Why club sports?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, the goal is to be around other kids who also want to play and aren't just there for the snacks.

There are kids in club sports who were signed up for it by their parents even though they aren’t all that interested. And parents have been conned into believing it’s a necessity in order to play varsity. It’s not. The naturally athletic kids will be playing varsity sports not the ones who isn’t talented but started at three years old.

The truth and nothing but the truth so help me ja

[Anonymous]

A few reasons:

They are very good and it's a fit.

Their parents or they have aspirations of winning, playing in college, etc... This can be aspirational or cultural (families expect it so kids do it).

To be competitive for school team: my kid attends a public HS where his sport is very competitive (less than 40% of kids who try out make it, and kids who aren't at all competitive generally do not try out). 90% of the kids on the JV and Varsity teams play club (at least until they get on Varsity). Club and school just go together. Of course some kids are so good they don't even look at the school team (or can't because they're MLS next). You can roll back the clock and see how playing club in 8th makes you competitive in 9th. Playing in 7th makes you better in 8th. Playing in 6th makes you get on a good team in 7th. Etc... You might laugh at this or be one of the DCUM parents who complain about HS soccer, but look at WJ, Whitman, etc...

Those are reasons why, I guess.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, the goal is to be around other kids who also want to play and aren't just there for the snacks.

There are kids in club sports who were signed up for it by their parents even though they aren’t all that interested. And parents have been conned into believing it’s a necessity in order to play varsity. It’s not. The naturally athletic kids will be playing varsity sports not the ones who isn’t talented but started at three years old.

For most schools? Probably not. For some? Probably so. This really depends on the school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Must we have one of these anti sports threads every few weeks? It’s always an attack on sports but never any other extracurriculars that other kids spend tons of time doing.

Some kids just enjoy sports. It’s not about college, or professional opportunities or any other ridiculous social currency for parents. The kids enjoy their sport and want to play with other kids who share the interest.

I was going to answer from the perspective of classical ballet, which isn't a club sport but takes up as much time and money as one. Even as a 2nd grader, kid wanted to be great and be around kids who wanted to be as serious about it as they were. They got annoyed when kids were messing around and could not fathom how someone could just skip class all the time since their performance depended on everyone being present. Kid could have gone to the local dance studio down the street and taken a ballet/jazz/tap combo class once a week but they wanted as much ballet as possible, watched ballet videos in their free time, wrote down every correction after class in a little notebook, constantly practiced at home on their own initiative, dreamed of getting the big roles that older dancers get, asked to do more and more and more. We were happy to pay for the best training we could within our budget and commuting distance. For this kid, ballet was (is still) their passion but I have absolutely no doubt that if they'd been as into soccer or lacrosse with the same intensity, we would have put them in travel as soon as possible and never looked back because that's where the training is.

Where is she in her training? Hopefully She found a ballet school where she can start at 3x a week and increase yearly.

It’s similar to sports where the serious ones are training more intensely. It’s also true that puberty or high school and natural talent will determine who continues at the top schools, similar to sports

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, the goal is to be around other kids who also want to play and aren't just there for the snacks.

There are kids in club sports who were signed up for it by their parents even though they aren’t all that interested. And parents have been conned into believing it’s a necessity in order to play varsity. It’s not. The naturally athletic kids will be playing varsity sports not the ones who isn’t talented but started at three years old.

For most schools? Probably not. For some? Probably so. This really depends on the school.

And the sport. In my kids' sports even kids who have never played before can make JV, except at one area school where you better have played at least mid-level travel if you want a dream of making any team. Meanwhile you have crew and cross country that are no cut, and other sports that are maybe more intense. I was told many club players get cut from our high school freshmen volleyball team.

[Anonymous]

Second Grade is way way way too early for travel.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At that age, no. But sadly we found that eventually enough leave for club/travel that the only families left in rec are either very flaky or their kids are unathletic or brand new to the sport. That’s no fun for a kid who takes it seriously and has played for 4 years. By middle school we caved because it was killing her love of the sport to play with kids who did not care.

Agree with this 100%. And for soccer, a lot of kids have been playing since they were three. By second grade they are ready to kick it up a notch if they really love it. Having said that, I still know many kids who are really happy in rec soccer at that age.

Ready to kick it up a notch in SECOND GRADE. You're insane.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Must we have one of these anti sports threads every few weeks? It’s always an attack on sports but never any other extracurriculars that other kids spend tons of time doing.

Some kids just enjoy sports. It’s not about college, or professional opportunities or any other ridiculous social currency for parents. The kids enjoy their sport and want to play with other kids who share the interest.

This is not a attack on sports. It's an attack on Travel Sports. Huge difference. One is great the other insidious and terrible

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Must we have one of these anti sports threads every few weeks? It’s always an attack on sports but never any other extracurriculars that other kids spend tons of time doing.

Some kids just enjoy sports. It’s not about college, or professional opportunities or any other ridiculous social currency for parents. The kids enjoy their sport and want to play with other kids who share the interest.

I was going to answer from the perspective of classical ballet, which isn't a club sport but takes up as much time and money as one. Even as a 2nd grader, kid wanted to be great and be around kids who wanted to be as serious about it as they were. They got annoyed when kids were messing around and could not fathom how someone could just skip class all the time since their performance depended on everyone being present. Kid could have gone to the local dance studio down the street and taken a ballet/jazz/tap combo class once a week but they wanted as much ballet as possible, watched ballet videos in their free time, wrote down every correction after class in a little notebook, constantly practiced at home on their own initiative, dreamed of getting the big roles that older dancers get, asked to do more and more and more. We were happy to pay for the best training we could within our budget and commuting distance. For this kid, ballet was (is still) their passion but I have absolutely no doubt that if they'd been as into soccer or lacrosse with the same intensity, we would have put them in travel as soon as possible and never looked back because that's where the training is.

sounds like your kid is kind of a butt.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm someone who would never do club/travel with my kids so I can't say for sure. But, I think it's for a status symbol or college resume building. Maybe parents are trying to live through their kids.

