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[quote=Anonymous]The way sports are set up, especially in this area, it can be hard to be competitive in three different sport through high school. Largely because of the prevalence of club sports and off season training.

However, that doesn't mean you should ditch other sports. Your kids might each have a main sport in which they play club and attend off season clinics or training. BUT they can of course participate in other sports as a form of cross training (or just for fun! remember fun?) in the off season.

There are lots of less competitive ways to train in another sport or discipline. You can play rec sports. You can do summer swim. You can do a class or session based activity like yoga or rock climbing. Dance can also be a great complement to other sports, building balance and coordination while also engaging in activity that is fun and cooperative (lots of way to do dance without being on a competitive dance team). Dance also has an artistic component that can be great for kids.

There are also kids who can play two sports competitively if the schedules are complementary. A fall/winter sport like volleyball or basketball and a spring/summer sport like tennis, for instance. There really are still kids who make this work. But also it might be a lot for a kid and they might want a true off season where they don't have to stick to a strict practice and game schedule, in which case a more casual activity might make more sense.

TL;DR: I think you and your husband are both being too rigid. Cross training is truly valuable physically/competitively and also allows kids to explore and do things for fun. But you also have to be realistic about the time commitment for being truly competitive in a sport and recognize that you only have so much control over the culture of the sport where you live. Like if your kid is very committed to swimming, the truth is that in this area that's a year round sport if you want to be competitive, and the practice and meet schedules are not very accommodating of other sports, and that's just the reality. [/quote]

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