Club lacrosse early years - share "wish I had known"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't agree with "don't play club until 7th or 8th grade". Most good players start playing club in 5th grade at the latest. You want your kid to play with and against them. If you stay with rec or lame travel teams, your kid won't get better. You also want better coaching sooner.

This is correct - kids get much better playing w kids w good stick skills and hopefully preventing or fixing bad habits.

Have the "stick with rec league" people ever seen a rec league game? Get good coaching early.

Our "lowly" "rec" team has excellent coaches and my kid is very good considering the limited time she dedicates to lax. Why on earth would she sacrifice all her time to go from being among the best players in her team/league to maybe being a contributor on some fancy sounding "travel team"?

Not to mention probably giving up the other 4 sports she plays?

It makes no sense.

All these "travel" sports force kids to give up way too much.

[Anonymous]

+1

[Anonymous]

Jack of all trades, Master of none. Is fine for some people. Just not in general for the competitive type

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't agree with "don't play club until 7th or 8th grade". Most good players start playing club in 5th grade at the latest. You want your kid to play with and against them. If you stay with rec or lame travel teams, your kid won't get better. You also want better coaching sooner.

This is correct - kids get much better playing w kids w good stick skills and hopefully preventing or fixing bad habits.

Have the "stick with rec league" people ever seen a rec league game? Get good coaching early.

Our "lowly" "rec" team has excellent coaches and my kid is very good considering the limited time she dedicates to lax. Why on earth would she sacrifice all her time to go from being among the best players in her team/league to maybe being a contributor on some fancy sounding "travel team"?

Not to mention probably giving up the other 4 sports she plays?

It makes no sense.

All these "travel" sports force kids to give up way too much.

Disagree. DD plays for the top club in the area. Also plays on 2 other varsity teams in addition to the varsity sport for which she plays club and is active in two other non-sport extracurricular activities. All depends on the kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't agree with "don't play club until 7th or 8th grade". Most good players start playing club in 5th grade at the latest. You want your kid to play with and against them. If you stay with rec or lame travel teams, your kid won't get better. You also want better coaching sooner.

This is correct - kids get much better playing w kids w good stick skills and hopefully preventing or fixing bad habits.

Have the "stick with rec league" people ever seen a rec league game? Get good coaching early.

Our "lowly" "rec" team has excellent coaches and my kid is very good considering the limited time she dedicates to lax. Why on earth would she sacrifice all her time to go from being among the best players in her team/league to maybe being a contributor on some fancy sounding "travel team"?

[Because she will get better playing with (and against) the better players, who play travel, than she will playing rec. And if she gets better, she will not be sidelined on a travel team. Sure, if all she wants to do is have time on the field, and doesn't want to put the time in to be good, rec is fine, but if she actually wants to be good at the game, travel is the way to go. And oh by the way, your rec coaches are not better than travel coaches.]

Not to mention probably giving up the other 4 sports she plays?

[My son and daughter play travel lacrosse AND play other sports as well. Try again. But hey, if it's not her priority to be good at lacrosse, so be it.]

It makes no sense.

[No sense to you, but it makes plenty of sense to kids who want to play with, and against, really good players.]

All these "travel" sports force kids to give up way too much.

[Nope. I know plenty of kids on travel teams who, like my kids, play other sports too. Indeed, the club encourages them to do this. At the youth level, they want the kids to play rec lacrosse as well as travel.]

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our "lowly" "rec" team has excellent coaches and my kid is very good considering the limited time she dedicates to lax. Why on earth would she sacrifice all her time to go from being among the best players in her team/league to maybe being a contributor on some fancy sounding "travel team"?

Not to mention probably giving up the other 4 sports she plays?

It makes no sense.

All these "travel" sports force kids to give up way too much.

Not sure what to make of this post. Agree there are good rec coaches. True, travel sports can take up a lot of time. In the end there is room to play multiple sports. Just not likely kids can play multiple sports at a club level.

What threw me off was the troubling comment, "Why on earth would she sacrifice all her time to go from being among the best players in her team/league to maybe being a contributor on some fancy sounding 'travel team'?" The answer is simple -- to compete and challenge herself against better players, so she can continue to improve. Those "contributors" you referenced are called teammates and the best "teams" win, not the best individuals. These contributors push each other in a positive way to become better and confident individuals, teammates, and players.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our "lowly" "rec" team has excellent coaches and my kid is very good considering the limited time she dedicates to lax. Why on earth would she sacrifice all her time to go from being among the best players in her team/league to maybe being a contributor on some fancy sounding "travel team"?

Not to mention probably giving up the other 4 sports she plays?

It makes no sense.

All these "travel" sports force kids to give up way too much.

Not sure what to make of this post. Agree there are good rec coaches. True, travel sports can take up a lot of time. In the end there is room to play multiple sports. Just not likely kids can play multiple sports at a club level.

