Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The $$$ amount keeps going up each post. Rec is completely fine, but almost everywhere it dies out at a very early age. If that's what your kid wants, great! Just don't think you'll hop right onto a high level club team come HS time (or even make most HS rosters around here).

It goes all the way to 8th in DC -- all of the kids who love soccer who get burned out or whose parents can't pay the travel fees come back.

In the Va burbs and DC, kids can play in NCSl Rec through u19. Its a fun league.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rec until at least sixth grade.

THere's no skill development that can't be replicated by a talented middle schooler. Keeping them in the game and enthusiastic will probably make them a better (and more skilled) soccer player than putting them on a tough schedule.

Honestly, if your kid is a natural athlete who has a career in sports that goes beyond high school, they'll be best served by playing as many sports as possible, developing lots of skills, staying fit and happy. If they're a soccer player destined for greatness, they can pick it up their junior year of high school and be fine. If they're not an athlete who has D1 or pro future, no amount of expensive travel soccer in elementary school will change that.

You have to be kidding me. No one is picking up soccer in Junior of HS. You need a reality check on the current state of youth sports.

USMNT goalie Matt Turner didn't start playing soccer until he was 15. Probably not the ideal way to make it, but it's surprisingly common for professional athletes. There's a reason why so few Little League World Series players wind up in the majors, and none of the game's top stars were LLWS participants—because if you're a super-talented athletic freak, it doesn't matter what you're doing with your elementary school years, as long as you're active.

Join travel if your kid loves doing nothing but soccer, but don't worry about it until late ES, because the discernible improvement in skill is not worth the $3k and emotional trauma. A kid who happily plays rec until middle school will be a far better player than a kid who starts travel in 1st or 2nd grade. And if they're going to be a great, it doesn't matter when you start them.

You cherry picked a very specific position that relies on attributes most players don't have. You cannot be a serious soccer player if you play rec until 6th grade. Sorry, that used to work but it's just not possible now.

Oh dear, you've been brainwashed. A child who has been playing rec soccer K-6 can most definitely make a travel team in 7th. It won't be the best team in the league, but they can make a team if they're good.

I think this is highly dependent on the quality of the rec program. Where i live the girls rec programs are awful. You are not going to get better if half of the team you are on is only there because their parents want their daughter to get some exercise. Then they just stand around the whole time.

All the rec and all the travel in the world won't work if the kid isn't interested. It's the kid who goes out to the backyard or alley and juggles or kicks against the wall, or goes to the park with friends for pickup games every afternoon after school... and gets to school early for keepy-uppy circle, who is going to take your kids spot on the travel team, and who is going to play at a high level after high school. Doesn't matter if they played rec or travel.

We have kids in 6th and 7th whose parents are diplomatic and come in from Europe or South America having never played organized soccer of any kind, and their skill and their IQ are vastly superior to the kids who have been in travel since 1st grade. Because one kid has been playing soccer non-stop and is never without a ball at his feet from the time he could walk, and the other is forced to play under middling coaches because his parents are frantic over the money they're flushing down the toilet on "travel".

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rec until at least sixth grade.

THere's no skill development that can't be replicated by a talented middle schooler. Keeping them in the game and enthusiastic will probably make them a better (and more skilled) soccer player than putting them on a tough schedule.

Honestly, if your kid is a natural athlete who has a career in sports that goes beyond high school, they'll be best served by playing as many sports as possible, developing lots of skills, staying fit and happy. If they're a soccer player destined for greatness, they can pick it up their junior year of high school and be fine. If they're not an athlete who has D1 or pro future, no amount of expensive travel soccer in elementary school will change that.

You have to be kidding me. No one is picking up soccer in Junior of HS. You need a reality check on the current state of youth sports.

USMNT goalie Matt Turner didn't start playing soccer until he was 15. Probably not the ideal way to make it, but it's surprisingly common for professional athletes. There's a reason why so few Little League World Series players wind up in the majors, and none of the game's top stars were LLWS participants—because if you're a super-talented athletic freak, it doesn't matter what you're doing with your elementary school years, as long as you're active.

Join travel if your kid loves doing nothing but soccer, but don't worry about it until late ES, because the discernible improvement in skill is not worth the $3k and emotional trauma. A kid who happily plays rec until middle school will be a far better player than a kid who starts travel in 1st or 2nd grade. And if they're going to be a great, it doesn't matter when you start them.

