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Post by soccertwins on Dec 12, 2013 20:41:35 GMT -5
I've read that younger athletes benefit from playing other sports in the soccer off-season by developing other muscle groups, avoiding overuse injuries, and preventing burnout from soccer "all-day, everyday"
"Athletic directors attempting to encourage multi-sport participation are often hit with a tough question from parents: “My child is passionate about his sport and playing it year-round is what he wants. What’s wrong with that?”
“There’s nothing wrong with being passionate about something—it’s a great thing,” says Adam Naylor, Director of the Athletic Enhancement Center at Boston University and a sports psychologist. “But just because a child loves something doesn’t mean it’s healthy to give them as much of it as they want. Parents need help understanding that kids aren’t always the best judges of what’s best for themselves.”
Thoughts?
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Post by lovethegame on Dec 13, 2013 8:01:17 GMT -5
It seems more and more there isn't much of an off season, even for the younger players. Academy is ten months of the year, and that starts at a younger age. It would be interesting to find out if the colder states play soccer year around or if you find more kids involved in seasonal sports.
To answer your question, I think my child would have liked to have tried track, but there has never been the opportunity, especially now that she plays soccer nearly year around.
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Post by Soccerhouse on Dec 13, 2013 8:27:46 GMT -5
lovethegame is right, for top players the offseason is short. for my children it is really just the months of june/july where they are off. even that they typically still do camps and a few games in june, but nothing in july. my kids have always played rec basketball during the winter (and indoor soccer). once they got to high school age, they really just stuck with soccer. given my kids are not the tallest, bball and football really were not options. keep in mind my kids also are/were not elite athletes, i think that's a different story. i've seen too many parents have their daughters especially play 3-4 sports at middle school ages and the kids really do not excel at any of the 3 sports while trying to play competitive athena soccer. The girl could be a quality soccer player for example, but constantly misses training sessions for softball or middle school bball. frustrating from an outsiders perspective and it just hurts the team.
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Post by soccergator on Dec 13, 2013 8:46:54 GMT -5
kids play a little rec basketball in the offseason, my kids are soccer players for sure. the schools want the boys to play football, but no chance thats happening.
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Post by silverback on Dec 13, 2013 9:04:33 GMT -5
Given the trend towards specialization and the advent of club/travel sports, the days of the 3 sport high school athlete (or "jack of all trades") are behind us. As most people know, if your son plays DA, USSF does not allow your kid to play HS- will be interesting to see what approach ECNL takes. But even if your boys don't play DA, your kids might find it hard to play other HS sports given most HS coaches seem to be intolerant when it comes to other sports. For example, my sons HS basketball coach basically told him he only permits 3 unexcused absences before a player gets kicked off team. I even talked to the coach and explained my sons availability (at the time) during the winter months. Although he seemed to understand, he would not make any allowances, especially for a sport outside of his HS. He danced around my football argument and the overlap. And I should note he really wanted my son to play basketball.
In any event, I am off topic. As my kids were growing (and they still are), I always supported different sports. Basketball and Tennis are good for the footwork. I was told by a tennis teaching pro that soccer players tend to be naturally good at tennis because of their footwork so I would highly recommend having your kids play tennis, especially since they can play tennis long into their adult lives.
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Post by lovethegame on Dec 13, 2013 9:36:05 GMT -5
My daughter plays on an ECNL team, that takes somewhat of a break during high school soccer, which seems to be the case for many ECNL teams. Aside from that there is a break in July following the National Qualifer, provided the team doesn't make the National Championship. If they do, there is almost no break for ECNL. So, most ECNL players are playing club or high school 48 to 52 weeks a year. It will be interesting to see if ECNL follows DA and doesn't allow players to participate in high school soccer. I think that could be coming at some point, but it will probably be after my child graduates.
I do have nieces and nephews that live up north. Where they live, the three sport athlete still exists. Perhaps it's because it's too cold to play outside sports year around. Or maybe it's because high school sports have never become secondary to club in their area. I would add that they all live in smaller towns, so it's hard to say what is happening in the larger cities where there is greater access to indoor fields.
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Post by spectator on Dec 13, 2013 10:13:16 GMT -5
My daughter doesn't do a specific sport in the off season but we do continue with speed and agility sessions and will do a month of kick boxing for fun. She hates - I mean hates hates hates basketball - which seems to be the only off season sport that doesn't eek into the start of spring soccer.
We kind of take a break but keep conditioning in other ways.
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Post by dadofkeeper on Dec 13, 2013 13:25:38 GMT -5
My daughter is a goal keeper, and she has played basketball since she was little. I firmaly believe that the skills of both help in the other sport. BUT, she continues to play basketball becuase she enjoys it and classmates actually support and watch the game as opposed to high school soccer in our area. That said, I have become a nervous dad, regarding injuries, knowing that she will be signing a scholarship in February.
Up until the start of basketball she worked with a goal keeper trainer on her agility and technique. She will start back with him on weekends after the New Year. This agility training has helped greatly in BOTH sports. |
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Post by jack4343 on Dec 13, 2013 21:21:23 GMT -5
Both of my girls swim in the Gwinnett Swim League during the summer to stay in shape and to basically have something fun to do during the summer and to keep them from being lumps in from of the TV, computer, Ipod, etc. Fun for the parents too.
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Post by soccerpapi on Dec 14, 2013 14:03:27 GMT -5
Agree with most of what has been said, particularly comments made by lovethegame, socceradmin, silverbacks.. For our family, the days of winter soccer indoor, and a quick glory season or two at rec b-ball, stopped after U13 (I wish our kids were able to try other sports, but just not possible since they chose to specialize and elevate/focus their time in one sport as they got older). Playing a schedule that includes (ODP, RPL(NL), ECNL, DA) can lead to year around ball. There seems to always be something on calendar from ODP sub-region (Jan), region camp (Jul), Inter-Regional (Thanksgiving), Regionals (June after state cup), Nationals (July after regionals), not to mention travel for tournaments and showcase events, etc, etc....). I will save the club money motive discussion behind all of this for another thread  If you have 2, 3, 4, kids playing this type of regional/national that also include other traveling-frenzy sports, this can multiply itself quickly (insane?), and leave very little time for vacation/extended family visits/other sports. Fortunately, our kids enjoy what they do and we enjoy the journey with them (embedding family and vacation opportunities during some of sports travel, lots of great family moments, memories, and experience that we would not have done if it was not for the one sport they each love to play and focus on). To avoid burn-out, we typically have a window of 2-3 weeks in the summer where we find time to disconnect from sports and go away as a family doing things that do not include the sports they play year-around. For a situation like ours, not quite sure how possible it is to play other sports, even if you wanted to. |
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Post by guest on Dec 26, 2013 21:44:18 GMT -5
We also swim in the GSL, made the county meet too! My U8 will play Jr Academy and LAX in the Spring. My U12 will focus on soccer and trying to make the top team for next year.
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Post by theterminator on Dec 27, 2013 17:31:12 GMT -5
My daughter's other "sport" is piano. There is a degree of competition, the focus training helps with soccer and the discipline to practice helps as well. Has opened up interactions with non-athletic kids. And she loves it. We have been lucky to be able to work this around practice times but this is likely to become almost impossible as she enters high school. Decisions to be made!
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Post by jack4343 on Dec 28, 2013 6:17:45 GMT -5
My oldest takes piano lessons during the year also. It's a casual thing so far, one lesson a week for a half-hour. She took piano as a elective in 6th grade and her former teacher is the one that is giving her piano lessons. We've had an old stand-up piano in the house for years and it's nice to finally hear some actual tunes coming out of it for a change. LOL
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