travel soccer (U8/U9)

[DopeyDame]

Talk to me about travel soccer, please.

DS currently plays U8 rec soccer. He's good.
Some of you may remember that last fall DH and I got roped into coaching his team. For this spring, we're moving him to a different rec league that actually has qualified coaches. (DH and I were absolutely not that! )
Anyway, DS was one of the best players on the team. People who knew we were the coaches, but didn't know we were his parents, commented on him. He's also still really little. In my (totally unathletic) world, a 7 year old should be playing outside with his friends.
So anyway... enough rambling...

The rec league he's going to play in this spring also has travel teams, starting at U8. Theoretically he could try out for the travel team in the fall. That kind of commitment seems *insane* to me for young kids. Am I wrong? If you have older soccer kids, when is "too late" to make the transition to travel soccer if that's where a kid will eventually head? What are the actual benefits of travel soccer vs. just playing on a fun rec team? Anything I should know?

Thanks!

 

[Bren's Mom]

I have a 'amazingly good for his age' soccer goalie. He's 11. Here's my take on it all:

Only a super small percentage of any of these kids will continue to play through college level, even smaller (miniscule) percentage will play pro.

So I don't push ds, or allow him to be 'pulled' to go further/faster than is necessary. We play in a great private club that is run similarly to a town league (but much better run than our own town league). He played the 'rec travel' ages 9 and 10. Both fall and spring. 'Travel' for this league is town's mostly near to us, only a few games each season are more than 15 minutes away, but none more than 30 minutes away. Totally doable. 3 practices a week (including goalie training) plus 1-2 games per weekend. No out of state nonsense for games or tournaments.

Age 11 began this past fall, and ds tried out for and made the competitive team level. Similar towns played against, similar scheduled. Slightly bigger financial commitment, but still very reasonable (less than $500 for the YEAR, both fall and spring seasons).

Most of the friends his age are playing also, or instead, on 'premiere' teams with private (for profit) clubs. We've had all of them attempt to recruit ds, and I just tell them he's got plenty of time to be 'Pele', right now he's 11 and just needs to be ds. These premiere teams are $2k plus per year. A few play ONLY out of state, nearly every weekend. Some play an hour, two hours away, every weekend. Insane for an 11 yo if you ask me.

Will we let him join a premiere team next year? No clue. We'll see how spring goes, and go from there.

Right now ds is enjoying the game, learning and growing in the game every practice, every game. And we are neither financially strapped or resentful of his games/practices, overtaxed. I don't think we're doing any damage to his 'possibilities' for the future.

Don't let others make you feel you should make any decision other than one you're comfortable with for your family.

Hope that helps!

 

[soccerdad72]

I have two sons - 16 and 11. My older son started playing travel soccer at U11 and my younger son started at U8. Both are still active in soccer on premier clubs (and high school for my older son).

In general, the level of a U8 travel soccer program should not be a lot more than rec soccer. Most travel soccer programs will have 2 practices a week (and sometimes an optional footskills session) versus one practice a week for rec. Games are usually not too far, travel-wise, as the leagues tend to group cities geographically. I think the farthest we drove for a travel soccer game in U8/U9 was maybe 40 minutes. There will likely be a tournament each season (fall and spring) that would involve a weekend's worth of games (3 or 4). Often, those are kept pretty local as well, although you might end up at a tournament that involves an overnight stay somewhere.

I'm not sure there's a good answer as too what is "too late" to move towards travel soccer. Every kid is different in that regard. My older son has a high school teammate who really didn't start playing "serious" soccer (e.g. beyond rec) until he was 13 or so. But he's exceptionally athletic, so he was able to pick up things quickly.

The main benefits of travel soccer versus rec soccer at a young age is twofold: 1.) generally speaking, he'll be on a team with a group of boys who all want to be there and usually are giving it their best. Rec soccer is hit or miss on this one - often you'll have various kids who you can tell don't want any part of being there and it will drag the actual soccer down. 2.) while it's usually parent-led, the coaching is usually a little better than rec soccer.