Since you already say you would never do it and have no experience in it, your negative projection is just an assumption.

For our kids it was, as PP mentioned, that they wanted to play with kids who wanted to play, were competitive, and were committed and didn’t skip games. None of our kids wanted to play in college and we certainly weren’t looking to live our lives through elementary sports.

I’d have invested in a country club to give them life long sports rather than start paying for club in elementary. That age requires a parent to go to out of state tournaments and is fundamentally hard on families/ especially families of multiple kids and single parents. We too felt the pressure of the rat race- got one child involved in club lax and saw what a huge jerk off circle and money waste it is for 90% of the kids there. Paying for all that disruption without any plan to play in college seems rough, unless maybe you only have one child. Was too hard and costly with three, for us anyway

[Anonymous]

Simply because it is a better experience than recreational soccer: the coaches are much better, the competition is better, and they have more field time and practice time. If our kid wants to play soccer, we will do it right. We don't even tell people we play for a club, and our kid's 529 plan is already fully funded, so none of the crazy stuff people have made up (bragging, scholarships, illusions of grandeur) apply. It's just better soccer and, therefore, a better experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Must we have one of these anti sports threads every few weeks? It’s always an attack on sports but never any other extracurriculars that other kids spend tons of time doing.

Some kids just enjoy sports. It’s not about college, or professional opportunities or any other ridiculous social currency for parents. The kids enjoy their sport and want to play with other kids who share the interest.

I was going to answer from the perspective of classical ballet, which isn't a club sport but takes up as much time and money as one. Even as a 2nd grader, kid wanted to be great and be around kids who wanted to be as serious about it as they were. They got annoyed when kids were messing around and could not fathom how someone could just skip class all the time since their performance depended on everyone being present. Kid could have gone to the local dance studio down the street and taken a ballet/jazz/tap combo class once a week but they wanted as much ballet as possible, watched ballet videos in their free time, wrote down every correction after class in a little notebook, constantly practiced at home on their own initiative, dreamed of getting the big roles that older dancers get, asked to do more and more and more. We were happy to pay for the best training we could within our budget and commuting distance. For this kid, ballet was (is still) their passion but I have absolutely no doubt that if they'd been as into soccer or lacrosse with the same intensity, we would have put them in travel as soon as possible and never looked back because that's where the training is.

sounds like your kid is kind of a butt.

Yeah what a jerkoff

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Simply because it is a better experience than recreational soccer: the coaches are much better, the competition is better, and they have more field time and practice time. If our kid wants to play soccer, we will do it right. We don't even tell people we play for a club, and our kid's 529 plan is already fully funded, so none of the crazy stuff people have made up (bragging, scholarships, illusions of grandeur) apply. It's just better soccer and, therefore, a better experience.

Your kid won’t even play high school though

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bragging rights primarily.
We do rec ( kid in MS) and 3 girls on our U14 team have come back from travel to rec because the pressure was too much and they couldn’t do other things.

All three of my kids did travel sports and I found it to be the most fun part of parenting. My favorite parts include:

1. One -on -one trips with your kid. If you have multiple kids, you don’t get a lot of individual time. Traveling to tournaments and sharing ahotel room is a great opportunity to build your relationship.

2. Greater insight into you kid’s world. Because tournaments require parents and kids to spend so much time together (Particularly so much downtime) You get to observe their world and a way that you never would ordinarily.

3. Joint project provides opportunities for complex lessons. Your kid’s travel sports career Is sort of a joint project. This provides lots of opportunities for more complex questions like how to be a team mate to someone you’re competing with.

4. Little moments. Over The course of your kids travel career they’ll be tons of moments. And those little moments will be a touchstone Between you and your child forever. Years after my kids stopped playing - We still have our inside jokes about their teams.

There’s lots of other reasons to do travel sports. But be aware that if the goal is athletic excellence travel sports is a very small part of that.

I am glad this worked out for you but would just like to point out that I have had all of that with my kid without travel sports. You are basically extolling the benefits of spending a lot of time with your kid (especially as they get older). I agree this is great. You could get the exact same benefits out of being a scout leader or teaching them to cook or any of a host of other activities that are less expensive and more flexible than travel sports. If you'd rather do travel sports that's totally fine but nothing you've said here is a reason for OTHER people to do travel sports.

The main reasons are:

1) Kid is actually very advanced in the sport and travel teams are increasingly the best place for a kid like that to progress and be able to compete with kids at a similar level.

2) It's a sport that is only available via travel teams -- no rec options or the rec options age out in your area.

3) Social. Kid's best friends do travel sports so your kid does travel sports to keep those friendships.

[Anonymous]

There isn't much travel required in second grade/U8 soccer. I've got a kid on a U7 club team that only plays four games and one tournament in the fall, all within a thirty-minute drive. But we have two to three practices a week from mid-June to the end of October, so the coaching and development have been great, and they are having fun and doing lots of intrasquad 3v3 games during the practices. Maybe we got lucky, but my experience has been that little kid club soccer is about development. I'm sure older parents will tell me it gets worse as they age, but it's a positive experience at the little kid level.