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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I'm sort of midway through this now with my 8th grader. What I will say for people who don't have superstar athletes- find a club where your kid can play on the top team. Being on the top team of a lower level club is such a better experience than being on team 2/3/4 of a top club. Usually, lower level teams are less pressured and by being on the top team, you get the most attention/best coaching, etc.

Just my 0.02 5 years into this. [/quote]

FWIW, coming from the perspective of a college recruit parent whose kid is now through the process, I completely disagree with this. I think avoiding the top team at a big club until kids are u15 or so is the best plan unless you have an absolute superstar (and even then, I’m not convinced). I actually think for development and growth, being on the second or third team for awhile is best. You get the ambitious coaches who have their own career ambitions, but you don’t have the insanity of the top team parents.

You have to be willing to switch clubs sometimes, when it comes time to go to a top-level team. But I’m so glad my kid played lower level for years, and not on the top team. DC got much better development and a lot more playing time, and then easily transitioned to a top team when DC wanted. The parents were mellower than the top team parents as well.

I honestly don’t understand why so many parents push their kids to be on top teams of any club. It doesn’t always make sense. [/quote]

+1.  I think this is good advice. Especially for baseball.  I’ve seen 95 pound 13 year old boys who were technically superior players to 190 pound players, but just we’re not getting enough playing time on the top team on the big fields.  The small kid kept playing on the “B” for two more years and was the absolute superstar when nature evened things up at 15U.  The smaller kids just have to keep grinding and get good reps.  [/quote]

It's the same in every sport with late growers.  It's painful for them, but they usually end up better for it the long run because they keep working to try to earn minutes or a team spot with the disadvantage of their current size which they can't control.  I have seen kids hit that big growth spurt after sophomore year and then be complete beasts, some even later.  We value the instant win, can't see the forest for the trees in youth sports.  The life lessons and decorum and moral values often get thrown to the wayside by those in power.[/quote]

I’m the PP with the college athlete. For context, my kid was on the 3rd/4th teams when he was little. I thought it was great. The lower level teams are friendly places for development. I do not understand why more people don’t aim for those teams. Top teams on any club (even small clubs) will always have crazy ambitious parents.

As my own kid observed, if you had taken all the kids in his age group at age 8 and guessed which ones would be D1, D3, or not playing at all based on their club position, you probably would have been mostly wrong. [/quote]

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