You cherry picked a very specific position that relies on attributes most players don't have. You cannot be a serious soccer player if you play rec until 6th grade. Sorry, that used to work but it's just not possible now.

Oh dear, you've been brainwashed. A child who has been playing rec soccer K-6 can most definitely make a travel team in 7th. It won't be the best team in the league, but they can make a team if they're good.

I think this is highly dependent on the quality of the rec program. Where i live the girls rec programs are awful. You are not going to get better if half of the team you are on is only there because their parents want their daughter to get some exercise. Then they just stand around the whole time.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rec until at least sixth grade.

THere's no skill development that can't be replicated by a talented middle schooler. Keeping them in the game and enthusiastic will probably make them a better (and more skilled) soccer player than putting them on a tough schedule.

Honestly, if your kid is a natural athlete who has a career in sports that goes beyond high school, they'll be best served by playing as many sports as possible, developing lots of skills, staying fit and happy. If they're a soccer player destined for greatness, they can pick it up their junior year of high school and be fine. If they're not an athlete who has D1 or pro future, no amount of expensive travel soccer in elementary school will change that.

You have to be kidding me. No one is picking up soccer in Junior of HS. You need a reality check on the current state of youth sports.

USMNT goalie Matt Turner didn't start playing soccer until he was 15. Probably not the ideal way to make it, but it's surprisingly common for professional athletes. There's a reason why so few Little League World Series players wind up in the majors, and none of the game's top stars were LLWS participants—because if you're a super-talented athletic freak, it doesn't matter what you're doing with your elementary school years, as long as you're active.

Join travel if your kid loves doing nothing but soccer, but don't worry about it until late ES, because the discernible improvement in skill is not worth the $3k and emotional trauma. A kid who happily plays rec until middle school will be a far better player than a kid who starts travel in 1st or 2nd grade. And if they're going to be a great, it doesn't matter when you start them.

You cherry picked a very specific position that relies on attributes most players don't have. You cannot be a serious soccer player if you play rec until 6th grade. Sorry, that used to work but it's just not possible now.

Oh dear, you've been brainwashed. A child who has been playing rec soccer K-6 can most definitely make a travel team in 7th. It won't be the best team in the league, but they can make a team if they're good.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The $$$ amount keeps going up each post. Rec is completely fine, but almost everywhere it dies out at a very early age. If that's what your kid wants, great! Just don't think you'll hop right onto a high level club team come HS time (or even make most HS rosters around here).

This is actually not true at all. Our rec league goes all the way to high school and is very popular.

+1

Anonymous wrote:The $$$ amount keeps going up each post. Rec is completely fine, but almost everywhere it dies out at a very early age. If that's what your kid wants, great! Just don't think you'll hop right onto a high level club team come HS time (or even make most HS rosters around here).

This is actually not true at all. Our rec league goes all the way to high school and is very popular.

OMG She won't fall behind. Kids who start travel in 6th grade can be the best player on the team.

Anonymous wrote:The $$$ amount keeps going up each post. Rec is completely fine, but almost everywhere it dies out at a very early age. If that's what your kid wants, great! Just don't think you'll hop right onto a high level club team come HS time (or even make most HS rosters around here).

It goes all the way to 8th in DC -- all of the kids who love soccer who get burned out or whose parents can't pay the travel fees come back.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rec until at least sixth grade.

THere's no skill development that can't be replicated by a talented middle schooler. Keeping them in the game and enthusiastic will probably make them a better (and more skilled) soccer player than putting them on a tough schedule.

Honestly, if your kid is a natural athlete who has a career in sports that goes beyond high school, they'll be best served by playing as many sports as possible, developing lots of skills, staying fit and happy. If they're a soccer player destined for greatness, they can pick it up their junior year of high school and be fine. If they're not an athlete who has D1 or pro future, no amount of expensive travel soccer in elementary school will change that.

You have to be kidding me. No one is picking up soccer in Junior of HS. You need a reality check on the current state of youth sports.

USMNT goalie Matt Turner didn't start playing soccer until he was 15. Probably not the ideal way to make it, but it's surprisingly common for professional athletes. There's a reason why so few Little League World Series players wind up in the majors, and none of the game's top stars were LLWS participants—because if you're a super-talented athletic freak, it doesn't matter what you're doing with your elementary school years, as long as you're active.

Join travel if your kid loves doing nothing but soccer, but don't worry about it until late ES, because the discernible improvement in skill is not worth the $3k and emotional trauma. A kid who happily plays rec until middle school will be a far better player than a kid who starts travel in 1st or 2nd grade. And if they're going to be a great, it doesn't matter when you start them.

