In my experience the coaching in travel was worlds beyond rec. Rec coaches were parents who like the sport and want to encourage your kid to be a happy member of the team. Travel coaches work on skills and let you know when your skills are lacking and provide actual tools to get better at playing. They care very little about your happiness but do care a lot about your development. For one of my sons that makes the travel team worthwhile.

I have not seen many rec teams where kids are pushed to improve play. They are just given a venue to use their current skills and improvement comes like by osmosis and time, not instruction. If your son would be OK just playing at his current skill level, rec would be a good option. If he wants to play in high school, he should stay in travel.

Anonymous wrote:I ask my spouse...what's the ultimate goal of all of this? Is it for some kind of scholarship to college so our kids can escape the mean streets of UMC suburbia? That's just not it for us. We want to foster a lifelong enjoyment of sport and make friends. Rec is the place for us for now.

Kids can have a life long enjoyment of the sport while playing travel. Your kid just doesn't have that love.

Anonymous wrote:I ask my spouse...what's the ultimate goal of all of this? Is it for some kind of scholarship to college so our kids can escape the mean streets of UMC suburbia? That's just not it for us. We want to foster a lifelong enjoyment of sport and make friends. Rec is the place for us for now.

What age is your kid?

Anonymous wrote:We had a high level young kid go from travel to rec last year. The biggest thing is level of play. If your kid won’t get frustrated by kids that have no idea what is going on, then it is okay. The coaches are so much more supportive, never yell, all around way better than the big club coaches.
We also asked to play up a year.
Soccer also isn’t kids primary sport so it makes it way easier with schedule conflicts to be in rec.

While DS prefers soccer over everything else, it’s not his only sport. Flexibility and lower stress when missing practices and games is my biggest driver in wanting to go back to rec.
regarding letting my child decide, that is not an option. He has decision-making paralysis, and he cannot make decisions like this. I have to ultimately weigh the pros and cons and make this decision for him. While my husband definitely has a say, I do all the transportation and scheduling so it’s ultimately my decision.
-OP

I ask my spouse...what's the ultimate goal of all of this? Is it for some kind of scholarship to college so our kids can escape the mean streets of UMC suburbia? That's just not it for us. We want to foster a lifelong enjoyment of sport and make friends. Rec is the place for us for now.

Do it OP. Travel sucks up so much family time, if he was happy in rec and had good friends there and a good coach - why add travel to the plate. It can really limit other activities like you said. If he's interested in other things, do rec and open up possibilities. The kids who get a scholarship are such a small percentage, I would just put that out of your mind entirely for the equation. It is difficult to be a kid with a sport scholarship managing school and a basically full time sport anyway, it might not even be what you want for your kid anyway.

We had a high level young kid go from travel to rec last year. The biggest thing is level of play. If your kid won’t get frustrated by kids that have no idea what is going on, then it is okay. The coaches are so much more supportive, never yell, all around way better than the big club coaches.
We also asked to play up a year.
Soccer also isn’t kids primary sport so it makes it way easier with schedule conflicts to be in rec.

Many kids stop playing travel in HS and exclusively play school sports.

If he is semi enjoying travel would suggest you plan to have him continue until he reaches HS and then reassess.

sorry, travel wasn't as fun

Dropping down to rec was the best thing for DD. Soccer was always a second sport and rec just wasn't as fun. I agree with PP about the quality of play going up with age. Her U15 rec team beats her club's second and third teams when they scrimmage

We're in Arlington and they have a step in between called ADP. It's worked out well for my soccer kid. Still more expensive than I want it to be though. I do think we'll flex back down to rec. As the kids get older in rec, they get better and the kids who don't love it stop playing.

First off, on the turf issue, make sure your kid has the right type of cleats. Soccer cleats made for real grass are called "FG" (for "firm ground"); soccer cleats made for artificial grass are called "AG" (for "artificial ground"). The stud pattern on FG cleats are more "grippy" and if used on artificial turf may increase the stress on the body and increase the risk of injury. My kid has been playing travel soccer for years and spends countless hours on artificial grass. After many hours of research, I opted for a Puma's "MG" (multi-ground, just to make it more confusing) cleats, which have a much smaller stud pattern.

https://www.unisportstore.com/football-boots/puma-future-7-match-mg-forever-faster-sunset-glowpuma-blacksun-stream-kids/336020/

Anyway, as to your question, it really should be up to your kid. If he wants to go back to rec, let him go back to rec; if he wants to stay in travel, let him stay in travel. He may go back to rec and find that he misses the more intense and more skillful level of play in travel, and he may realize that travel is where he belongs. If not, and if he truly prefers rec soccer, that's where he belongs and there's nothing wrong with that.

I've had kids of mine in both travel and rec; some have always been rec-only players, some have bounced between rec and travel, and some have basically been all-in on travel from a young age. His passion for soccer and desire to play at a more intense level are really the most important factors. Explain the pros/cons to him and let him decide -- on an issue like this, which is supposed to be about fun and recreational activity, it's OK to defer more to the kids than we would in other more important areas of life.

Anonymous wrote:We moved back to rec this year and I have been so happy with the move. It makes me feel like a chump for having payed for travel. The families and kids are much nicer and I actually don't feel the coaching was any better on travel. I will say that obviously there are variations across the board. We had done a rec - travel - rec path and the first round of rec was much weaker so I think we found the sweet spot this time.

Yikes, sorry - paid.

We moved back to rec this year and I have been so happy with the move. It makes me feel like a chump for having payed for travel. The families and kids are much nicer and I actually don't feel the coaching was any better on travel. I will say that obviously there are variations across the board. We had done a rec - travel - rec path and the first round of rec was much weaker so I think we found the sweet spot this time.

So here is our situation. DS was a standout/rockstar on his rec team and it honestly just looked out of place for him to be playing rec by 3rd grade because his team beat every other team in the league every season for multiple seasons with him scoring most of the goals. We were encouraged by Coach to try travel. DS is now into the second year of travel. He’s had three different coaches, all varying degrees of mediocre. He enjoys how much soccer he gets to play, since travel is more days a week practices and more games and tournaments. However, he still misses the camaraderie of his rec team (kids are just nicer) and he misses his rec coach a ton (encouraging and kind). My concerns about turf being terrible for his body and the expense of travel makes me want to go back to rec. My husband does not agree and thinks he will develop better skills and be more competitive/happier long-term by staying with travel. I’m trying to weigh the short-term benefits of rec with the long-term of travel that my husband is laying out.
I realize in this area soccer is huge and there’s so many different options and I really don’t want to avoid being sucked into the travel soccer machine. I have no idea if he will be good enough to play in college, let alone high school. He also wants to try other sports. Everything in me says to go back to rec but I also don’t want to disadvantage my kid in the sport he loves.
Has anyone been in this situation and do you have opinions on which way to go?