injured and can’t play, or quit - you are no longer competition for playing time. That is a plus for them. My daughter got a starting position early in her Junior year when the girl playing the position got hurt and was out 3 weeks. By then my kid had staked a claim and kept the starting job. While she felt sorry for the person getting hurt, she was happy to get the playing time and prove she could do the job. Thus the not uncommon college athlete revision to the saying - “There’s no I in team”. … “but there are two in playing time.”

This was a great post. But you're wrong about football. If your kid wants to play for the HS team, they need to be in pads in elementary school.

Unless they are the fastest kid in the school, there is just too much of a steep learning curve to the sport. The time to learn the sport is grades 4-6, and then the time to find your true position is 7th and 8th.

The kids that are starting the JV team as freshman are the ones that played 7u or 8u football with pads on

It depends. My husband played little league and soccer growing up, not on travel squads or anything. His first experience was with football in 9th grade and he was a D1 player in college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'll preface this by saying I'm not athletic and have no clue about sports. But my 2nd grade boy is really sporty and at this point there aren't enough hours in the week to do all of the sports. All things being equal, how do I figure out which sports are most desired for boys for, say,college admissions? For example, he's been invited to be on a competition gymnastics team, but it is a lot of hours per week. He also likes baseball, soccer, wrestling, running. And he seems to enjoy them all equally. How did you help your kid choose, or did you just let them do 2 + hours of sports per day, every day?

As others have mentioned, I wouldn't spend too much time worrying about college sports right now. At the end of second grade, my son - who loved all kinds of sports and was pretty athletic - tried out for travel soccer, baseball, and hockey teams. I really expected him to make the soccer team, but he didn't. Nor did he make the travel baseball team. But he did make the hockey team, which started in the fall of 3rd grade. So he made hockey his priority, but he kept playing rec soccer and baseball with his friends, and also did summer diving and tennis, as well as winter rec basketball and flag football in the fall. Fitting all that in with hockey wasn't easy, but with enough communication (which initially was done by us, of course, though as he got older he was able to handle much of that on his own).

He kept up with all of these things though the end of elementary school. In middle school, some things started to get dropped, in particular summer diving and tennis as they conflicted with his summer Scouting camps. Starting in middle school, he progressed to a higher level of hockey, which started to take up 20+ hours per week, including weekend travel. Fortunately, his rec teams were still able to accommodate him, and he loved continuing to play with his friends. He swapped out baseball for lacrosse in 8th grade, which he continued with through high school. His rec soccer team finally folded after 10th grade, and flag football was done by 9th grade. But he kept on with winter rec basketball though the end of HS, and he played 5 years of HS lacrosse (including a season as an 8th grader). All the while, he continued to progress in and do well with hockey, eventually becoming a two-time captain for his HS team and a 3-time captain for his club team. Hockey ended up being a massive time commitment for him, but he loved it. At the end of his last high school season, he made the decision not to pursue playing in junior hockey and then NCAA hockey, electing instead to go straight to college and play ACHA (club) hockey there.

Based on my experience, let your kid do whatever he loves, if you can make it work logistically/financially for your family. Its hard to know now what his interests/skills will be 10 years from now, so its good to keep doors open if you can.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is a lot of advice here. I’m no different I suppose. My would be:

1. Take a hard look what your family can do. Set aside what you want to do and focus first and what is possible to do. What can you afford? What can you do time wise? Plan for other activities of course and education. You have to take into account future time demands particularly with other kids.

2. As in pretty much everything - ability grows slowly over time. You don’t sit down at the piano for the first time and play Chopin. Learning and improving take years. But, at young ages we really are just starting. So - no - kindergarten is not a cut off.

3. While not a huge factor at young ages, it is important to think long term and guide kids into activities that they are more likely to be physically suited to undertake. This is a little less impactful for girls than boys, but obviously still exists. A couple obvious examples - if your kid is going to be over 6 feet tall then gymnastics is not going to be a very good competitive sport for them long term. Knowing roughly where your kid will be in terms of size and speed is going to be very helpful in guiding them to sports that they can be comfortable competing in.

4. Do not expect your kid to drive decisions. They get input. But, do not expect a 10 year old to be aware of family finances, time and travel demands of the new job, time demands of siblings etc. Be a parent. We do what we can.

