It’s hard and I don’t know what the right answer is. DS is a rising third grader and he has friends specializing already, mostly in either baseball or soccer. He likes sports in general and has alternated up until now (e.g. baseball in spring and soccer in fall) but I don’t know how much longer that makes sense if he wants to move beyond rec leagues. He also really took to summer swim and it seems like if a kid has any interest in club swimming you need to get them in early or risk not being able to get a spot later.

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Anonymous wrote:Woops hit submit too soon! Wondering if we should encourage one sport to focus on or allow them to keep experimenting. I tried a lot of options as a kid and eventually found my favorite in 9th grade, but it doesn’t seem like kids do that in the DMV.

They should enjoy their childhoods. Not everything needs to be a competition. You can do a sport because you enjoy it, and not only to be good at it and have bragging rights. It's called being well-rounded.

Ok said no competitive person ever

But there’s nothing wrong with not being a competitive person, or just competing against yourself to make art strangers will want to display, or to sew well enough to make your own clothing or to read 52 books a year, or to reach whatever goals you have. My niece does gymnastics and just wants to conquer an arial, and doesn’t care about competing against others.

That’s great but why are you perusing a sports forum?

Again, you can do sports without being competitive! You can just take ice skating classes because you like the feeling of gliding and want to learn a few cool tricks to impress your friends. You can just shoot baskets in your driveway or play 3 on 3 with friends and siblings - there doesn't have to be a formal team with uniforms. Sports is not synonymous with competing.

Anonymous wrote:We had our kids did multiple sports but in hindsight now that kids are much older I feel we should have stuck to one thing by first grade bc it would have given them a chance to really develop more skill

They would have developed the necessary skills of a sport if they were good athletes. If they didn’t mention a favorite sport they probably weren’t into it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Woops hit submit too soon! Wondering if we should encourage one sport to focus on or allow them to keep experimenting. I tried a lot of options as a kid and eventually found my favorite in 9th grade, but it doesn’t seem like kids do that in the DMV.

They should enjoy their childhoods. Not everything needs to be a competition. You can do a sport because you enjoy it, and not only to be good at it and have bragging rights. It's called being well-rounded.

Ok said no competitive person ever

The travel and clubs are businesses and they have a spot for everyone to compete, after all they are games. So there is competition. The point is too many parents want their kids in the top team not just any team. Just let your kid enjoy being on a no stress team. The natural talents will find their way to the top. To worry about an elementary school student is absurd.

We had our kids did multiple sports but in hindsight now that kids are much older I feel we should have stuck to one thing by first grade bc it would have given them a chance to really develop more skill

Try to keep exploring multiple sports. If they’re mainly interested in one, do extra camps or training for it, but don’t quit the others all together. Cross development is good.

Anonymous wrote:My 12yo didn’t do travel soccer this year she’s doing rec again because she wants to do other sports. Some of her friends switched to travel but she wants to try flag football and soccer this fall. Then winter basketball.

I’m good with it, I think it’s better to try things and do things that you like.
She did club swim for 2 years too but stoppped doing that. She’s still a good swimmer which is what I wanted in the beginning.

My 12 yo girl did that last year and enjoyed trying different sports. She’s tried a variety over the years but only soccer has stuck. She decided this year she wanted to return to travel soccer.

I feel that way too and mine is only in 2nd grade! With the boys at least everyone seems to be very dialed into 1 or 2 sports and going all in with travel and camps. But we are in the Midwest and it seems like a much heavier sport culture here.

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Anonymous wrote:Multiple sports for sure. For good athletes it is possible to play 3 varsity sports in high school, a bit easier for the girls. My daughter only played ice hockey growing up but hit a wall with her hands. Playing something like Lacrosse probably would’ve helped with that.

Hit a wall with her hands? What does this mean?

It’s a hockey thing…heavy hands.

If that’s means what I think it means, doesn’t that respond to training and practice?

I’m not sure. It didn’t in our case and I do hear lots of people that made it to a relatively high level but plateaued mention it.

