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

Have him work on his weak foot. If he gets good enough then you and the missus will be set for life and have a vacation house in Monaco.

I would've played football year round as a kid. If a kid is playing a sport because he wants to and his parents aren't pushing it, he's not going to get burned out. If he does, so be it.

If he is truly a very talented player with a future in the sport (from an unbiased perspective) then as a parent you should cultivate that IMO. The fact that he's playing on the defensive end of the field in all stars is questionable though. Usually the best player on the field at that age is in a position to score goals.

He hasn't actually played Allstars, but they combined district/state practices with Allstars and for the former he played sweeper. On select he's right and left forward. I think his select team will actually play in the Allstar Classic, albeit in U11s, so he may never suit up for Allstars (they didn't have it last year since two teams qualified for state and all of those kids were effectively the Allstars).

He still scores though, they let him take the ball up the field and he kicks every set piece. He shot one in from near midfield in the district semis.

I definitely don't mind him learning defense, I think it'll help him transition to midfielder in select. That's a tough position though.

He needs to get better with his left, he still doesn't cross it all that well on that side. It's ashamed though, his cut back on top of the box is a deadly shot...when playing left forward. If he generates any space right there he can rip it.

My daughter plays year around soccer, but in the Summer and Winter they play in an indoor league that really isn't competitive and they don't practice during the week. Just a little something so they don't regress. The Fall and Spring soccer season is intense, though.

just curious, where are you playing that they have "all stars" along with being a travel team at U9?

Edit: Nevermind, saw you are gulf coast and U10. I know exactly what team you are on based on the travel schedule you mentioned. I'd seriously consider playing your kid's true age with this Birth Year break.

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He has 0% chance to make it in tennis if he isn't playing full time year around by 10.




If you are hanging your hat on this, make sure you are accepting of the fact that he has 0.01% chance of making it even if he is playing full time.

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It depends on what your definition of making it is. I don't expect my daughter to play professionally. I expect her to play D1 tennis on a full scholarship.

Pop in the Steven Gerrard tape and give him some popcorn

MS gulf coast, but it's kind of tricky. So, last year he played U10 rec on a shitty team. He was recruited over to a better team to make a run at state...he scored 6 goals during district and some club coaches noticed him. They asked us to bring him out for Academy. So when state was over he went out for Academy ball, played with them until their season ended. One of the dads, full time soccer referee, grabbed 3 Academy kids and made a rec team (Academy doesn't interfere with rec for this club).

While playing rec he was noticed by a select coach who asked him to come out for his '06 team. That club does not allow select kids to play rec in their league, but we got the Academy team to release him and he was granted a players pass.

He's simply finishing out rec, state is next weekend...they've made him an Allstar player, but I doubt he'll ever suit up for them.

U11 ('06 boys) select tryouts is mid-May...so after that he'll be on a proper select squad and that's all he'll do. If Allstars picks up a tournament somewhere around there and he's available (without jeopardizing his select players pass, then we'll let him decide if he wants to play) He doesn't seem to GAF about Allstars though.

Y'all going to be at Houma this weekend? Seems like a small tournament, only three teams on a bracket side. Everyone plays at least once on Sunday though.

I still notice some teams say 05/06, so i guess the birth year change hasn't taken effect yet.

Nutty too, they don't allow headers at this age in MS, but we cross the border into LA and they let them go at it.

ETA: yea, we're Arsenal. Travel over training?...they train Monday (club level skills training, different age kids), and Tuesday, Thursday team practice.

Wednesday is state/Allstars practice.

Literally Friday is the only day he doesn't cleat up. The weekend (travel) IS the fun part, I hope at least.

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ETA: yea, we're Arsenal. Travel over training?...they train Monday (club level skills training, different age kids), and Tuesday, Thursday team practice.

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By the way, I expect you to read what I wrote about what BRSC does with academy and say "F THAT. That would suck". And that is exactly what most of us parents said when the academy director implemented that.

But...it works. Kids aren't trained to win games they are trained on soccer skills, playing with the ball at their feet, making decisions for themselves instead of listening to what a coach or parent is yelling at them to do. No one has a position (except the keeper). Kids learn to play anywhere. I put the ball skills this group has learned (from pool 1 through pool 3) against the balls skills of kids in our older age groups. They blow them away.

It is just a different approach and definitely contrary to what a lot of clubs and certainly what other sports are doing. And really, some kids just want to be on a TEAM. These guys don't have teams. You get your roster before each play day basically. So they are ready for next year and having a team.

I hate that they will break these kids up with the birth year. I look forward to seeing how they stack up to that Barcelona team ya'll have.

U11 is when they start playing an LCSL schedule. Everyone tries out and you are placed on either Black, Red, or Maroon (sometimes as low as white) team. Unfortunately a good portion of that team (and my son) will go to U12 due to birth year.

personally I like the equity teams for training kids. You look at Mandeville and they don't really do an "A" team until they hit 11v11. I think they train a larger group of kids that way.