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

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]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.[/quote] This is correct - kids get much better playing w kids w good stick skills and hopefully preventing or fixing bad habits.[/quote]

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

Fifth or 6th grade is plenty early. Only rec through most of elementary is just fine.  There is no need to start in second or third grade the way many of the clubs are pushing now.  Wait until you can tell whether your kid has any real athletic ability and real interest other than just bragging rights.  My DD did not start on a club team until 6th grade and now plays for one of the top 1-2 clubs in the DMV.  Meanwhile most of the girls she played with on her middle school club team who started on club younger did not turn out to be the athletes everyone thought they were as 11-12 year olds and a couple quit who were very good because of burn-out.  [/quote]

Should say "and now plays for one of the top 1-2 high school clubs in the DMV'[/quote]

The blanket statement that "only rec through most of elementary is just fine" is misleading.  It depends on the kid and some kids are ready and would benefit tremendously from travel lacrosse early.  Parent's can tell if their kid is athletic.  If a kid plays a couple of seasons of rec and are really picking up the game and enjoying the game including working on stick skills on their own, that type of kid should definitely consider club/travel lacrosse.  Otherwise they are wasting time in rec league.  The next challenge is finding the right travel or club team, so nothing is guaranteed.  But to tell parents to stick with rec is just bad blanket advice - most rec programs/teams/teammates are weak [b](hero ball, limited passing/assists, limited to no off ball play, poor spacing, unable to execute simple catching and throwing, discipline/goofing off issues[/b]).[/quote]

As if this is not happening with club teams when the kids are younger than 11-12,  I've had a DS and a DD play on "top" club teams at the younger ages and guess what - 90% of the kids act like 8-10 year olds act, playing hero ball, limited passing/assists and plenty of goofing off issues.  It is not like the kids are magically more mature once their parents pay $$$ for a club team.  Some of the coaches are better than others at reigning it in but the better coaches are not out there coaching 2nd through 4th graders; they are coaching MS and HS players.   And then you've got B team coaches,  most of whom are less experienced, less effective, often barely out of college if they are even out of college - and this is more and more the case as the number of teams for 1-3 graders proliferate.  This proliferation is just going to weaken the rec leagues in the long run, where 99% of the kids belong at the younger ages, while lining the pockets of club owners.[/quote]

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