Anonymous wrote:Son loves the sport. His team have become his good friends. It’s not his whole identity and we do visit museums when we can. I see some parents who take it very seriously so I get it’s not for everyone.

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Anonymous wrote:OP you are making so many generalizations here. Not all “travel” sports require much travel before the teen years. For soccer the league is regional so they only play teams that are in the DC area. My sense is that basketball is similar. People may have to drive to the outer reaches of the area occasionally, but no overnight trips other than a tournament once or twice a year. Those are fun for the kids and usually the family makes a trip out of it and sees some other things (like museums!) while they’re there. Some sports do seem to take up more time and have more tournaments, but that’s not how all of them are.

As a PP said rec sports have become miserable. Half the kids have parents who take it way too seriously and are coaching from the sidelines. The other half are literally afraid of the ball. Then there are the disruptive kids whose parents of course never stay. The volunteer coaches are usually nice, but know next to nothing about the sport. They also don’t feel as empowered to discipline someone else’s kid. Everyone has to play the same amount of time, so you have these combos of kids out on the field with vastly different skill levels and attitudes toward the sport. It’s frustrating for all of them. Basketball does a pre season skills assessment and holds a draft to try to balance the teams. I wish all rec sports did this. It’s awful when the teams are based solely on random luck and when kids are available for practices.

As someone with younger children, this is informative. My 7 year old loves soccer, but the term “travel” is a turnoff because it implies that the family will prioritize a young child’s sport over everything else. When I hear “travel,” I think Olympic-level training equivalent to swimming, gymnastics, etc, involving thousands of dollars and time off of school for competitions, which seems like overkill for 8/9/10 year olds. It’s nice to know that “travel” doesn’t mean elite athlete.

Duuuuh

Well, when you hear parents bragging about the money and trips (including flying), you wonder how DC has such a precocious number of elementary-age athletes.

I hear parents whose kids don't play saying things like this, but after two kids and multiple sports between them, I've yet to hear which sports require elementary schoolers to regularly fly

If you live in a nontraditional market, hockey (not if you live in Boston, Minnesota, Chicago, Denver, NY tri-state, and a few other dense hockey markets), maybe also lacrosse starting in late elementary school if you are not in a decent market. If your kids are elite gymnasts or figure skaters, they also need to fly by late elementary school for national qualifying competitions.

I get that the DMV is competitive...but there are plenty of kids that come to lacrosse in middle school around here and become good enough to get recruited at some college level.

I can't believe there is any sport that follows a traditional age path where elementary school kids need to get on a plane. Basketball has become a money-maker even for some 12 year olds (huge social media followings, signing NIL deals, HS recruiting as crazy as college recruiting)...so maybe you have those top .1% kids getting on planes.

Gymnastics historically had 15-year-olds competing in the olympics, so I get that you may be in high level competitions at like 10..but I thought they changed the international rules.

Who are these kids? Lacrosse is not my kids' primary sport, but I follow the kids who are getting recruited from our high school, and I'm of the impression they've been playing club lacrosse since elementary school, most of them year-round.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because my kid has been really intense about sports from a young age (DH and I are reasonably athletic/played competitive sports when we were younger).

He was getting frustrated with rec baseball because some kids are still digging in the dirt even at age 9/10. And unfortunately where we live there isn’t an intermediate league in between rec and travel (I think there is a huge untapped market of families who want more competition than rec without travel commitment, but I digress).

DS really wanted to try out for travel and made it his first year. From talking with others it seems like there is an advantage getting in at an early age because there does seem to be an edge for returning players vs new kids trying out. Maybe we’ve lucked out, but practices are 15 min from home max (sometimes right down the street) and even scrimmages/non-tournament games haven’t been too far. Even travel tournaments are often driveable from home or we make a family trip of it. Financially we can afford this without it making a huge dent in our budget so I recognize we are lucky in that regard.

If all my kid ever gets out of this is experiencing camaraderie, a love of physical fitness, and practice toward setting and reaching goals I think that is worth it. He has a 529 and we plan to pay for college, so not banking on any scholarship. Don’t care about keeping up with the Joneses either, we live a pretty low key life (modest house, non-fancy cars, etc.)

I’m curious why anyone whose kid isn’t into travel sports remotely cares about this?

Just FYI...if your kid plays on a program that gets a lot of kids recruited by college, this probably won't apply at 17u. My kid joined a team at 17u that cut the majority of the team at the 17u year and replaced them with better players...these were kids that had been playing for years, some since 10u.

This team prides itself on getting kids recruited for college and the summer of 16u, and then Fall/Summer of 17u are the most critical time. If they don't think your kid is college recruitable, then they don't keep them.

My only advice is pay attention to the 16u (again, they make changes between Fall and Summer) and 17u teams, and what the program does at those ages.

