My daughter started travel in 2nd grade. The reason is because soccer is a team sport and in rec most of the players don't have any technical skills, don't understand team tactics, don't know how to nor are encouraged to pass the ball. Also teams are new every season and many of the coaches volunteer out of desperation by the league. Maybe it gets better when they are older, but why delay the learning, development, and competition when your child is ahead of their rec peers and ready for it?

Also its way more fun having the same group playing year round, developing friendships, and going to tournaments together.

She also played 5th grade rec basketball this year and the quality was absolutely horrible, reinforcing our travel decision in soccer was the right one.

If your kid wants to play soccer- having a better coach and better teammates help. Plus more frequency of practices and better fields

We are giving lower level travel a try next year. Still having mixed feelings about it, but our child really wants to try it. We won’t really know if it’s a bad idea or not until we try it for a year I guess. We are just hoping that the coaching is decent and the level of competition is appropriate so that they can learn how to play and not feel demoralized. Their older sibling plays travel at a higher level so we know what the landscape is like. I would’ve liked for our younger one to keep doing rec for at least one more year, but they want to make the move. Plus we found out the rec coach is not going to be coaching next year. We have had some terrible coaches in our rec league so it feels like it would be a crapshoot to stick with it next year. Also hoping that maybe a year of travel will set our child up a little better for the following year when the age groups change. They are going to be on the younger side once that happens and potentially trying out against kids who will already be starting their third year of travel soccer. I don’t expect travel soccer to turn our younger child into an amazing player, but if it’s something they really enjoy and want to work at, and I can afford it, then I will support it as a parent.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know that travel will make your kid better per se but it offers structure for sure. It's disciple and friendships mixed in too. If you just play you can improve - pt and 1:1 with a good coach helps you improve. Travel is loaded with coaches who suck and a lot of politics. It isn't that you do travel and you'll get good. It's more that you have an opportunity in travel v rec to figure out what potential you have, how much you love it and maybe have a lot of fun playing. It's great for offering teamwork, discipline and commitment which rec cannot do. Rec is simply playing a game every wk.

You can't start travel too late either. You play travel because there's only rec or travel and between the 2, travel offers the only serious path forward in the game.

Or you play Classic or Select, because you want the competitiveness of Travel, without the crazy expense and without having to go to other states to get good games in every other weekend. My son's Classic team still did 2-3 travel tournaments per year when they got older because they wanted to, and, because their parent-coach encouraged it. Not all parents coaches are duds, just like not all licensed "pro" coaches are good

Virginia does not have the same system that maryland does from the sound of it. If we did it sure sounds like a great option.

Anonymous wrote:I don't know that travel will make your kid better per se but it offers structure for sure. It's disciple and friendships mixed in too. If you just play you can improve - pt and 1:1 with a good coach helps you improve. Travel is loaded with coaches who suck and a lot of politics. It isn't that you do travel and you'll get good. It's more that you have an opportunity in travel v rec to figure out what potential you have, how much you love it and maybe have a lot of fun playing. It's great for offering teamwork, discipline and commitment which rec cannot do. Rec is simply playing a game every wk.

You can't start travel too late either. You play travel because there's only rec or travel and between the 2, travel offers the only serious path forward in the game.

Or you play Classic or Select, because you want the competitiveness of Travel, without the crazy expense and without having to go to other states to get good games in every other weekend. My son's Classic team still did 2-3 travel tournaments per year when they got older because they wanted to, and, because their parent-coach encouraged it. Not all parents coaches are duds, just like not all licensed "pro" coaches are good

My son who does rec is more skilled than the one that does travel. (He prefers doing multiple sports.). Since he’s got a zero chance of going pro or getting a free ride to a fancy college, it really doesn’t actually matter at all.

He’s very sporty so if he changes his mind, someone will let him kick a ball if we pay them.

I don't know that travel will make your kid better per se but it offers structure for sure. It's disciple and friendships mixed in too. If you just play you can improve - pt and 1:1 with a good coach helps you improve. Travel is loaded with coaches who suck and a lot of politics. It isn't that you do travel and you'll get good. It's more that you have an opportunity in travel v rec to figure out what potential you have, how much you love it and maybe have a lot of fun playing. It's great for offering teamwork, discipline and commitment which rec cannot do. Rec is simply playing a game every wk.

You can't start travel too late either. You play travel because there's only rec or travel and between the 2, travel offers the only serious path forward in the game.

1. Kids don't learn anything in rec. It's 99% parent coaches. Most of whom never played soccer.

2. Travel offers more practice and a certified coach. Practice is three times per week with 1-2 games on weekends. Rec is one practice a week and one game a week.

The major difference is rec is for kids who just want to play a sport. Travel is for kids who want to get better and compete.

We did MSI Classic for a couple years before starting travel in 6th grade and that was a perfect flow without spending so much $ so early on. Highly recommend that as an alternative to jumping straight into travel.

Arlington parent here; the reasons we went to travel were simple. Our rec team had so many games and practices rained out, it was hardly a rec season at all.

Our kids still love their rec teammates, but the absolute crap field maintenance, and that Arlington Travel seems to have a lock on all the turf fields made it an easy choice.

If one or all of my kids really wanted to dedicate all their time to one travel sport, I wouldn’t mind paying even if it meant 3rd-5th team. But they want to play multiple sports throughout the year. They also have other activities outside of sports. Rec is the right fit for my family. 3rd-5th is worth it if that’s what my kids want. Btw- my oldest did play travel one season but went back to rec because he wanted to do other sports too.

Everyone has their own reasons and their reasons probably doesn’t fit your reasons.