Advice on whether young small player should accept invitation for 9u Travel

[Anonymous]

We are super proud of our little guy for proving himself worthy of an invitation for 9u travel. He's able to do things with a soccer ball beyond his age.

Here is the question. He turns 7 on 6/9. Travel team is 9u. While he won't have many friends on the team, he is excited about playing with highly skilled players.

We are not a soccer family, but are 100% supportive of his love for the game.

The question is whether he is too young or would benefit from another year with his buddies? Could he do both rec with his friends and travel? How hard is it for him to do other sports he loves (hoops, baseball)?

To us, he seems really young to specialize but we also realize we don't know that much about soccer development.

Thank you for your advice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are super proud of our little guy for proving himself worthy of an invitation for 9u travel. He's able to do things with a soccer ball beyond his age.

Here is the question. He turns 7 on 6/9. Travel team is 9u. While he won't have many friends on the team, he is excited about playing with highly skilled players.

We are not a soccer family, but are 100% supportive of his love for the game.

The question is whether he is too young or would benefit from another year with his buddies? Could he do both rec with his friends and travel? How hard is it for him to do other sports he loves (hoops, baseball)?

To us, he seems really young to specialize but we also realize we don't know that much about soccer development.

Thank you for your advice.

A lot of pp have their kids play up a year. We declined it at the time as we see no value in pushing our then turning 7yr into competitive sport. Once you are on a travel team, it gets trickier to try other sport as u want to have rest days in between practice and games for their growing body. It’s a personal choice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just pay the 1800 and shut up

OP, ignore this idiot. The question is whether your son loves soccer to the point where he is willing to have that greater commitment at this age. If he's been focused and competitive in his rec games, listening to his coach, picking up a ball at home, and clearly showing interest in playing more, then this may be a good move. If he's having a great time in rec but more interested in having fun with friends (which by the way is totally normal for his age!) and also has a bunch of other interests he would miss doing if he was spending more time playing soccer, keep him in rec and let him do other things for a year or two. There are pros and cons to specializing young. If he's got potential and he's willing to put in the work, starting travel early will help him develop technical skills and a greater understanding of the game. If he has fun with soccer but it's not that important to him, the added schedule demands of travel may cause him to flame out early, OR may ignite greater interest/passion. I wouldn't worry as much about whether he'll make friends; kids tend to make friends wherever they go. You know your kid and that's really the only thing that will tell you whether the extra cost and time is worth it. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are super proud of our little guy for proving himself worthy of an invitation for 9u travel. He's able to do things with a soccer ball beyond his age.

Here is the question. He turns 7 on 6/9. Travel team is 9u. While he won't have many friends on the team, he is excited about playing with highly skilled players.

We are not a soccer family, but are 100% supportive of his love for the game.

The question is whether he is too young or would benefit from another year with his buddies? Could he do both rec with his friends and travel? How hard is it for him to do other sports he loves (hoops, baseball)?

To us, he seems really young to specialize but we also realize we don't know that much about soccer development.

Thank you for your advice.

The ultimate answer to your question is - what does he want to do? I know he's just 7, but is he happy with playing rec soccer or feeling bored / unchallenged? I'd let him send the cues. Ultimately, he's not going to miss out on much by not doing travel this year.
Absent his clear preferences: If he's good to the point where he made the top team for U9, then I'd consider giving him the competition. If he's on a 2nd or lower team, I'd keep him in rec. The competition is not that much different between rec and the lower travel teams at that age. Could he do both? Yes. But I'd consider having him doing a winter indoor program with his buddies while focusing on travel for spring or fall. Hope this helps.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are super proud of our little guy for proving himself worthy of an invitation for 9u travel. He's able to do things with a soccer ball beyond his age.

Here is the question. He turns 7 on 6/9. Travel team is 9u. While he won't have many friends on the team, he is excited about playing with highly skilled players.

We are not a soccer family, but are 100% supportive of his love for the game.

The question is whether he is too young or would benefit from another year with his buddies? Could he do both rec with his friends and travel? How hard is it for him to do other sports he loves (hoops, baseball)?

To us, he seems really young to specialize but we also realize we don't know that much about soccer development.

Thank you for your advice.

A lot of pp have their kids play up a year. We declined it at the time as we see no value in pushing our then turning 7yr into competitive sport. Once you are on a travel team, it gets trickier to try other sport as u want to have rest days in between practice and games for their growing body. It’s a personal choice.

He would be only playing up 1 year. This is extremely common at the u9 level. I say yes because the sooner you can get him away from the bad habits he may develop in rec soccer the better. Also it only makes him improve faster to play with older better kids.

[Anonymous]

At that age it is fairly common for kids to play both travel and rec, specifically because they still want to stay with their rec friends while also getting the training of travel.