A lot of it really comes down to the program itself, the coaching and a gut feel. If you don't think your son is having fun with it, after a year, you can always have him go back to rec.

 

[Happyinwonerland]

What is the end goal of putting him in travel soccer so young? Will the end goal be delayed if you wait until he is older?

I would take the money you would spend on expensive travel soccer and put it in a college fund. You'll see a greater ROI.

 

[Hikergirl]

What is the end goal of putting him in travel soccer so young? Will the end goal be delayed if you wait until he is older?

I would take the money you would spend on expensive travel soccer and put it in a college fund. You'll see a greater ROI.

Not all travel soccer is expensive. I think aside from registration fees of around $200, my ds's uniform cost $85 and its generally used for 2 full seasons (fall/spring and fall/spring). Since the uniforms are not different for different age levels as long as my ds fits into his he will be using it. As parents we pitch in for winter field fees so we can have practice year round, but the cost is not very much when divided by an entire team. For our tournaments we usually do a couple 50/50 raffles per season and that takes care of those.


OP, my ds has been playing travel since U10 or U11, can't remember. He is now playing U15 and the only thing as far as commitment that has changed is the tournaments. When he played younger, they didn't really go to them.
We have practices 2 times a week in regular season and we travel on average about 45 minutes to games. Some are an hour away, some are less.
For the winter we only have practice once a week and our team did join a winter indoor league but it was optional for the players. We opted out since my ds also plays basketball.
For comparison as far as commitment, school practices were every day and he had at least 2 games per week. At least our weekends were free for travel soccer LOL

My ds has lived and breathed soccer since he started playing at age 8. His goal of course was to be a professional MLS player. Well that was until he discovered his love of basketball this past year LOL.
I think its great to encourage your child to follow their interests, but not to stress too much about where it is going to lead. Very few kids make it to even the school teams in HS let alone college and beyond.

 

[tvguy]

Wow, I didn't think travel soccer started until age 12!

I have nothing nice to say about ANY travel sport. It just seems to burn out more kids than non-travel sports.
And it can get very expensive.

So no, you are not insane IMHO, it is insane for kids this young, and maybe for older kids too. And having had 2 kids in High Schools sports, at least their coaches, didn't seem to see any advantage to it, and the number of injuries seems to be an issue too.

 

[sam_gordon]

What is the end goal of putting him in travel soccer so young? Will the end goal be delayed if you wait until he is older?

I would take the money you would spend on expensive travel soccer and put it in a college fund. You'll see a greater ROI.

That comes down to WHY your child is playing travel soccer. If the end goal is college scholarship, yes, save the money in a college fund. However, if the end goal is to make the child a better player and let him do something he enjoys doing, travel soccer can be a good fit (starting at U8/U9).

Around here, U8/U9 for travel is called "Academy". The "team" can be 8 kids or it can be 20+. All the Academy programs in the area get together for "play dates". A program with 20+ kids might bring 3-4 teams to the play date, a program with 10 kids would bring one. The kids will play two games back to back, and the programs might change players on a team (Jim is on Team Blue for the first game and Team Yellow for the second game). Scores are not officially kept. This has nothing to do with protecting the feelings of the losers (everyone knows who won and lost), but to try to prompt the kids to try different things (moves, plays, etc).

Many parents didn't like the Academy process (different team mates, no emphasis on winning, etc) and skipped it. They then entered Select at U10.

When my kids were in Academy, we might have gone 45 minutes (at most) for the play dates. We did go to 1-2 tournaments in a year, but that was 1-2 hours away and wasn't mandatory.

I suggest getting more information on the program, how many practices each week, how many games, where, what's the cost, do you need to pay for uniforms, etc.

I don't think you NEED to do Academy (U8) travel soccer to have a successful career. As soccerdad72 said, you can try it for a year and decide if you like it.

 

[sam_gordon]

Wow, I didn't think travel soccer started until age 12!

I have nothing nice to say about ANY travel sport. It just seems to burn out more kids than non-travel sports.
And it can get very expensive.