What threw me off was the troubling comment, "Why on earth would she sacrifice all her time to go from being among the best players in her team/league to maybe being a contributor on some fancy sounding 'travel team'?" The answer is simple -- to compete and challenge herself against better players, so she can continue to improve. Those "contributors" you referenced are called teammates and the best "teams" win, not the best individuals. These contributors push each other in a positive way to become better and confident individuals, teammates, and players.

Yup, I saw some of those "good" rec players on my son's HS JV team...and they never got played. It's all relative...you were "good" on that team, but you will never be "good" in the big league if you don't push yourself.

[Anonymous]

After reading this thread, which I do find interesting, I wonder if people are watching the same games I watch as a parent and former coach. It must be that some of these comments come from parents who are in MD and do not follow NVYLL lacrosse. If an all star team was created using the top players from last season's 14U division, all of these players would also be the same ones on the top travel teams in the area. These same players will also be the top HS players over the next few years. I know that some players choose to not play "rec" but "rec" ball is still dominated by the top travel team players.

[Anonymous]

My DD’s biggest lesson learned/regret is sticking with a team that wasn’t right for her. If you have suspicions for any reason whatsoever, try out for a different team and change teams. No sense sticking with something if it’s not working out.

[Anonymous]

I can’t believe looking at the practice and tournament schedule of some of these club teams that kids really do play other sports and do non-sport stuff. If they do, they either don’t get much sleep, get no downtime or don’t need to study to keep up their grades.

I’m sure they encourage other sports. That’s the reasonable thing to say and parents eat it up. But I don’t really believe they mean it. They may want you to play a little of something else but nothing that will lure you away and nothing that conflicts.

We have friends who tell us their girls can totally do competitive gymnastics and competitive dance. It means every single day after school they are doing something for three plus hours in addition to all the training and competitions on weekends.

Sure, on a calendar you can fit it all in. But, really?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can’t believe looking at the practice and tournament schedule of some of these club teams that kids really do play other sports and do non-sport stuff. If they do, they either don’t get much sleep, get no downtime or don’t need to study to keep up their grades.

I’m sure they encourage other sports. That’s the reasonable thing to say and parents eat it up. But I don’t really believe they mean it. They may want you to play a little of something else but nothing that will lure you away and nothing that conflicts.

We have friends who tell us their girls can totally do competitive gymnastics and competitive dance. It means every single day after school they are doing something for three plus hours in addition to all the training and competitions on weekends.

Sure, on a calendar you can fit it all in. But, really?

Yes, really, it does work if this is what your child wants.

I am the PP at 16:12. DD plays 3 varsity sports, lax for the top club in the area and is involved in 2 other extracurricular activities. She takes tough classes, spends 2-3 hours a day on HW and usually gets enough sleep. She also has a pretty good social life and occasionally babysits on the weekends. Since ES she has been a very outgoing, competitive and athletic person who prefers to keep busy. I like to joke that she is busier than all her siblings combined. She is able, so far, to keep herself organized, balance all of this and do well in school. She is a happy teenager (mostly) and so we follow her lead (mostly) in terms of how she structures her time. If anything, we have to say no to her when she asks or tries to do even more.

Most of the girls on her club team appear to be happy, well-rounded kids who play at least one other sport for their HS. Yes, the club means it and supports it as long as it does not regularly conflict with club events. Since the club, for the most part, takes into account HS sports' schedules when scheduling practices, it seems to work most of the time. As far as tournaments, those are always on weekends and rarely, if ever, conflict with HS sports.

I've been around and raised enough other DCs by now to know that this isn't for everyone; it never would have worked for my other DCs. And it won't work for a family that is not willing or able to accommodate such an intense schedule. For now, for us and our DD, it works.

[Anonymous]

Don't have your kid play for a club that has an owner with the emotional maturity of a 4 year old (e.g., Madlax, Pride)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can’t believe looking at the practice and tournament schedule of some of these club teams that kids really do play other sports and do non-sport stuff. If they do, they either don’t get much sleep, get no downtime or don’t need to study to keep up their grades.

I’m sure they encourage other sports. That’s the reasonable thing to say and parents eat it up. But I don’t really believe they mean it. They may want you to play a little of something else but nothing that will lure you away and nothing that conflicts.

We have friends who tell us their girls can totally do competitive gymnastics and competitive dance. It means every single day after school they are doing something for three plus hours in addition to all the training and competitions on weekends.

Sure, on a calendar you can fit it all in. But, really?

DS is doing club lacrosse. Right now, that's two practices a week, and two tournaments in November. He's also doing flag football (which also requires weekday afternoon practice), fencing, and music lessons. So yeah, he really is doing travel lacrosse as well as other sports and non-sport stuff. He is sleeping and keeping up his grades. So he's not playing as much xbox as he did during the summer.... eh, so what?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Don't have your kid play for a club that has an owner with the emotional maturity of a 4 year old (e.g., Madlax, Pride)

I make a comment about your kid getting cut from the program, and my comment gets deleted? Sounds like I’m right.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't have your kid play for a club that has an owner with the emotional maturity of a 4 year old (e.g., Madlax, Pride)

I make a comment about your kid getting cut from the program, and my comment gets deleted? Sounds like I’m right.

+1