Whether to accept the travel invitation is hard. I don't know where you are or what league you would be playing in, but at least some leagues try to prioritize grouping U9 teams by geography to minimize the travel distance for young kids. That said, travel is still a time commitment, and it does make it more difficult to do other sports as well, especially if he is also playing rec soccer. Basketball is easier because it's typically in the winter when soccer is on a bit of a break, but doing baseball plus travel soccer and rec soccer would be a lot when they're all in season. If he does do travel next year, I would probably say he would do one other team at the same time, either rec soccer or baseball, but not both.

Personally, I agree with you that this is too young for kids to specialize so heavily, and I have very strong negative feelings about the fact that clubs start travel that young. It's the system we have, though, and reality is that if you turn down the invitation this year, it may limit options later, especially if your son doesn't try out for travel again for a few years. That doesn't mean waiting is a bad thing. We did not have our soccer-loving kid try out for travel at all until he asked to do it on his own initiative when he was 10. By then he was behind a lot of peers, and with so many kids already ahead of him in the system he is unlikely to work his way up to one of the club's top teams. But he is on a travel team and he loves it. I don't question our decision to wait because it was the right one for our kid.

[Anonymous]

The volume of practices for a travel team will likely be much higher than any rec team he plays on, so he will improve more quickly just because he will be playing a lot more. Also, at U9 they play 7v7 on a larger field rather than 4v4 on a small field, which is what most U8 and U7 teams play. I find the 7v7 set-up much better for more skilled players because the 4v4 at U7 and U8 ends up with a scrum crowding around the ball most of the time. Kids with good skill can break away and still play something that resembles soccer, but it can be tough depending on the skill of teammates and the opposing players.

One caveat - if he's really small, he likely will lose a step or two to the older/faster kids and will get knocked off the ball more. Can be frustrating for kids who are used to being the best on the field. It takes a lot of skill to make up 2 years in age and a big difference in size and speed, but some younger and smaller kids manage just fine.

It's not going to make or break him at this age either way, so if you're willing to drive him to 2-3 practices during the week and games on weekends, might as well try it.

[Anonymous]

Keep him in his age group and let him have fun with his friends. He can move to travel next year.

[Anonymous]

My son is 7 and finishing out his u9 season right now. It was really a great experience for him and he was so glad he did it. He will play u9 again next year, but on our club's top team. Our club is encouraging of kids playing multiple sports, especially at the young ages.

[Anonymous]

Having him play up in rec or travel early on is fine, but as a PP noted, their DC played up one year but then is staying at age level the following year. This is a good way to go for travel.

The main thing is to make sure your DC still loves to play--fostering their love for the game is all that matters. So if DC pines to play with friends, please listen.

[Anonymous]

OP-- playing up at 7 for U9 was common in our big Club as parents sought it out (especially ones with older siblings) as a means to try to get their kid an A team spot when they are of age.

I'd say 95% of these kids burned out by mid-late elementary school. 90 min practices, tournaments and missing bday parties and sleepovers starting at such a young age starts to take the love out of it.

[Anonymous]

Our son was smaller than average in size, but better than average in soccer skills, and he played up a year when he was 7 just like your son has been offered a spot to do. We never regretted it — he was on the smaller side but still competitive with the other boys. He has older brothers too, so the idea of playing with kids 1 year older never phased him.

[Anonymous]

Well done him.

I don’t think you should be too worried about it.

Obviously the coach thinks he is good enough to play up a year. He is going to be playing against kids a good bit older (1.5 years potentially) and bigger than he is. Only you know how he will respond to that.

Does the club not have an 8U pre-travel program?

If the club has 8U they might let him do a bit of both, so he gets the experience of playing with the older kids but also sometimes plays at his own age group where he will gain confidence as he will be the best kid on the team.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are super proud of our little guy for proving himself worthy of an invitation for 9u travel. He's able to do things with a soccer ball beyond his age.

Here is the question. He turns 7 on 6/9. Travel team is 9u. While he won't have many friends on the team, he is excited about playing with highly skilled players.

We are not a soccer family, but are 100% supportive of his love for the game.

The question is whether he is too young or would benefit from another year with his buddies? Could he do both rec with his friends and travel? How hard is it for him to do other sports he loves (hoops, baseball)?

To us, he seems really young to specialize but we also realize we don't know that much about soccer development.

Thank you for your advice.

I think the question is who is pushing it? Is it the club, is it you, or is it him. If he's the one begging for it, then he can do it and be happy. If it's not him, practice could very well turn into a chore. You can do U9 and other sports and some clubs let you do rec too for a certain amount of time. The kids who it makes sense to play up are those who are fed up with playing rec due to lack of competition or lack of caring by teammates. If they still love rec, just let them play rec for another year

[Anonymous]

Either way is perfectly fine. It's only for one year and then he can do something else. If he plays up with travel and it doesn't go well, you can put him back in rec with his friends. Another year of rec is fine too there will be travel teams to join the following year. It really depends on the child and you know what is best for him. Despite what you may read on this forum, his future in soccer will not be impacted by what you decide at age 7.