Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At that age, no. But sadly we found that eventually enough leave for club/travel that the only families left in rec are either very flaky or their kids are unathletic or brand new to the sport. That’s no fun for a kid who takes it seriously and has played for 4 years. By middle school we caved because it was killing her love of the sport to play with kids who did not care.

+1. This is a very common scenario.

+2
I am about to dive into club softball because I cannot take another year of my kid carrying the team and her dealing with disappointment as kids just do bare minimum or not even try.

The dozens of posts about having kids not caring or not trying is bull. I’m sure there are kids there that don’t to be there and their mothers forced them. But the kids who like sports but are new to the game or are having difficulty catching on are trying their hardest. And I doubt your kid is carrying a whole team. I’ve seen enough of these rec leagues to understand that there are usually a handful of kids that have it down, kids who struggle, kids who are timid and too scared to do anything but hang around the edges.

No offense to these kids, but by middle school most decent players want to move on from this. In 12u rec, half of our softball team still couldn’t field an easy grounder and make a competent throw to first base. They still didn’t know when were obvious moments to steal, or the difference between a force or tag play. This is really really basic stuff. And this is why people leave. Not because we have our eye on college scholarships. It’s not that deep.

By middle school I can see there being different levels but younger than that is ridiculous.

What I find fascinating about talking to so many parents about these travel sports leagues is that almost every one of them says "but he/she loves it" after describing a weekend of spending 16 hours in the car driving 500 miles between three cities for tournaments, eating crap fast food and sleeping in budget motels.

Are the parents trying to tell me that their kid loves that crazy schedule, or are they trying to convince themselves that their kid isn't going to burn out at age thirteen and never want to kick a soccer ball again?

Anonymous wrote:My fifth grader has a couple of teammates who started playing travel soccer in second grade. They played a year up because the leagues start at U9. You can’t really tell now who started playing that early. One of the kids is still a strong player, but a couple of others don’t seem to have stayed on their trajectory. They were bigger and/or more skilled at first but now other kids are catching up to their skills, or their size is working against them (the big kid at 7 can end up borderline overweight at 10 and lacking endurance for longer games).

I’m not sure it’s worth spending the extra money just for kids to end up in the same place by late elementary.

Just wait until middle school none of the elementary school training will matter

My fifth grader has a couple of teammates who started playing travel soccer in second grade. They played a year up because the leagues start at U9. You can’t really tell now who started playing that early. One of the kids is still a strong player, but a couple of others don’t seem to have stayed on their trajectory. They were bigger and/or more skilled at first but now other kids are catching up to their skills, or their size is working against them (the big kid at 7 can end up borderline overweight at 10 and lacking endurance for longer games).

I’m not sure it’s worth spending the extra money just for kids to end up in the same place by late elementary.

Anonymous wrote:My DD is in second grade and a few of her friends are playing club soccer. I am trying to understand why you would do this with kids their age? I am not opposed to sports but it seems too intense for their developmental stage. Is the goal a scholarship?

For a second grader I think you are definitely right. General physical fitness, skill acquisition (throwing/catching, swimming, biking), and socializing are what’s important until fifth grade.

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Anonymous wrote:Interesting so on this thread we have future d1 scholarship athletes and olympians

Most posters seem to be saying quite the opposite. No one on our travel team thinks their kid is playing in college.

Oh I definitely think given the track record multiple kids on my son’s club team will be playing d1 and 2 lacrosse. They have recruitments every year including siblings of kids on the team. I doubt there is any scholarship money though and I don’t think the parents need it.z

Lacrosse isn’t that hard to play for college. I have family members who got D1 scholarships after playing high school only and the went pro for a tiny paycheck. Also football and hockey with the hockey players putting much more time into their training.

I know quite a few college athletes, a percentage that went pro. What I didn’t see were kids who were straight A students in all the AP classes who were also D1 athletes. Yet I’ve never seen a poster whose child is on track to play in college D1 acknowledge that their grades are average.

You sound completely out of date for both the sport and current athlete gpa’s and regardless, that post was about the likelihood of recruiting as if it doesn’t happen.

It most definitely does.

I know it’s changed in terms of how many kids want to make the teams. I know about past and current GPAs. Besides the Ivy leagues who play against each other there’s no lacrosse or hockey or basketball or football team where the team players all have 4.0 GPAs. Not even close.