Can we stop taking examples of pro athletes who started a sport late and extrapolating to the average kid? It's not the typical path for the VAST majority of kids. Most kids need to work at and practice something for a long time in order to achieve fairly modest levels of success. For every pro athlete who started in 8th grade there are thousands of kids who went out for the MS or HS team after only playing rec (or not at all) and not even being close to making the team.

I am not even going to address the emotional trauma comment. You seem to have a warped view of what travel sports are like.

If we're talking the average kid, we shouldn't be talking about making them play in an expensive, high-pressure situation—they're not going anywhere wiht the sport, so they should be having fun. High-intensity training is useful if you've got a path somewhere—the kids who have a path don't need elementary school travel. The kids who don't have a path don't need it either.

The $$$ amount keeps going up each post. Rec is completely fine, but almost everywhere it dies out at a very early age. If that's what your kid wants, great! Just don't think you'll hop right onto a high level club team come HS time (or even make most HS rosters around here).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rec until at least sixth grade.

THere's no skill development that can't be replicated by a talented middle schooler. Keeping them in the game and enthusiastic will probably make them a better (and more skilled) soccer player than putting them on a tough schedule.

Honestly, if your kid is a natural athlete who has a career in sports that goes beyond high school, they'll be best served by playing as many sports as possible, developing lots of skills, staying fit and happy. If they're a soccer player destined for greatness, they can pick it up their junior year of high school and be fine. If they're not an athlete who has D1 or pro future, no amount of expensive travel soccer in elementary school will change that.

You have to be kidding me. No one is picking up soccer in Junior of HS. You need a reality check on the current state of youth sports.

USMNT goalie Matt Turner didn't start playing soccer until he was 15. Probably not the ideal way to make it, but it's surprisingly common for professional athletes. There's a reason why so few Little League World Series players wind up in the majors, and none of the game's top stars were LLWS participants—because if you're a super-talented athletic freak, it doesn't matter what you're doing with your elementary school years, as long as you're active.

Join travel if your kid loves doing nothing but soccer, but don't worry about it until late ES, because the discernible improvement in skill is not worth the $3k and emotional trauma. A kid who happily plays rec until middle school will be a far better player than a kid who starts travel in 1st or 2nd grade. And if they're going to be a great, it doesn't matter when you start them.

Can we stop taking examples of pro athletes who started a sport late and extrapolating to the average kid? It's not the typical path for the VAST majority of kids. Most kids need to work at and practice something for a long time in order to achieve fairly modest levels of success. For every pro athlete who started in 8th grade there are thousands of kids who went out for the MS or HS team after only playing rec (or not at all) and not even being close to making the team.

I am not even going to address the emotional trauma comment. You seem to have a warped view of what travel sports are like.

OP expressly said "for a kid that will likely always be middle of the pack skill wise" and a ton of comments are giving examples of athletic/driven outliers succeeding with a late entry to travel ...

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have had a kid or two each year come out of rec and join our 2nd or 1st (ecnl-rl) boys teams (now U16)

Oh please, no one is coming out of rec league and joining a boys U16 ECRL team. That's absurd.

no it's not.

There are kids who are athletic freaks who play rec for fun and focus on some other sport, decide to switch to soccer.

Get your head around the idea that the top players aren't made, they're born—just beacuse you've frittered away $20k on your kid hoping to make them something they're not doesn't mean everyone has to do it.

Anonymous wrote:We have had a kid or two each year come out of rec and join our 2nd or 1st (ecnl-rl) boys teams (now U16)

Oh please, no one is coming out of rec league and joining a boys U16 ECRL team. That's absurd.

Anonymous wrote:The title of this thread is ridiculous, as if rec and travel are the only two options. As many PPs have noted, there are lots of clubs and leagues offering something in-between.

not a bad point, and travel and rec are both very flexible terms, and there are some very competitive rec leagues ($200 a season, dad-coached) and there are some appallingly bad "travel" teams ($3400 a year, three wins), but let's just agree that people who approach parents of 1st and second graders and try to con them into paying for "travel" soccer and pitch it as the only way for a kid ever to have a shot at soccer are total garbage and should be ignored.

The title of this thread is ridiculous, as if rec and travel are the only two options. As many PPs have noted, there are lots of clubs and leagues offering something in-between.