Anonymous wrote:DS attends one of the big 3 private schools, and he will likely plays varsity tennis there as the number one player on the team. It took so much time and money to get there, and knowing then what I know now, I am not sure I would do it again. YMMV.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All my kids did high level travel in elementary and middle school and we are very happy with that choice. I think it had 3 big benefits.

1. Fitness. All of my kids are in fantastic condition (much better than their non-travel peers)

2. Social skills & confidence. All of my kids have good social skills, can deal with authority and are appropriately self-confident. It also ensures a significant amount of time away from screens.

3. Parent child relationship. For us working with them on their sports “career” spending one on one time in hotels, and being with them as they went through their ups and downs was the best bonding that I can think of. Particularly with my youngest who was cut from a team and then working him to get in another team was a key event in his life. When things are hard for him now I will say to him remember getting cut? You survived that and you’ll survive this. You can’t get that anywhere else.

But with that said, as a parent you need to approach it with the right mindset. No matter how many opportunities you give them ultimately they have to be the ones to want it. Additionally, pursuing youth sports is no guarantee of athletic success or even continued interest in the sport. You have to look at it as a healthy activity not as a down payment on the future.

Good luck.

God damn, travel sports is like a cult for you Psychos.

I could never imagine looking at my son when dealing with a real adult problem and telling him "hey, remember when you got cut in 6th grade?"

Anonymous wrote:All my kids did high level travel in elementary and middle school and we are very happy with that choice. I think it had 3 big benefits.

1. Fitness. All of my kids are in fantastic condition (much better than their non-travel peers)

2. Social skills & confidence. All of my kids have good social skills, can deal with authority and are appropriately self-confident. It also ensures a significant amount of time away from screens.

3. Parent child relationship. For us working with them on their sports “career” spending one on one time in hotels, and being with them as they went through their ups and downs was the best bonding that I can think of. Particularly with my youngest who was cut from a team and then working him to get in another team was a key event in his life. When things are hard for him now I will say to him remember getting cut? You survived that and you’ll survive this. You can’t get that anywhere else.

But with that said, as a parent you need to approach it with the right mindset. No matter how many opportunities you give them ultimately they have to be the ones to want it. Additionally, pursuing youth sports is no guarantee of athletic success or even continued interest in the sport. You have to look at it as a healthy activity not as a down payment on the future.

Good luck.

Anonymous wrote:We never got into travel sports when DS was younger, but that may be a function of being in NYC where its was less of a "thing." He played for local little league teams until high school, where he now plays on his school team and for a travel team in the summer. He's a junior now, and we're in the beginning of the recruitment process because he would like to play for an academic D1 or D3 school. He dedicates a lot of time off-season to improving his skills, and he works with a trainer and a pitching coach on most evenings after school.

He has always loved to play, but he didn't become truly committed to it until his early teens. The motivation comes from him, and we support him as much as possible. The understanding is that school comes first, and part of what drives him to succeed academically is knowing that it will make him a more attractive candidate to college coaches.

Anonymous wrote:We never got into travel sports when DS was younger, but that may be a function of being in NYC where its was less of a "thing." He played for local little league teams until high school, where he now plays on his school team and for a travel team in the summer. He's a junior now, and we're in the beginning of the recruitment process because he would like to play for an academic D1 or D3 school. He dedicates a lot of time off-season to improving his skills, and he works with a trainer and a pitching coach on most evenings after school.

He has always loved to play, but he didn't become truly committed to it until his early teens. The motivation comes from him, and we support him as much as possible. The understanding is that school comes first, and part of what drives him to succeed academically is knowing that it will make him a more attractive candidate to college coaches.

Anonymous wrote:It really depends on how much your kid loves the sport.

My kid is a baseball fanatic - it is his life’s great passion, and has been since he was about 4. Aided and abetted by a baseball loving dad who coached tball and played hours of catch. Still - with all that love - we still didn’t do travel until 12, and then it was a B level local travel team. Kid didn’t ask before then, and we didn’t offer. I would have had a hard time saying no if he had asked.

He is going to college next year and will play. Over all of this time he has never said he didn’t want to go to practice, never did more than grumble to himself about 5am tournament wake ups. He has driven this the whole time.

I’m glad we enabled his baseball playing - it’s what he loves, and makes him happy and gives him motivation to get up and out the door in the morning. He still lights up when he looks at the calendar at 7am and says “it’s a baseball day!”

