re: Is playing the same sport all year around too much for a child?

It just depends. He has 0% chance to make it in tennis if he isn't playing full time year around by 10. Which makes that decision tough on a parent. If your kid is really good at 10 and loves it, what do you do?

Sports seem to be crazy now. I remember playing Football in Fall and Baseball in Spring. Now it's year round. I actually really enjoyed baseball. I was a catcher and it was easy. I got the position because I could throw far, but that was about it. I think my batting average wAS A .128

Our thing is dance competitions, recitals practice 4-5 days a week. To be honest, I would take soccer, (maybe) over that.

Well that's obviously why I'm doing all this. It's not because I like sitting in the car during practice or driving around the south to suit him up. This is what he thinks and talks about all of time. He asks me to play FIFA 16 against him on the ride home...

I played competitive tennis, quit before I was 17, and I've just started playing again at 42. I fricking kill it though.

It's not about being professional, I sure as frick don't want my son to a B league professional athlete. I want him to be a happy healthy kid going into college at an SEC school knowing he has the ability to do anything he puts his mind to. I picked up rock climbing in college and learned it well enough to trad climb 1000'+ faces in Yosemite...quit that too. All that matters is that you give it your all and understand that you're your only source of inspiration. I skied the slalom course '28 off, quit that...doesn't mean it didn't make me smarter and better.

Yep ruined baseball for me. By the time I reached high school I was over it.

He'll get burnt out on it, I'm sure. If he loves it as much as you claim he does, though, I'm not sure it's a great idea to pull away from it.

I mean, sure, it's unlikely that he's the next Christian Pusilic and destined to be the GOAT. That said, Clint Dempsey's parents were dead arse broke and drove him 3 hours to and from Dallas several times a week so he could compete and pursue his dreams. As a result of that, he's got to do everything from score goals in the World Cup to releasing an attempt at a mixtape. I guess what I'm trying to say is that you could be leaving a lot of this new American Soccer Money on the table, here.

If you stick it out, your son could also release his own mixtape that people avoid calling sub-par because he's an American hero.

You're being selfish.

Wow.

Of course a kids wants to play as much as possible. It's fun. It's a parent's job to make the right decisions, not the popular ones. Do you support everything else your kids want to do?

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TBH at 9 they should be playing multiple sports. Take the summer off, no reason to live your life traveling for your kid.

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I have nephews who play baseball. Their whole life is baseball. They don't go on vacation. They don't do anything else. Their whole lives revolve around baseball. They play baseball every weekend and some during the week. Summer ball, fall ball, baseball baseball baseball. The kids seem burnt out at this point but it's all they know. I'm not sure how people think this is healthy for children.

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Look at the average pro athlete and look at how many only played one sport in HS. The answer is VERY few so that should answer your question.

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That doesn't apply remotely to soccer. The biggest reason America has struggled to produce talent is because it's hard to match the skill of someone who's been playing constantly since they were 8 years old when you only play a few months a year. The only reason we're seeing improvement is because we finally are seeing the results of kids coming through that youth system.

I'm not saying to force the kids to play only one sport all year, but someone who wants to play the sport professionally will likely be playing from an early age until retirement pretty much non-stop. There's not too many "I was big and played basketball so they asked me to line up at TE and here I am playing in the NFL two years later" in soccer.

If the kid eats, breathes, and dreams soccer, he'll likely want to play in any manner that he can to improve his chances of taking it somewhere one day. Worst case scenario, son eventually burns out on it, but looks back at all the sacrifices his parents made for his happiness and appreciates the shite out of them for it.

If it were any other sport, I'd say keep him rotating, but he clearly loves the game and likely dreams of playing professionally one day as most kids do. Why not give him that opportunity?