This may be an unpopular opinion, but I have recently come to the realization that sports leagues for any particular sport for really young kids is mostly an inefficient system for introducing kids to sports. These ages just need the basics of each sport. They just need to be playing and moving. Here's what should exist for kids age 4-7: --> a sports club (academy/school/whatever you want to call it) At said sports club the kid can do soccer, basketball, teeball... maybe tennis, flag football, whatever. Have you seen 5 yr olds try to play baseball? It's pointless. I mean, it's good to have kids playing, but to have "coaches" and actual games is just dumb. Soccer... that's mostly true as well, though you'll have one or two kids who can dribble and score at age 5. But basically, instead of having parents waste time looking up all these leagues for each sport for their 5 yr old, signing multiple waivers, mapping out the locations, etc... waste of time... they should just be able to put the kid in a club that facilitates all these sports in their most basic form so the kids can start getting used to the body movements. You don't need expert coaches for 5 yr olds. You need a sporty college kid or adult who can simply facilitate the basics. If this kind of thing existed I would definitely have signed my kid up. A one-stop shop for sports for kids approx 4-7 yo. Would save so much time for parents, and would maximize fun and learning for kids. Now here I am trying to think of when I can squeeze in basketball to his schedule, how it will conflict with soccer. Not to mention feeling kinda bad that I didn't sign him up for baseball since it's going to conflict too much with soccer and... he hasn't tried basketball yet which he kinda likes, and he can't do all 3! Too much thinking for a 7 yr old. Just create one space where kids can do it all. /rant over
Don't get me wrong - my kid is loving his soccer club. But it'd be nice for him to sample other sports as well. His soccer club is year round, and they play not just on Saturdays but sometimes on Sundays, which makes it real hard to fit in other sports. No 4/5/6/7 yr old should have to pick and choose. They should be sampling all the sports and then start narrowing down at 9/10/11/12.
I've read and heard anecdotally that the sports club you envision is the model (or maybe used to be?) in some foreign countries. Maybe someone who knows more than I do can confirm or tell me I'm wrong. I don't disagree with the idea that year-round anything is a bad idea for kids that young -- maybe the single biggest frustration of being a board member at a local soccer club was watching our girls' numbers stagnate and then drop and hearing, over and over again from parents, that their young daughters and their daughters' friends all want to do gymnastics, which demanded four or five or whatever days a week of practice starting at age 5 (so no time for anything else). But -- and I don't mean to sound preachy -- the choice is yours as a parent (and as they get older, your kids' choice). My youngest son played baseball for several years, basketball over a couple of winters, ran cross country in middle school and a year in high school. When he did those things, he either doubled up (which was often crazy, and something we learned not to do) or gave something up (baseball stopped even though he was pretty good and enjoyed it). I know and respect the heck out of families that drew much harder lines than we did and mostly left club soccer because their kids wanted to run track, play baseball, ...
I feel if you're seeing a problem, it's one YOU'RE generating. For my small town, at ages 4-7, there are city sponsored sports (baseball, softball, football, soccer, basketball). Everyone makes the team, guaranteed playing time, all the stuff you're looking for. Now, the outdoor sports all basically play at the same time of the year. August - October for fall sports and March - May for spring sports. I think every sport except for football has spring & fall seasons (basketball of course would be Nov-Feb). So a kid could play soccer in the fall and baseball in the spring. Or the reverse. Or do both in the same season. Personally, I don't think it's fair to either team to participate in two sports that happen at the same time (say baseball & soccer). There WILL be conflicts, forcing the child to miss games. But, that's between the parents and the child. I'm not sure what this "club" you propose could do differently. You're going to have families/kids who love football (or any sport) and are fine not doing anything else. Select/Travel starts around 7 or 8 for those who are interested. But there's nothing forcing anyone to join.
For sports at ages 4–7, I'm mostly just glad the kids are out there. Is it that big of a deal if they miss some practices or even games? (Obviously it would be different if there aren't enough players and it causes cancellations, etc.)
Gymnastics and, as a friend who now has young grandkids has told me, cheerleading seem to be exceptions to this (at least where I am) demanding a crazy degree of all-in commitment at age 4 or 5. It was a real headache for the girls' side of my son's first soccer club (which, aside from some little kickers-type stuff, started at U9).
If it's just one player, maybe two, no. But you get one or two missing for another sport/activity, another one missing for a birthday party, one missing because of a family trip, and yea, it gets a little iffy. I don't have a problem with overlap (say someone is on a basketball team that starts two weeks before the end of soccer). Two activities at the same time I don't like. Obviously just my opinion.
