Losing a single season at U6 isn't going to destroy your fantasy of your kid becoming a pro. As others have said, you could be doing ball work in the yard, assuming he wants to and you don't force him. For example. my club has been posting a different challenge every week and kids are having a blast with them.
Losing a season I think could impact a kids ability to ultimately go pro. But if all kids lose the season then I guess, relatively, he'd be ok. We do work on stuff. But it's getting old; he needs to be playing with kids; multiple players not just 1v1 with dad. I'm partly frustrated that it's actually not healthy to cancel the season. Like, in an effort to "protect" people, they are actually harming health. It's dumb
I disagree. There are plenty of pros who lost a season when they were kids due to a broken leg or ACL tear and it didn't stop them from making a pro team. And even more kids who never missed a game and never made a pro team.
My kid does four sports.* I am not worried about skill drop off but frankly,it's because I worry more about her loss of socialization (she's an only).Physical activity is taken care of by bike riding. *Not trying to be that parent,it's just good for her to have activities.
As mentioned, MANY pros have missed a season. Whether they started late, had an injury, or just took a break. And MOST (90%+) of those who never missed a season never went pro. So why do you think missing a season (or even a year) at U6 will keep your son from going pro? Is it better? Sure. "need"? eh, not so much. BS. The only organized sport I played growing up was baseball. And until the last 5-10 years, I've been healthy (my metabolism finally caught up with me). There are PLENTY of ways to be healthy/active that don't require kicking a soccer ball.
There are pros at MLS level or above who missed a season at 6 yrs old? I doubt it. Very rare at that age get bad injuries. Amount of force in contact is too low.
I guarantee there are pros who didn't start PLAYING soccer until after they were 6. Can you prove that all of them have played since 6?
Most pros at the top of every sport started at a young age. NHL, EPL, MLB, NBA... NFL is prob the exception. But football is an easy sport to learn.
There are couple kids who have signed pro contracts at around age 13. They may not play at that age but just sign the contract. That's what I'm aiming for. Why not? So we need to stay on track.
Good luck with that. I am sure your kid won’t fell any pressure when that is the goal at 6. I will predict your burn the kid out by 11.
Let's see. It takes 8 years to get really good. So, if the kid starts at 5, then it will go like: year 1 - 5 yrs old yr 2 - 6 yo yr 3 - 7 yo yr 4 - 8 yo yr 5 - 9 yo yr 6 - 10 yo yr 7 - 11 yo yr 8 - 12 yo Prob add a year to be safe: yr9 - 13 yo
OK, where do you get your "8 years from"? And how much do you need to work during those 8 years? All 12 months? 11 months? 10 months? Again, look out for burn out. We get you want your child to be successful. We all do. I, personally, think you're putting WAY too much emphasis on a single task at your child's age. Is it good to "dream"? Sure. I think you're way past dreaming. Kids interests and desires change over time. I know I've said this before, but what are you going to think if your child comes to you at age 11 (so almost at YOUR goal) and says "I don't want to play soccer any more"? Are you going to be upset you "wasted" all this time? There are a lot more important things to raising a child than making sure he'll be a pro athlete.
8/9 years... I saw that / read that somewhere. Can't remember where. But it seems about right intuitively. Prob relates to the 10,000 hour rule. Ok I did the calculation. To get 10,000 hours in... ... in 8 years - that would be 3.4 hours / day of play/practice. ... in 9 years - that would be 3.0 hours Yeah that's not gonna work for us. So I'll revise. Maybe more like 14 years to get in the 10k hours. That's 1.9 hours / day. So that would put him at 18. But when a kid gets a pro contract early (say before 18), it's really based on the premise that he has that "it" factor, but he is not fully developed, and will still need development, which the team will provide. I think getting in the required hours can work in 8-9 years if the kid goes to an academy say in Europe (eg La Masia) where they do soccer many hours ever day. Perhaps a DA academy here is similar (though they got rid of DA). In terms of getting in the hours, here's where other cultures have a big advantage as the kids will play many hours every day just for fun out in the street (or wherever). They just go out and play and the US doesn't really do that unfortunately. Once my kid is around 11 or so I'll involve him in adult pickup games. There's one guy who does that here with his kids (they play on the local DA). If he decides to do something else that is fine; but I think I can get a sense of what sports (or hobbies) he can possibly excel at. You don't see that in kids? I mean, usually you can tell if a kid has a propensity for a particular thing.
hmm a lot of thought is going into your kid. But we are all here on a youth soccer forum so who are we to judge. haha Of the 2 female players I know who made the full national team before 16/17 had parents who were over the top. Same with the kids who went to the Olympics (different sports). You have to be either gifted or crazy do devote your entire life to a sport. And there is nothing wrong with that. I think @NewDadaCoach is having fun with us.