So no, you are not insane IMHO, it is insane for kids this young, and maybe for older kids too. And having had 2 kids in High Schools sports, at least their coaches, didn't seem to see any advantage to it, and the number of injuries seems to be an issue too.

How can you say it's insane when you have no experience with how things work? High school coaches around here LOOK for kids who have played travel. Generally kids who have a history in travel are going to be better than someone who's just played rec (because they've gone up against tougher competition, had better coaching, etc). Granted, I know a lot of school coaches who don't want the kids playing travel in the same season (and the same can be said for travel coaches), but I have a hard time believing school coaches don't see an advantage to kids playing travel before they play for the school team.

 

[Kae]

When DS was 8-9 we did travel but only 45 mins away at the most. He started traveling further around 11 but only about 1 1/2 hours, and one or two bigger tournaments per session and even the it was 3 hours away at the most.

 

[Southernmiss]

DD has played soccer since she was 5. About age 10 she began to play keeper in rec. Had a great college student as a mentor to her. Dd was recruited for travel by age 12. They touted scholarships as a motivator to switch her, but that didn't sway me as our family strives for academic scholarships. I held off due to the expense and time but to our schedules until she was 13.

Travel has been a great experience for her and she has a community college coach now and has had specialized keeper training with a former semi pro player/coach. She has learned so much more in travel than her school coaches could ever teach her. She began playing varsity high school keeper in 8th grade.

Here, the travel season takes a break during high school season. Our high school season is almost over and we sorely miss travel. The girls on our team are not at the level of the girls on our travel team. High school coaches recruit the travel soccer kids. Even pulling them to high schools out of the family's geographical school area. But I refused to do that.

At age 8, I would hold off. But as your child grows and if he still has an interest, I would consider travel. It's been a great experience for us.

 

[Nanu57v]

My DD started at U8. It was too young in my opinion, but I had waited a whole year after they first asked me. The gap between my daughter and her teammates that had already played together a year was noticable. I think it took until she was U11 until she closed that gap. These girls now play in Premier leagues at 11 years old. Crazy, yes. But these are the girls that are going to make the school team next year.

Cons: She plays soccer. She plays soccer in the winter, in the spring, in the summer, in the fall. We like soccer, but I take pause that she's never really tried any other sports. What if she found out she loved field hockey? (Okay, we did try that one, she did not love field hockey).

Our Saturdays are shot for about half the year with games and tournaments.

It takes a lot of fuel.

As for other expense, my other daughter was a gymnast. Soccer is WAAAAAY less expensive.

 

[tvguy]

How can you say it's insane when you have no experience with how things work? High school coaches around here LOOK for kids who have played travel. Generally kids who have a history in travel are going to be better than someone who's just played rec (because they've gone up against tougher competition, had better coaching, etc). Granted, I know a lot of school coaches who don't want the kids playing travel in the same season (and the same can be said for travel coaches), but I have a hard time believing school coaches don't see an advantage to kids playing travel before they play for the school team.

8 years as a youth sports board member, including 1 year as league President.. 2 kids in youth sports with lots of friends in travel sports.

 

[mjkacmom]

My boys started playing soccer at 5 (rec), started town travel at 8, and ds14 has been playing club, as well, since 10. DH has coached both travel teams (plus dd14's) the whole time, even coaching ds18's HS varsity team in the off season. He will tell you that the travel players are generally better players than the rec players, the club players better than the travel players. Personally, he has no desire for ds to play in the most elite, pricey, competitive teams, traveling all over for tournaments, even though that will improve playing. For our family, it's not worth the sacrifice, but it is for others.

If your ds wants to play travel, let him. Find out the costs and commitments. Our town program is only $250, and they rarely travel over 45 minutes. Ds's club is about $2000 a year, our home field is 1/2 hour away, and games are within 2 hours, usually.

Most kids don't play in the hope of college scholarships, they play because they love playing. Ds played rec this fall just for fun, he had a great time, but the level of play is night and day.