I would agree that there shouldn't be any competitive sports leagues until maybe the age of 7 or 8. Tee ball, "munchkin" soccer, non-competitive basketball - all those are good for kids to try out, IMO. No kid at 6 or 7 years old should be doing a sport year round. I think that's just begging for a kid to develop repetitive stress injuries. My kids played rec level baseball, basketball and soccer until around 8, then started picking the sports they liked the most. My older son also got pretty involved into Tae Kwon Do as well. Younger son started a club soccer team his U8 season and has pretty much gone year round since then, but still managed to fit in rec baseball and a couple years of CYO / middle school basketball, but they were secondary to soccer overall.
Oh, if that's what we're talking about, I totally agree. My kids were involved in various sports at younger ages and I don't think any standings (or game scores) were kept until 7 or 8. They were definitely in play at 9/10.
I think gymnastics is unique in that it requires special equipment. But some sports can be done with basic equipment, and at a park. Just think of the local park. Just a basic plot of grass. What can you play there? soccer, baseball, flag football, ultimate frisbee, rugby, volleyball, badminton, kickball, lacrosse... and I'm sure other stuff. (ok baseball won't be perfect without a real diamond but good enough for 4-7 yr olds). Some sports you need a particular space - basketball, hockey, tennis, etc. Overall, my thesis is in keeping with the basic economic model of how one stop shops exist for things that are general, not specialized. It keeps the costs down. Eg - at walmart you can buy many different things, but if you want real nice things you would go to a specialty store. If you want a aged ribeye steak you'd go to a butcher shop. If you want a nice gold ring you'd go to a jeweler. Same with home depot - it's for the diy generalist. But if you're building a custom home you'd probably go to a lumber place for the lumber and some specialty shop for the granite counters, not home depot. So, for 4-7 yr olds, there should be a walmart of youth sports. So you go, and in one location the kid can do say 3 or 4 sports in the same place. Then the parent wouldn't have to drive around to many places. What kid (and parent) wouldn't love that? Start it and I'll be your first customer!
Move to the rust belt, find an old middle school w a field surrounded by a track that the district has to close. Most likely you have a gymnasium with a divider that you can get 2 futsal games in at a time. Put in a weight room, rooms to watch video, etc. Opportunity awaits....
Not my fault. Soccer club is year round. I am talking with other parents who have the same issues - trying to figure out which other sports to squeeze in. I'm not the only one. For baseball there is fall ball and spring ball. Spring is more popular as it's the typical baseball season. Soccer is more of a fall sport, but for club soccer it's year-round. What I'm saying is - at this age - just have a sports club that has both soccer and baseball so they don't conflict. It's not like it's super competitive at 4-7 yr olds. They just need to be out there kicking, running, throwing and that's it.
That's basically the norm - you have to pick and choose and you miss some things. Why don't the heads of each sport simply say "you play Saturday's, we'll play Sundays" or something. In the fall, the baseball does their games on Sundays because they know kids are playing soccer on Sat. But that's a super short baseball season and even then there are conflicts because some soccer games are on Sundays, particularly tournaments.
I think it depends on the intensity. Even comp soccer, there are slow periods, holidays and lulls in between the leagues and tournaments. These kids heal quick, like wolverine. But I agree that they need recovery time
Did someone else sign your child up for competitive soccer and not tell you? That's my point. It IS your fault. You willingly signed him up for a commitment that covers a year. By agreeing to that commitment, you limited him to a certain sport. Our local park has multiple soccer fields, multiple baseball fields, and multiple softball fields (one of the softball fields has soccer fields in the outfield). These are in use by multiple age kids. The reason they play on Saturday and Sunday is they're trying to get the games in. The more teams you have, the more games it takes to get through the season. There's a limited time for the "season". And those fields need to cover multiple age groups for games and practices. Look at the big picture, not just a single team/player. Go ahead, map it out. How many games can you get in in a day? And remember, it was YOUR choice to do competitive soccer. If you don't like the two season deal, then go back to rec in the fall and play baseball next spring.
gotcha so it's my fault for singing him up for comp. so the solution is to do rec you say. but no, what I'm saying is, there's a better solution out there, it just hasn't been created yet. one place that has multiple sports. you don't send your kid to math school, and then another school for reading and writing. it's all under one roof because it's efficient for all. that should exist for youth sports.