Anonymous wrote:^^ He is likely to be the best player on the varsity tennis team as a freshman.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Which parent wants to move up to travel? That parent needs to agree to be the one to give up all of their weekends to travel to games. Your entire weekends will be consumed by traveling for games, so make sure you know what you're signing up for before agreeing to it. IMO low level players shouldn't be playing travel sports, rec is perfect for them.

+1 and read this book.

https://www.si.com/more-sports/2009/04/07/youthsports-untilithurts

My older son had lots of female friends with sports injuries in high school.

My coworkers also have kids who had injuries so bad they quit their sports.

I read high school scholarship apps and a common essay topic is "how I recovered from a leg injury so I could meet xxx goal in my sport".

Anonymous wrote:Which parent wants to move up to travel? That parent needs to agree to be the one to give up all of their weekends to travel to games. Your entire weekends will be consumed by traveling for games, so make sure you know what you're signing up for before agreeing to it. IMO low level players shouldn't be playing travel sports, rec is perfect for them.

Anonymous wrote:All my kids did high level travel in elementary and middle school and we are very happy with that choice. I think it had 3 big benefits.

1. Fitness. All of my kids are in fantastic condition (much better than their non-travel peers)

2. Social skills & confidence. All of my kids have good social skills, can deal with authority and are appropriately self-confident. It also ensures a significant amount of time away from screens.

3. Parent child relationship. For us working with them on their sports “career” spending one on one time in hotels, and being with them as they went through their ups and downs was the best bonding that I can think of. Particularly with my youngest who was cut from a team and then working him to get in another team was a key event in his life. When things are hard for him now I will say to him remember getting cut? You survived that and you’ll survive this. You can’t get that anywhere else.

But with that said, as a parent you need to approach it with the right mindset. No matter how many opportunities you give them ultimately they have to be the ones to want it. Additionally, pursuing youth sports is no guarantee of athletic success or even continued interest in the sport. You have to look at it as a healthy activity not as a down payment on the future.

Good luck.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Short story is that kiddo is in elementary school and their other parent (my ex) and I disagree about moving up to the next league which is not the travel league but it is more competitive than the current recreation league our kid is in - it involves one more practice per week and some weekends could be up to three-ish hours round trip for a game. I recognize that travel leagues are a much heavier lift. Our kid loves playing and is fairly good. They enjoy their current rec team with friends but are worried about getting left behind as several friends plan to move onto the next league. I could see our child excelling in the next league as well as being content until middle school to remain in the rec league and have more weekend time for other social activities.

Any input on how it is for your family currently or looking back, if you started your child in competitive sports early?

Why do you feel travel or more competitive leagues are better / harder than rec leagues?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Short story is that kiddo is in elementary school and their other parent (my ex) and I disagree about moving up to the next league which is not the travel league but it is more competitive than the current recreation league our kid is in - it involves one more practice per week and some weekends could be up to three-ish hours round trip for a game. I recognize that travel leagues are a much heavier lift. Our kid loves playing and is fairly good. They enjoy their current rec team with friends but are worried about getting left behind as several friends plan to move onto the next league. I could see our child excelling in the next league as well as being content until middle school to remain in the rec league and have more weekend time for other social activities.

Any input on how it is for your family currently or looking back, if you started your child in competitive sports early?

Why do you feel travel or more competitive leagues are better / harder than rec leagues?

Anonymous wrote:Short story is that kiddo is in elementary school and their other parent (my ex) and I disagree about moving up to the next league which is not the travel league but it is more competitive than the current recreation league our kid is in - it involves one more practice per week and some weekends could be up to three-ish hours round trip for a game. I recognize that travel leagues are a much heavier lift. Our kid loves playing and is fairly good. They enjoy their current rec team with friends but are worried about getting left behind as several friends plan to move onto the next league. I could see our child excelling in the next league as well as being content until middle school to remain in the rec league and have more weekend time for other social activities.

Any input on how it is for your family currently or looking back, if you started your child in competitive sports early?

Anonymous wrote:Which parent wants to move up to travel? That parent needs to agree to be the one to give up all of their weekends to travel to games. Your entire weekends will be consumed by traveling for games, so make sure you know what you're signing up for before agreeing to it. IMO low level players shouldn't be playing travel sports, rec is perfect for them.