I do think cross training with another sport helps the kids that don’t naturally have soft/quick hands. I think it’s why you see so many hockey players also playing lacrosse. Wrestling and rugby complement each other. A lot of football players also do track and field. I’m sure there are a slew of others. I generally am a true believer in playing multiple sports.

Thanks for explaining. I wasn’t trying to argue or be disagreeable, just curious. I would have thought physical conditioning/stamina and skating skills would be most important, so I found it interesting to hear about hand work. I have noticed a lot of cross enrollment at our local high school with hockey and either lacrosse or baseball.

We went with the Try Everything option, or "throw the kitchen sink at it and see what sticks". For two of my kids, from the outside I'm sure people thought they were committed and settled on a single sport by late elementary but they still had other things they did recreationally, and middle school were the years when there was some churn, so if your kids are 9 and 11, just give it time. So we had a few times where someone was trying something new for a bit, or adding another sport and realizing the thing they quit when they were 8 would actually help the new one so they started up again, etc. The 3rd kid, now age 16, started one when she was 4 and immediately found the thing she's still most passionate about but that was pretty unusual, and even she did a brief stint on summer swim team and started to question her choices (until winter club swim cured her of it quickly lol).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Multiple sports for sure. For good athletes it is possible to play 3 varsity sports in high school, a bit easier for the girls. My daughter only played ice hockey growing up but hit a wall with her hands. Playing something like Lacrosse probably would’ve helped with that.

Hit a wall with her hands? What does this mean?

It’s a hockey thing…heavy hands.

If that’s means what I think it means, doesn’t that respond to training and practice?

I’m not sure. It didn’t in our case and I do hear lots of people that made it to a relatively high level but plateaued mention it.

I do think cross training with another sport helps the kids that don’t naturally have soft/quick hands. I think it’s why you see so many hockey players also playing lacrosse. Wrestling and rugby complement each other. A lot of football players also do track and field. I’m sure there are a slew of others. I generally am a true believer in playing multiple sports.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Woops hit submit too soon! Wondering if we should encourage one sport to focus on or allow them to keep experimenting. I tried a lot of options as a kid and eventually found my favorite in 9th grade, but it doesn’t seem like kids do that in the DMV.

They should enjoy their childhoods. Not everything needs to be a competition. You can do a sport because you enjoy it, and not only to be good at it and have bragging rights. It's called being well-rounded.

Ok said no competitive person ever

But there’s nothing wrong with not being a competitive person, or just competing against yourself to make art strangers will want to display, or to sew well enough to make your own clothing or to read 52 books a year, or to reach whatever goals you have. My niece does gymnastics and just wants to conquer an arial, and doesn’t care about competing against others.

That’s great but why are you perusing a sports forum?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Multiple sports for sure. For good athletes it is possible to play 3 varsity sports in high school, a bit easier for the girls. My daughter only played ice hockey growing up but hit a wall with her hands. Playing something like Lacrosse probably would’ve helped with that.

Hit a wall with her hands? What does this mean?

It’s a hockey thing…heavy hands.

If that’s means what I think it means, doesn’t that respond to training and practice?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Multiple sports for sure. For good athletes it is possible to play 3 varsity sports in high school, a bit easier for the girls. My daughter only played ice hockey growing up but hit a wall with her hands. Playing something like Lacrosse probably would’ve helped with that.

Hit a wall with her hands? What does this mean?

It’s a hockey thing…heavy hands.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Woops hit submit too soon! Wondering if we should encourage one sport to focus on or allow them to keep experimenting. I tried a lot of options as a kid and eventually found my favorite in 9th grade, but it doesn’t seem like kids do that in the DMV.

They should enjoy their childhoods. Not everything needs to be a competition. You can do a sport because you enjoy it, and not only to be good at it and have bragging rights. It's called being well-rounded.

Ok said no competitive person ever

But there’s nothing wrong with not being a competitive person, or just competing against yourself to make art strangers will want to display, or to sew well enough to make your own clothing or to read 52 books a year, or to reach whatever goals you have. My niece does gymnastics and just wants to conquer an arial, and doesn’t care about competing against others.