Take a session off to play another sport. A teammate of my son would choose not to play during spring season because he played baseball (this was U11 or U12).
That's a possibility. But he likes the soccer club. He gets along with the kids and has a lot of fun. I can see doing that at U11/U12. It's just a weird time... his mom takes him snowboarding some weekends so that's another factor. And he's been asked to play on an indoor soccer team, but no, too many conflicts. And I didn't sign him up for basketball a couple months ago because of his mom and soccer. He's only 7, so it's like, a league is overkill; he just needs an open gym with some other kids to shoot around. At this age you just need a gym or a park and someone to facilitate a few sports. Like PE class but longer.
Oh well, it is what it is. I know this is a battle I cannot win. It was just an idea. I raise my hands in defeat. I guess we'll just focus 100% on soccer. Maybe that will turn out well after all.
Opportunity knocks -- build it and maybe they'll flock your way. Alternately, check out the local park district (and set travel/club sports aside for a few years) along with whatever organization in your area offers sports that the PD doesn't (Little League is a separate organization here, and we did basketball through a church league and some early indoor soccer at the local Y).
I wish I had the time. Too many ideas, not enough time. Yeah that's the other things, so many different leagues. I don't even think any are affiliated with our parks/rec division. Actually we did do tennis lesson through that and swim lessons (which were pointless, too many kids so each barely got any individual attention). Soccer - each neighborhood has their own rec league. And then there's a bunch of clubs. Baseball - Little League and Cal Ripken Basketball - a real hodgepodge of leagues. Some through churches; YMCA has one; the elementary school was supposed to but cancelled due to corona, and some random private leagues like this I think leagues make sense for say ages 8 and up, where the kids can actually listen and learn something rather than pick their noses when on the field. Under 8s should be the one-stop-shop-recreational-sports-academy. I'm pretty sure parents would eat it up because they need stuff for their kid to do other than playing video games, and many just don't have time to do the research (and all the various driving).
I think you're too focused on the word "league". All a league is is a group of teams (probably in various age groups) that play each other. You want to know why there are so many leagues? Because people thought they could do things better than the others. Is that only games on Saturday? Is it better uniforms? Is it lower cost? Shorter games? Required playing time? Better coaching? Yes, you have a lot of ideas, the problem is you don't flesh them out. Go through the details. How many kids can you support at how many ages? How long will the games be? How many games will there be each season? Do you have enough fields/courts to support the number of games? Will there be practices? Etc. Speaking of practices, in your "one stop shop" where kids can play baseball and soccer at the same time, you'd have one practice per week for each sport and one game on weekends, right? How do you ensure the soccer practice and baseball practice aren't on the same night? AND now you've just committed that kid and parent to two nights a week for practice AND games on both Saturday and Sunday. I think you overestimate the number of parents who are willing to do that for 4-7 year olds. Yes, they're out there, but I don't think in the numbers you envision.
I think you're looking for an organization like the Chicago Sports Foundation. https://www.chicagorecsports.com/ It provides introduction to a wide range of sports. If any kid wants to go beyond the introductory level, it partners with other organizations to allow those kids to go do that. I would guess, but do not know, that the sessions are arranged so that they don't overlap with each other. I think it's a great model and organization for those families that aren't committed to anything yet. Once you get into a competitive sport at a level that demands full year commitments, then it gets harder to break the inertia of that and dabble. My son is a couple of years ahead of yours, and I have some small regret that we didn't get into a program like this back when he was younger, but my son has always been focused on soccer first and all other sports second (and everything else in life a distant third). And soccer didn't require driving back then, while any other sport except baseball (which I have issues with for small children from a mechanics standpoint) did require driving.
Come to think of it, the YMCA used to provide the same introduction to sports service, and in many areas still does.
Yeah probably you're right. I have ideas all the time and realize later they are not feasible. To flesh out this idea a little more: No I would not include basketball with soccer since they need different facilities. Here's a important point - the US has an abundance of parks. So, plenty of grass. I would start with sports that can be played on that. So soccer, baseball, flag football, etc. This way the costs are low. Not perfect since it doesn't include basketball, but good enough. Then later, if the demand is there, have a more expensive tier which is where you would have to rent out other facilities for basketball or tennis. I think even older kids would like this. Even at our soccer club I've talked with the president about having flag football or baseball. If it's all under one umbrella they could control the scheduling so no conflicts. It was something he had already considered, so it's not that crazy of an idea.