Our kids play for a club like that, but at least they form the new teams above the current teams rather than cutting long time players. Typically about a quarter of the new 15U team is current players.

So you are saying traditionally they had one team, and now they create a new A team with the superstar players (perhaps with lots of players new to the program), and they have a B team. 25% of the current team is promoted to the A team and the remainder of the team is on the B team.

That's a solution, but I can't say that's necessarily a better solution. Have to imagine there is a ton of resentment by a large %age of people who remain on the B team.

Maybe not...it's hard to please everyone.

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:Kids love it and have a ton of fun. We like the other parents and like watching the sport. What else would we do on weekend?

Nothing because you are boring and vapid

LOL. Yes, nothing more exciting than going to the Smithsonian AGAIN…

Your pea brain likes to booze at the hotel bar we get it

I can’t afford the hotel bar after all the other expenses! Party in the hotel room!

Sorry you don’t like fun, but I’m sure you’ll find your tribe somewhere.

Anonymous wrote:Not OP, but wouldn't it be better for the future of the country if instead of encouraging your kids to compete and use all of their energy for something that is highly probable to be nothing more than a hobby in their lives, you have them learn to be aggressive and competitive academics and voracious readers? Just saying, studying is a learned skill. A PP asked how we use our weekends if not travel sports...um, our kid in elementary school is learning a second language, going to museums, reading...things that will make a difference to them and to our country.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids love it and have a ton of fun. We like the other parents and like watching the sport. What else would we do on weekend?

Nothing because you are boring and vapid

LOL. Yes, nothing more exciting than going to the Smithsonian AGAIN…

Your pea brain likes to booze at the hotel bar we get it

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids love it and have a ton of fun. We like the other parents and like watching the sport. What else would we do on weekend?

Nothing because you are boring and vapid

LOL. Yes, nothing more exciting than going to the Smithsonian AGAIN…

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids love it and have a ton of fun. We like the other parents and like watching the sport. What else would we do on weekend?

Nothing because you are boring and vapid

Anonymous wrote:Kids love it and have a ton of fun. We like the other parents and like watching the sport. What else would we do on weekend?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP you are making so many generalizations here. Not all “travel” sports require much travel before the teen years. For soccer the league is regional so they only play teams that are in the DC area. My sense is that basketball is similar. People may have to drive to the outer reaches of the area occasionally, but no overnight trips other than a tournament once or twice a year. Those are fun for the kids and usually the family makes a trip out of it and sees some other things (like museums!) while they’re there. Some sports do seem to take up more time and have more tournaments, but that’s not how all of them are.

As a PP said rec sports have become miserable. Half the kids have parents who take it way too seriously and are coaching from the sidelines. The other half are literally afraid of the ball. Then there are the disruptive kids whose parents of course never stay. The volunteer coaches are usually nice, but know next to nothing about the sport. They also don’t feel as empowered to discipline someone else’s kid. Everyone has to play the same amount of time, so you have these combos of kids out on the field with vastly different skill levels and attitudes toward the sport. It’s frustrating for all of them. Basketball does a pre season skills assessment and holds a draft to try to balance the teams. I wish all rec sports did this. It’s awful when the teams are based solely on random luck and when kids are available for practices.

As someone with younger children, this is informative. My 7 year old loves soccer, but the term “travel” is a turnoff because it implies that the family will prioritize a young child’s sport over everything else. When I hear “travel,” I think Olympic-level training equivalent to swimming, gymnastics, etc, involving thousands of dollars and time off of school for competitions, which seems like overkill for 8/9/10 year olds. It’s nice to know that “travel” doesn’t mean elite athlete.

Duuuuh

Well, when you hear parents bragging about the money and trips (including flying), you wonder how DC has such a precocious number of elementary-age athletes.

I hear parents whose kids don't play saying things like this, but after two kids and multiple sports between them, I've yet to hear which sports require elementary schoolers to regularly fly

If you live in a nontraditional market, hockey (not if you live in Boston, Minnesota, Chicago, Denver, NY tri-state, and a few other dense hockey markets), maybe also lacrosse starting in late elementary school if you are not in a decent market. If your kids are elite gymnasts or figure skaters, they also need to fly by late elementary school for national qualifying competitions.

I get that the DMV is competitive...but there are plenty of kids that come to lacrosse in middle school around here and become good enough to get recruited at some college level.

I can't believe there is any sport that follows a traditional age path where elementary school kids need to get on a plane. Basketball has become a money-maker even for some 12 year olds (huge social media followings, signing NIL deals, HS recruiting as crazy as college recruiting)...so maybe you have those top .1% kids getting on planes.

