(I’m trying not to make this a “back in MY day…” type post, so bear with me)
When I was younger, most major sports were typically dominated by either high school competition, or a mix of high school AND club competition at the highest level. The only one I recall having its highest competition in club teams only was soccer, and that was predominantly because the schools often didn’t have organized teams, or they were underfunded, half-assed sorts of things for most of them.
Now it seems like so many parents are angling to set their kids up as the next Tiger Woods, in whatever sport. Year round club sports (with emphasis on competitiveness), private coaching, skill camps, special training/conditioning, and so forth. All at absurdly young ages- like kindergarten, and certainly elementary school.
It feels a lot like a parent as if your kid has no chance of being successful (i.e. making the high school team) unless you go the same route and start your kids early in sports and both of you show extreme dedication to it.
Am I just seeing the outliers, or is this the future of youth sports? So far, my kids aren’t terribly interested in sports- maybe some YMCA sports teams here and there, but that’s it. But they’re still pretty young. Are they going to be hopelessly behind if they decide to start playing a sport at say… 12, because they haven’t already been playing it for six years? That feels awful to me.
If the child’s goal is to just make the high school team, then it’s not nearly as difficult as you suggest, in least in my experience as a parent. Especially if it’s not a marquee sport, i.e. basketball and American football.
There were players on the high school volleyball team who tried out on a whim, and were accepted on the basis of being reasonably fit and willing to learn. It was also rumored that the golf team would take anyone who could walk.
Getting to the next level - scholarship athlete on university team - does require either a whole lot of extra commitment, or extraordinary natural talent.
I’m talking more about men’s sports more than women’s. I doubt anyone’s going out for any of the men’s high school teams without knowing anything about it.
I’m wondering more about what level of prior prep is necessary- if one of my kids tries out for the high school soccer team, is he doomed to fail because he hasn’t played a decade of competitive club soccer beforehand? Or 13 years of Little League for the baseball team? Or because he doesn’t have a private position coach and been to a half-dozen skill camps?
I would venture a guess that even at the lowest-tier high school teams, such as soccer, that if you haven’t played quite a bit beforehand, you might be the lowest guy on the roster, or not even make the team.
To use a personal example: My college had a dire shortage of soccer players when I was a junior, so I and a few other dorm buddies decided to try out for the team, despite being novices in every way. We did so bad in the tryouts that we weren’t chosen for the team even despite the dire shortage on the roster. I don’t recall how they addressed their shortage eventually, but they thought that leaving novice guys like us off the roster was better than having us.
If you are talking about high school sports it is going to depend on both the sport and school. Depending on how many players they need and how popular the sport is at the school, then having prior training may or may not be important. In general though, anyone can try out for any sport and the tryouts will be for about a week or so at which point the coaches start deciding who stays and who goes. Also, if they start as a freshman, then they are more likely to be accepted at the lower level team, if they have one, and then move up as their skills improve.
The bottom line is that it depends, but at the high school level, it usually does not matter that much.
I guess what I’m getting at is that when I was younger, you had to have played but it didn’t need to have been serious-business competitive year-round club team stuff, and most people’s parents weren’t terribly invested in it either.
For example, I was on my neighborhood swim team (for some reason, every neighborhood in SW Houston in the 1980s had its own swim team), and several of my teammates and friends were on one or the other of the large local high school’s swim teams. Only one was a club team swimmer, and that was more because he was already naturally good and wanted to get better. (he ended up swimming for Texas A&M). Another guy didn’t do club, but ended up swimming for a Div II school. Had I chosen to swim, I’d have been on the team as well.
But it sounds like nowadays, you pretty much have to be in competitive swimming year-round to have a hope of making the team.
Advice I have heard about is that if you want a kid to succeed in sports, diversify. Don’t do just one sport. Many people have had their kids just focus on one sport, and that can lead to success, but the greatest athletes have a few different sports in their background. Even if you’re sure that there is only one sport that a kid will excel at, don’t pigeonhole them.
I’m talking about professional athletes. If you just want to compete in high school, it is going to depend on a lot of things, and will vary from school to school. Some small schools might take just about anyone who has interest, can afford it, and have any ability to play the game. Other big time schools that scouts visit might be highly competitive and take in kids from all over who spend years trying to get good enough to be accepted.
It also depends on if you are trying out for a badminton or water polo team (where a future pro career is unlikely) or a football or basketball team (where it might be treated like a business).
Myself, I played some soccer in high school, but not for my school itself (I played in a private extracurricular league). I didn’t even try out for my school because my parents weren’t going to pay the fees so it would have been a waste of time. Also, I had no illusions about going anywhere with soccer; it was just a thing to do for fun, it was good exercise, and I wasn’t that great (after lots of training and practice and game experience I went from “awful” to “barely competent”).
I agree that it depends on the sport and the school.
I recently worked at a high school that would take anyone interested in Wrestling or Track who wanted to learn. Baseball is much harder but they divide it into multiple tiers so you’re probably good to make JV-2 if you have the fundamentals down and some Little League under your belt. You’d be lucky to ride the bench if you tried out for Football with no experience but this is Texas and they regularly produce college players and quite a few pros too.
