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[quote=Anonymous]My 11 yo son plays three sports: tackle football, wrestling and soccer. He is not the best in any sport, but he is competitive in all. Kids that play year round are usually better than him at the beginning of each season, but he eventually catches up after a few weeks of practice. I think it’s important to change sports every season. Kids get bored/burned out or injured playing the same sport due to the repetitive nature of practicing and/or using the same body parts and motions. He also dabbles in pickleball, basketball and riding his bike. Some of his friends that specialized early (soccer,baseball,wrestling) have quit those sports and are looking to do other things. Top athletes and doctors all say the same thing:don’t specialize. I am a HS coach and teacher, and I can say if your child wants to play a high school sport, they will make a team. A lot of kids don’t come out for sports until HS and make the team, especially football, girls volleyball, g basketball, and lacrosse. There are no cuts for XC, track, swim, and wrestling. Making the varsity basketball is probably the most difficult, but you have freshmen and JV levels to develop and grow. My end goal for my kids is just to play for their high school and be active. I’ve never pushed my kids to do anything, and before every season, I ask them what they want to do and support whatever decision they make. My son has flipped flopped between baseball and soccer and flag and tackle. My daughter really had a great basketball season in the winter and wanted to play spring ball instead of lacrosse, so we did bball. Let them have fun and don’t succumb to the pressure of specializing. Someone mentioned it already, but what is the end goal? Mine is to have happy and active kids and to have a healthy relationship with my kids and not let sports ruin that.[/quote]

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