Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't specialize too early.

The best way to develop a well rounded athlete is to play as many different sports as possible.

For my 11yo son, its:

Fall: Football
Winter: Wrestling
Spring: Baseball

Too many of his friends have become ALL baseball, or ALL lacrosse.

They will not become the best athletes they can be. These kids don't need to specialize until they reach the collegiate, or at the very least, varsity level

Agreed but the push is for travel sports early on that requires a huge time commitment, often year round. It's a cash cow and not going anywhere anytime soon. Varsity HS teams are mostly made up of kids who did/do travel sports.

Agreed, and the societal/peer pressure push is real. But I tell my son ALL the time, just because they play baseball year round, doesnt not make them a better athlete, nor does it mean they will automatically be a better baseball player.

I'm sticking to it. I think, when push comes to shove, and they are trying out for varsity spots on the team, his ability to be a well rounded athlete will help him more than the kids who specialized

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't specialize too early.

The best way to develop a well rounded athlete is to play as many different sports as possible.

For my 11yo son, its:

Fall: Football
Winter: Wrestling
Spring: Baseball

Too many of his friends have become ALL baseball, or ALL lacrosse.

They will not become the best athletes they can be. These kids don't need to specialize until they reach the collegiate, or at the very least, varsity level

Agreed but the push is for travel sports early on that requires a huge time commitment, often year round. It's a cash cow and not going anywhere anytime soon. Varsity HS teams are mostly made up of kids who did/do travel sports.

+1 unfortunately (in my area) if you want to have any hope of playing in high school (at ALL, not even just varsity) you have to play club/travel. A rec kid would never play past middle school age, if even that. Not a fan of this AT ALL but seems to be reality. And most travel/club teams require serious commitment, with other sports needing to come a distance 2nd (true the older they get).

Anonymous wrote:Don't specialize too early.

The best way to develop a well rounded athlete is to play as many different sports as possible.

For my 11yo son, its:

Fall: Football
Winter: Wrestling
Spring: Baseball

Too many of his friends have become ALL baseball, or ALL lacrosse.

They will not become the best athletes they can be. These kids don't need to specialize until they reach the collegiate, or at the very least, varsity level

Yes this works for team sports

My kid is the best beeyatches

Anonymous wrote:Don't specialize too early.

The best way to develop a well rounded athlete is to play as many different sports as possible.

For my 11yo son, its:

Fall: Football
Winter: Wrestling
Spring: Baseball

Too many of his friends have become ALL baseball, or ALL lacrosse.

They will not become the best athletes they can be. These kids don't need to specialize until they reach the collegiate, or at the very least, varsity level

Agreed but the push is for travel sports early on that requires a huge time commitment, often year round. It's a cash cow and not going anywhere anytime soon. Varsity HS teams are mostly made up of kids who did/do travel sports.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our schedule is a bit ridiculous for our 12 year old.

Travel soccer- 3-4 practices per week and games on weekends. Distance travel this year

Swim- 4 days a week and meets once a month

Cross country- it is a rec sport and we rarely make practice but she enjoys the meets when available and she does well.

We make soccer priority 1 so it always wins if there is a conflict. Swim is second.

You have one kid

we have two younger one who each play a sport but they are not at travel level yet.

Don't specialize too early.

The best way to develop a well rounded athlete is to play as many different sports as possible.

For my 11yo son, its:

Fall: Football
Winter: Wrestling
Spring: Baseball

Too many of his friends have become ALL baseball, or ALL lacrosse.

They will not become the best athletes they can be. These kids don't need to specialize until they reach the collegiate, or at the very least, varsity level

Anonymous wrote:Our schedule is a bit ridiculous for our 12 year old.

Travel soccer- 3-4 practices per week and games on weekends. Distance travel this year

Swim- 4 days a week and meets once a month

Cross country- it is a rec sport and we rarely make practice but she enjoys the meets when available and she does well.

We make soccer priority 1 so it always wins if there is a conflict. Swim is second.

You have one kid

Our schedule is a bit ridiculous for our 12 year old.

Travel soccer- 3-4 practices per week and games on weekends. Distance travel this year

Swim- 4 days a week and meets once a month

Cross country- it is a rec sport and we rarely make practice but she enjoys the meets when available and she does well.

We make soccer priority 1 so it always wins if there is a conflict. Swim is second.

We moved out of DC a few years ago and my kids activities have exploded because we are in a small community where they can walk to many things/no traffic to get to others and where the school is small and accommodating of kids playing several sports.

6th and 8th grade boys—club hockey; club tennis; school hockey; school tennis; school lacrosse; rock climbing team.

Both also golf and want to add that in high school.

Oldest is being pressured to do school cross country (coach said he can just run the meets), but, he hasn’t decided on that.

12 yo— swims year round (3x per week except 5x per week in summer)
7 yo— swimming 2x per week (5x per week in summer) and gymnastics 1x per week

My kid plays 10 sports every season and is getting 8 athletic scholarships to 4 D1 schools. He’ll attend all 4 at once and play all sports simultaneously. He’s so special!

Big 3 straight a student does 1 sport in fall, winter, and spring but has training sessions with crew from best sport all year round. Also plays golf for fun and might be best at that (shot a 75 from back tees at a US Open course after having played only 5 or 6 times at the beginning of the summer).

I try to schedule my kids for at least two sports per day, and 5 on the weekends.

When my now-HS was in elementary school, he did all kinds of sports/activities: soccer (spring, fall, and winter), tennis (summer), baseball (spring and summer), flag football (fall), ice hockey (spring, fall, winter), diving (summer), basketball (winter), scouts (year-round). When he moved into middle school, certain things started to drop off (diving, baseball, flag football), and in HS soccer was dropped and lacrosse was added. But hockey started to take more and more time (now 5-7 days a week).