5. Do understand the environment you are in. Look at the likely high school your kids will attend. High school seems a long time away, and it is. But, unless you are considering options to move to an area where the high school has 500 kids what your kid is doing at younger ages has some affects on what your kid can do in high school. There are sports in high school that a rank beginner can participate in and even eventually do well. Some sports don’t even really get started until high school (football and running sports). There are also a good many sports where you have to have been playing for many years to have a chance of making a high school team.

6. Be aware and willing to allow kids to try new sports and switch sports. My daughter played college soccer and played club soccer starting a 9. Over the years she played with many girls who ultimately decided to switch from soccer to other sports that they played in college at a high level (Big10 and SEC). Do not get locked in. As a parent one of your ongoing jobs is to continually assess and advise your kids on available options. They lack the knowledge and experience to do that.

A quick note on college sports having had a daughter who played college soccer for 4 years - it is not a think that works well for very many. For the athletes it is “who you are and what you do”. In a D1 school there is very little time to do anything else. In a D3 school - that holds true for the semester you are playing. The head coach is not your buddy, and may well not even be particularly friendly (even if they like you). They don’t work for you. You work for them. They get paid by having teams do well and obey the rules by not getting into trouble and getting decent grades. Teammates are not unfriendly but if you get cut, get injured and can’t play, or quit - you are no longer competition for playing time. That is a plus for them. My daughter got a starting position early in her Junior year when the girl playing the position got hurt and was out 3 weeks. By then my kid had staked a claim and kept the starting job. While she felt sorry for the person getting hurt, she was happy to get the playing time and prove she could do the job. Thus the not uncommon college athlete revision to the saying - “There’s no I in team”. … “but there are two in playing time.”

This was a great post. But you're wrong about football. If your kid wants to play for the HS team, they need to be in pads in elementary school.

Unless they are the fastest kid in the school, there is just too much of a steep learning curve to the sport. The time to learn the sport is grades 4-6, and then the time to find your true position is 7th and 8th.

The kids that are starting the JV team as freshman are the ones that played 7u or 8u football with pads on

It depends. My husband played little league and soccer growing up, not on travel squads or anything. His first experience was with football in 9th grade and he was a D1 player in college.

As a D1 athlete myself I do think the landscape has changed since we were in high school. It seems like kids are getting more serious about sports at a younger age nowadays, and kids who start later often have a lot of catching up to do unless they are super talented. The NCAA recruiting timeline is also earlier than it used to be which makes it harder for someone who starts a sport later to get on coaches’ radar. I wish it weren’t like this but it is the reality. I’m not saying a parent of a second grader should be worried about any of this. Just that it’s now probably a lot more unusual to see someone who doesn’t start a sport until ninth grade to be able to end up playing D1.

[Anonymous]

I would do a variety of sports and see what he likes rather than focusing on any one sport right now. Factor in the cost and commute. For me personally I would be less likely to encourage sports with higher risks of head injuries.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Better goal is not to pursue college sports. If you can manage college without any sports money it is a better experience. College sports force the students to keep doing the same thing they have done for 12 years into college at the exact time they should be exploring new pursuits. Regret getting my kid on that train.

Listen to this poster - 100% Truth.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'll preface this by saying I'm not athletic and have no clue about sports. But my 2nd grade boy is really sporty and at this point there aren't enough hours in the week to do all of the sports. All things being equal, how do I figure out which sports are most desired for boys for, say,college admissions? For example, he's been invited to be on a competition gymnastics team, but it is a lot of hours per week. He also likes baseball, soccer, wrestling, running. And he seems to enjoy them all equally. How did you help your kid choose, or did you just let them do 2 + hours of sports per day, every day?

Our daughter is the same and she does one primary sport the whole year (try outs) plus one secondary sport each season, plus some summer swim team. She wants to do it all and will have to prioritize by age 10 or 12 really.
We also learned more about her and while she's good at a ton of stuff incd tennis and swimming, plus tough on herself/wants to win, she really thrives at fast team ball sports like basketball. She likes it better than soccer due to higher scoring, more team communication on the court.

Just get to know your kid and they'll prob pick right by middle school when things get to be 3-5x a week for a program.

If you need any strategic help, there is an ESPN ranking of sports by different body attributes - speed, durability, hand/eye, endurance, field reading, etc. which could help. It helped us with our other kid who we sensed did not like ball/field sports but did OK at them. They were however, a very strong build and technical but hated to run - so swims and plays squash. When in a team sport they start slacking! but not in individual sports...