Another school that I worked at had a similar set up for Football and Baseball but you could pretty much walk on to the Lacrosse and Volleyball teams with gym class experience.
The “year round” athletes tend to be students who really love the sport or those who are working towards playing at the top tiers of the college level. Most of the coaches that I know and worked with still favor diversification unless the student is an absolute all-star nearing the end of their HS career. Even then they caution against overdoing it by sending kids to year-round leagues and clinics.
There are probably a few sports which are highly technical, and where there is an advantage to starting early for naturally talented people aiming to play professionally.
But to simply play at a high school or university level I doubt that it is much needed. I think it can probably be damaging. I have seen a lot of parents who spend a great deal of time and money on pushing their children to excel at one specific sport (often for the “rep team” in hockey).
I think it is probably wiser to develop more general athletic ability and be realistic about the level of talent and natural traits needed to reach the professional level. Most will not - from simple statistics - and so would likely benefit from having many other athletic, social and academic skills.
My son played American football in High School. He also played in a junior football league starting around age 9 or 10. So he and his buddies had been groomed to play on the local high school team - the junior program was literally a feeder system for the two local high schools. Most of them were starters, because they knew the plays and were already in good condition to play. In high school, there were players on his team who never saw a snap in a game. My guess is they were new to the game or just wanted to be on the team - the team was required to take all comers, but was not required to play them. They did have to keep good grades and show up for every practice to stay on the team.
Anyway, some of the more serious players got involved with specialty coaches for their positions to develop specific skills (QB, receiver, etc.) at different ages. Yes, some of those kids did go on to get college scholarships, but most did not. My son, who did not get any special coaching, did get looks by some colleges and some offers, probably due the higher profile of some of the other athletes. The team did win a couple of state championships for their division while my son played with them. My guess is that if a kid has not at least played in a rec league prior to high school, they can probably still get on the team but may not play much, unless they can show great skills and/or athleticism (naturally or with specific coaching).
I’ve never coached any sport at any level, but I’ve heard that parents can take it very badly when told that, no, their son is not going to be the next Peyton Manning. And there may be no financial incentive for the coach to break the bad news to them either.
Kids at a variety of abilities can make the HS team, but they’ll be playing with kids with abilities that come from practicing year round. The amount they get to play will be based on their relative ability. Sports that are time-based, like track, will have tryouts where the top X finishers make the team plus a few extras that the coach thinks has potential. If your kid doesn’t make the cut, they won’t make the team. But remember that many schools have tiers of sports, such as Varsity, JV, JV-A, JV-B, etc. If your kid just wants to play soccer, there will be tiers of soccer teams for different abilities. The year-round club training kids will likely be taking a lot of the spots on the varsity team because they will have the associated ability that comes from focused coaching. Kids who are at a lower ability or aren’t super competitive can have a great time at the JV level. Definitely don’t worry that your kids won’t be able to play sports if they don’t get into it now. They can play sports at a level commensurate with their abilities whenever they’re ready.
I have a high-level national soccer coach license and coach Club Soccer at the academy level. Unfortunately, in most parts of the country by the time kids turn 12 (which is when most will start playing 11v11), kids have been playing since 5 or 6 and just have a technical level that would be difficult to catch up on. By time High School rolls around it would be almost impossible unless the kid is super-gifted athletically.
From my experience with my own kids they are so much more advanced than I was at the same age it just shows how much youth sports have changed over the years. The big difference with soccer is that it is Pay-to-play all the way to the top.
That’s my point exactly. It feels like if I didn’t start them around kindergarten in one or more serious sports, they’ll be hopelessly behind by the time organized school sports begin.
I mean, I’m not hanging my hat on either one of them going to college on an athletic scholarship; they’re both plenty smart enough to manage without that.
But I resent the idea that my kids are already behind at 8 and 10, and that I’d have to put them in super-competitive year-round sports leagues right now, for them to have any hope of making any teams/being competitive at all when high school rolls around, because the YMCA or other kid rec leagues aren’t competitive enough.
Also, it was my experience that a club player would be an elite HS soccer player, but you could still make the team and occasionally play if you were a pick up player. Is that no longer possible?
That’s what I’m trying to figure out. When I was younger that’s how it worked, but it seems like a LOT of parents these days are getting their kids started earlier and earlier.
I guess it also depends on what your definition of “success” is. If your expectation is that your kid might play at the college level, and they are showing interest at an early age, the earlier they start, the better. If your expectation is that your kid play a sport to learn how to cooperate as a team, follow instruction from a non-parent adult, and enjoy playing, then there are recreational leagues that anyone can join at any age, with any amount of experience. A rec league will be less competitive, but no less enjoyable to participate and watch, as most of the more competitive kids who may have started earlier are less likely to join a rec league, so most of the players are roughly at the same level of skill.
What you do not want to do is shove your kid into something they are not all that into. Once they start showing an interest in a sport, have a continual conversation with them as to how well they are enjoying it and how far they may want to go. Let them decide how extreme they want to be with the prep, within the boundaries of what the family can accommodate.