Perhaps it will be impossible since there aren't neighborhoods kids to play with and his mom is indifferent to soccer. Maybe a solo sport like tennis would be more possible so he doesn't have to rely on other teammates. sigh
tennis is so expensive. Privates and overnight tournaments in different cities each weekend. Doesn't matter if his mom is indifferent. He has to be the keen one. The girls I know who are nat team players were more than keen. They were obsessed.
Actually I kinda sympathize. It's tough for a kid who wants to play soccer when there's nobody around who wants to join in.
And this is different than soccer how? I have wondered what OP's kid thinks. I'm sure he'd like to go pro. Doesn't every athlete at that age? But is it realistic?
finally have to time to comment... I was extremely worried about the down time. My kid is HS age, a late starter, and more game time was a big need this Spring and Coach was receptive. Then the pandemic hits. I provided minimal guidance to my kid. Told him minimum of 4 days/week, learn self discipline, and be able to come out of it with three skills that he has mastered and are game ready. Not sure about the skills but he was out playing pick up, 3 on 3 to 5 on 5 , multiple days a week, sometimes up to 4 and 5 hours. Now that they are back in group workouts I see the benefit of stretballin. his ball control is better and he just looks better moving. Balance thing? who knows. He looks further ahead than his squad mates. Before I would have said missing time is OK below HS level, thought this would be a major setback for my kid but hopefully not. If I had a young kid I think the only goal would be to have them happy enough they want to rejoin the club life. Next, in regards to the starting early, contracts at 13, I believe it to be an artificial construct. Remember the old Soviet Union used to evaluate their youth quite young... We still beat them. One has to think why does anyone want such young children? Could it be to manipulate them? Coaches in a national program have to be successful. I competed in a sport where the athletes in the natl junior program progressed to senior team in large part to how they could be manipulated, to the point of ingesting any "vitamin" given to them. Look at US gymnastics, this was taken to an even more and sad extreme. So, this mindset might just be a glass ceiling... German futbol development program; athletes recruited between 11 to 13, only 9 percent are left at the senior level. Studies show very little correlation of success young to older...Plenty of great pro athletes did not start until late. Studies starting to challenge and debunk the 10000 hours to mastery argument. Hell, I'd even argue the good genetics argument... Human brain isn't fully matured until mid 20's, that must have an effect on skill based sports. Another thing is that maybe beyond teen years, generally speaking, there's no way to fund athlete development, for the sport or the athlete. I could go on and on...
I agree a bit with @smontrose about youth nat team or elite academy coaches manipulating children. Not sure if manipulating is the word, but in the country that I live in they want kids and families that make soccer an absolute priority 100% of the time. Families that pack up and move for their child's soccer. And parents that are able to look the other way and let their child be run into the ground. It's survival of the fittest in a way. I'm only speaking from the women's side. Everybody needs goals and dreams and if this is @NewDadaCoach and his sons - that's great. They will be able to bond over soccer and there is nothing better than that! I always disagreed that organised soccer had to completely stop. I never could find any evidence to support a high risk getting Coronavirus playing sports in the open air. We're all going to the grocery store after all. So happy everyone is getting back and it was a good test for parents to see how much their child really loved the beautiful game. If my child practically did nothing to keep her fitness and skills up these last few months I'd pull her out of her travel team and put he in a local one. But not being able to play made her love it more so all good.
I'm just trying to think of sports that we can play together. I myself got back into soccer a few years ago because I was looking to get exercise and lose weight. I tried tennis and golf too. But soccer is the most fun for me, though it also has most risk of injury. I was looking for a sport that can be played into old age. Soccer can probably be played into your 60s if you don't get too aggressive. I think it's hard for a 5 or 6 year old to be obsessed with a sport, they have low attention spans and want to goof off too much. So the parent/coach must provide some structure.
He seems to enjoy just about every sport. We are making our way through them. Just dipped into golf a little. Went to driving range. But I think that is hard to teach a 6 yr old because it requires a lot of focus and introspective thought on form. I know it's unlikely he or any kid will go pro. I think college is a realistic possibility though. My strategy is to find the drills that will get the best return on time. So I think a lot about drills, best age to do what. For ex, I realized juggling is low priority at this age. He did a "camp" that did some juggling; waste of time. U6-U8 play what I call 2 dimensional ball. Ie, the ball rarely goes in the air. It stays in one plane. So focus on dribbling. It's the most important skill anyhow, there's no downside to focusing on that; it's not like it is a waste of time to focus on it. You cannot over teach dribbling imo; it's a very deep subject. I also want to acclimate my kid psychologically to seeing the ball go into the net. So I let him score a lot on me. I want him to get used to it and not be intimidated by the net. It seemed to work as last year he was the top scorer. I think confidence alone is a big factor in success in games for kids.