Gymnastics historically had 15-year-olds competing in the olympics, so I get that you may be in high level competitions at like 10..but I thought they changed the international rules.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because my kid has been really intense about sports from a young age (DH and I are reasonably athletic/played competitive sports when we were younger).

He was getting frustrated with rec baseball because some kids are still digging in the dirt even at age 9/10. And unfortunately where we live there isn’t an intermediate league in between rec and travel (I think there is a huge untapped market of families who want more competition than rec without travel commitment, but I digress).

DS really wanted to try out for travel and made it his first year. From talking with others it seems like there is an advantage getting in at an early age because there does seem to be an edge for returning players vs new kids trying out. Maybe we’ve lucked out, but practices are 15 min from home max (sometimes right down the street) and even scrimmages/non-tournament games haven’t been too far. Even travel tournaments are often driveable from home or we make a family trip of it. Financially we can afford this without it making a huge dent in our budget so I recognize we are lucky in that regard.

If all my kid ever gets out of this is experiencing camaraderie, a love of physical fitness, and practice toward setting and reaching goals I think that is worth it. He has a 529 and we plan to pay for college, so not banking on any scholarship. Don’t care about keeping up with the Joneses either, we live a pretty low key life (modest house, non-fancy cars, etc.)

I’m curious why anyone whose kid isn’t into travel sports remotely cares about this?

Just FYI...if your kid plays on a program that gets a lot of kids recruited by college, this probably won't apply at 17u. My kid joined a team at 17u that cut the majority of the team at the 17u year and replaced them with better players...these were kids that had been playing for years, some since 10u.

This team prides itself on getting kids recruited for college and the summer of 16u, and then Fall/Summer of 17u are the most critical time. If they don't think your kid is college recruitable, then they don't keep them.

My only advice is pay attention to the 16u (again, they make changes between Fall and Summer) and 17u teams, and what the program does at those ages.

Our kids play for a club like that, but at least they form the new teams above the current teams rather than cutting long time players. Typically about a quarter of the new 15U team is current players.

So you are saying traditionally they had one team, and now they create a new A team with the superstar players (perhaps with lots of players new to the program), and they have a B team. 25% of the current team is promoted to the A team and the remainder of the team is on the B team.

That's a solution, but I can't say that's necessarily a better solution. Have to imagine there is a ton of resentment by a large %age of people who remain on the B team.

Maybe not...it's hard to please everyone.

Traditionally 2 to 3 teams and then another team forms at 15u. That team plays nationally and every one including bench players will at least get college offers. Most families aren't delusional about their kid's ability and don't that they think they belong on a circuit team when they don't. The kids on that team come from the whole region. I think this year's has one living in Richmond and one in WVA

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP you are making so many generalizations here. Not all “travel” sports require much travel before the teen years. For soccer the league is regional so they only play teams that are in the DC area. My sense is that basketball is similar. People may have to drive to the outer reaches of the area occasionally, but no overnight trips other than a tournament once or twice a year. Those are fun for the kids and usually the family makes a trip out of it and sees some other things (like museums!) while they’re there. Some sports do seem to take up more time and have more tournaments, but that’s not how all of them are.

As a PP said rec sports have become miserable. Half the kids have parents who take it way too seriously and are coaching from the sidelines. The other half are literally afraid of the ball. Then there are the disruptive kids whose parents of course never stay. The volunteer coaches are usually nice, but know next to nothing about the sport. They also don’t feel as empowered to discipline someone else’s kid. Everyone has to play the same amount of time, so you have these combos of kids out on the field with vastly different skill levels and attitudes toward the sport. It’s frustrating for all of them. Basketball does a pre season skills assessment and holds a draft to try to balance the teams. I wish all rec sports did this. It’s awful when the teams are based solely on random luck and when kids are available for practices.

As someone with younger children, this is informative. My 7 year old loves soccer, but the term “travel” is a turnoff because it implies that the family will prioritize a young child’s sport over everything else. When I hear “travel,” I think Olympic-level training equivalent to swimming, gymnastics, etc, involving thousands of dollars and time off of school for competitions, which seems like overkill for 8/9/10 year olds. It’s nice to know that “travel” doesn’t mean elite athlete.

Duuuuh

Well, when you hear parents bragging about the money and trips (including flying), you wonder how DC has such a precocious number of elementary-age athletes.

I hear parents whose kids don't play saying things like this, but after two kids and multiple sports between them, I've yet to hear which sports require elementary schoolers to regularly fly

If you live in a nontraditional market, hockey (not if you live in Boston, Minnesota, Chicago, Denver, NY tri-state, and a few other dense hockey markets), maybe also lacrosse starting in late elementary school if you are not in a decent market. If your kids are elite gymnasts or figure skaters, they also need to fly by late elementary school for national qualifying competitions.