The D1 athletes must have a 2.3 GPA for admission to the school. Recruiters will make sure the top athletes get that 2.3 GPA.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To waste money say your kid plays on a special team

And have your kid around adults who scream yell and are drunk

This the parents are obnoxious pigs

Nothing that costs under $3k a year is a status symbol for crying out loud. Its less than $300/month. I paid that much for preschool "ballet" classes.

It absolutely is in this area. You're sticking your head in the sand.

Anonymous wrote:No, the goal is to be around other kids who also want to play and aren't just there for the snacks.

I hated the snacks after rec games. My kid played for 30 minutes, they don't need a bag of chips and juice box.

We left rec sports because the coaching was often subpar, and in the case of my daughter, she was advanced and needed to play with others more advanced.

That said, we have had a couple of good rec coaches. But its really hit and miss.

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:At that age, no. But sadly we found that eventually enough leave for club/travel that the only families left in rec are either very flaky or their kids are unathletic or brand new to the sport. That’s no fun for a kid who takes it seriously and has played for 4 years. By middle school we caved because it was killing her love of the sport to play with kids who did not care.

+1. This is a very common scenario.

+2
I am about to dive into club softball because I cannot take another year of my kid carrying the team and her dealing with disappointment as kids just do bare minimum or not even try.

The dozens of posts about having kids not caring or not trying is bull. I’m sure there are kids there that don’t to be there and their mothers forced them. But the kids who like sports but are new to the game or are having difficulty catching on are trying their hardest. And I doubt your kid is carrying a whole team. I’ve seen enough of these rec leagues to understand that there are usually a handful of kids that have it down, kids who struggle, kids who are timid and too scared to do anything but hang around the edges.

DP. It's different than just trying hard at practices and the games. I have 3 DCs who played the same rec league sport for years. Two of them fully participated in every practice and tried hard to win every game. The third did all of those things, plus practiced on her own most days and consistently asked to sign up for clinics to get better. That's what PPs are talking about.

You made my point that kids who want to be there go to practices and try hard at each game. One of them played on their own. So?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To waste money say your kid plays on a special team

And have your kid around adults who scream yell and are drunk

This the parents are obnoxious pigs

Nothing that costs under $3k a year is a status symbol for crying out loud. Its less than $300/month. I paid that much for preschool "ballet" classes.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The funny thing is that the tail end of this thread has focused on softball when the OP is about 2nd graders (probably soccer, let's be real here). There aren't a lot of 8U softball travel teams in the DMV.

As far as I'm aware, no soccer league has 8u either.

the younger kids play with the u9s. most clubs have younger than 8 playing with the u9s.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The funny thing is that the tail end of this thread has focused on softball when the OP is about 2nd graders (probably soccer, let's be real here). There aren't a lot of 8U softball travel teams in the DMV.

As far as I'm aware, no soccer league has 8u either.

I was under the distinct impression teams like this were becoming increasingly popular: https://www.sycva.com/pretravelacademy. The only kids I knew in 2nd grade who were playing travel were playing soccer.

The link didn't work. Our club has teams starting with 2018s. The 2018s practice twice a week for 3/4 of the year. They play 3v3 games with each other at the beginning and end of practices and very few games outside the club. The cost is more than a rec league, but we are getting paid coaches and more field time. The emphasis is on fun. The price for our family is a nonfactor, and the drive is no worse than the rec league, so signing up a 2018-born kid with the club program over rec was a no-brainer. I don't care if DC is still playing soccer a few years from now, as DC is having fun and developing an athletic base to serve DC in future sports if soccer doesn't stick.

Also, hockey is a sport that requires a lot of travel at a young age because we lack the depth here to play competitive hockey without any travel.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The funny thing is that the tail end of this thread has focused on softball when the OP is about 2nd graders (probably soccer, let's be real here). There aren't a lot of 8U softball travel teams in the DMV.

As far as I'm aware, no soccer league has 8u either.

I was under the distinct impression teams like this were becoming increasingly popular: https://www.sycva.com/pretravelacademy. The only kids I knew in 2nd grade who were playing travel were playing soccer.

Anonymous wrote:To waste money say your kid plays on a special team

And have your kid around adults who scream yell and are drunk

This the parents are obnoxious pigs

Anonymous wrote:The funny thing is that the tail end of this thread has focused on softball when the OP is about 2nd graders (probably soccer, let's be real here). There aren't a lot of 8U softball travel teams in the DMV.

As far as I'm aware, no soccer league has 8u either.