Sports Parents Thread

[DsLee]

What's good NT? I figured I wasn't the only parent on NT with at least one child in sports. I've been looking for advice as the wife and I have recently been more involved in our 8-year old's sporting interests, but outside of middle school track and a couple of years of baseball between middle school and JV, we don't have much experience in the world of Youth Sports.

My son has been in rec soccer for about 2 years now and has some technical training in Seattle area, but he's at the point where he has to join a U10 club upon tryout, which is a $1900 commitment (without uniforms, travel costs, etc) for the remainder of the year. We also want to give him the opportunity to try baseball next year but are wondering what the challenges would be at starting baseball at 9-years old. At the end of the day we just want him to have fun and support him in his interests, but we also want to due our diligence in preparing him and putting him in the best environment to foster his interest.

Any thoughts or advice would be appreciated. I can't recall but there was a NT member in the past that had a son in the US Soccer Development Academy, which I thought was dope because only a small percentage make it to that point. Success or struggle stories are appreciated as well.

 

[kicks2024]

Well given how sports world is today theyre pushing the "elite" programs (ex: travelling programs) earlier and earlier.

If he loves soccer then go for it, either way if he keeps playing youll eventually have to make that jump to the club teams


As for baseball, if he's legitimately a beginner never played or limited skill. Start him out in the local rec program or ymca etc. Guage his skill level/interest but i wouldnt invest in anything serious with baseball until he gets a feel for the game and see how good he is.

And the challenges, he will either pick it up quick or may struggle a bit. Hitting a round ball with a round bat, along with hand eye coordination (consistently) is pretty hard. Practice will always make it better.

Baseball will be the same as soccer though, those travel programs start early now so theyll be wanting the same type of funds and committment. There are alternative routes like rec but its all the same just a diff sport.




Most of just encourage him to keep trying/practice and stay positive.

Good luck

 

[DsLee]

Appreciate it kicks2024 . In regards to the costs, my wife and I were expecting it would come sooner but not now at 8 years old haha. I was hoping my son would get into hoops, because in South Seattle we have some pretty good programs that are affordable but he really likes soccer and baseball. I've taken him out to the park since he was 3 and tossed to him, but he's never played in a structured environment so it'll be interesting. Wife is no-go on football and my son doesn't care for it either.

 

[DCAllAfrican]

Would get more attention in General section.

 

[DsLee]

Yeah, didn’t know if it was more proper in General or here. I never make threads so Mods please move if y’all see fit.

I was able to find a short summer baseball program through city parks department. If my son has fun we’ll do Little League next year.

 

[651akathepaul]

I'm a firm believer in kids playing multiple sports. If he's that good at soccer, that's great, the coaches will find him. And that's irrespective of if he foregos a season to try baseball or whatever it is he does. Kids need to have fun and find themselves and learn their own interests and they can only do that by trying something different.

As a parent, I'd have no issue in investing in a sport that my kid truly loves, but the only way I'd feel comfortable doing that is if my kid tried a few sports and it was clear that they only wanted to do that one sport...because if not, they could get burned out and quit altogether. That's also an inherent risk no matter what, but in specifically mentioning due diligence, that's what you would have done to make you arrive at that decision, so it's more a matter of just not being in the cards, opposed to wondering if you could have had him try something else with a different result.


And as an aside, I appreciate this post being in S&T. It's where it belongs, in my opinion.