 

[Dizneefamily+4]

DD11 (almost 12) started in rec soccer at age 4. She started playing as a sub (while still playing rec) for an "Academy Team" at U9, which is the step before Select (Travel) in our area (some travel, but very local.) She then played U10 for that Academy and stopped rec. In our area, true Select soccer (with tryout and getting placed on differing levels of travel teams -i.e. Classic 1 or 2 and State,) doesn't start until U11. DD played U11 last season (it's a spring/fall commitment) and is currently playing U12- fall season wrapped up Nov. 1 and spring will start in March.. For us, it's about $350 for both seasons plus uniform (about $75.) That amount also includes 2 tournaments each season, which are generally farther than we would normally travel and involve hotel stays.

DD LOVES soccer. She also plays basketball, but her true passion is soccer. Her coach played in college and semi-pro. She also has a training academy of her own, through which dd takes lessons and occasional clinics. We have no aspirations of college play or scholarships. We do this for her because she loves the game. She'd play it all year long if we allowed it.

I do think Select/Travel soccer gives players more skill because they play against tougher competition. But I don't see it as an absolute necessity.

 

[Jennabeth]

We have to DDs who play travel soccer. DD2 started when at U9 and is currently on a U15 Premier team. DD1 wasn't into it as much and joined at U14 at the select level. We encouraged club teams because we liked the idea of the girls being coached by people who knew how to coach (instead of volunteers). Even though DD1 began playing in 8th grade, it was very obvious that she had more than rec experience when she played for JV in 9th grade. Many parents commented and asked us who she played for and a lot of those girls were at tryouts the following spring. DD2 still loves it is currently playing on 2 indoor teams during her "off-season". One of the teams is a boys team in a boys division and she can totally hang with them, it's great!

Yes, it is expensive and our schedules are crazy busy during the fall when both girls have weekend games. It slows down a bit in the spring because high school games are during the week. The way I see it, this is temporary until they grow up and move out and I'm going to savor all of it. My family thinks we are nuts, but DD1 graduates next year and DD2 in 2021 and then we'll have all the time in the world to do everything we missed while we were on the pitch.

I'm not sure there is a magic year, it depends on the kid. I don't regret doing it a U9 but am not sure I'd start at U8. I would only do it if your kids are into it. We discussed with our girls that it would be a lot of time and they were expected to go to all training and games without complaining. They knew every team was a 1 year commitment and they couldn't stop until it was over. Every year the games end on June 8th and they are always excited about tryouts (the next weekend LOL).

 

[DopeyDame]

Thank you all so much for sharing your perspectives! It's so helpful to hear different experiences and very reassuring that we have at least a few years to keep him where he is.
The team he'll be on this spring is the rec team, but it's part of our county league (basically, all the neighborhood teams compete against each other) so there is some travel, but all within 30 minutes. For now, that seems like the perfect level of competition for him.

And don't worry, I'm not counting on college scholarships or a career in MLS! It wasn't too long ago that I was just happy he could tie his own shoes. If he's having fun and learning a little bit, then I'm happy.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

I have nothing nice to say about ANY travel sport. It just seems to burn out more kids than non-travel sports.
And it can get very expensive.

So no, you are not insane IMHO, it is insane for kids this young, and maybe for older kids too. And having had 2 kids in High Schools sports, at least their coaches, didn't seem to see any advantage to it, and the number of injuries seems to be an issue too.

8 years as a youth sports board member, including 1 year as league President.. 2 kids in youth sports with lots of friends in travel sports.

Things have changed since then.

Last year, when DS's college coach wanted to learn more about him, he didn't reach out to his high school coach, he reached out to his travel coach (himself a college coach).

You can find people to argue on either side of the issue, and that's because there's quite a bit of friction among people in the sports (for a lot of reasons) who see things firmly either one way or the other. Really, there are pros and cons to each.

But what it boils down to is what's best for your own kid, and what type of player he or she is, and wants to be. More serious players will often go onto a travel team for reasons that Sam stated - they want a better experience with better competition and better coaching. Not all travel teams will be "better", which is why you need to explore and choose carefully. But if you do choose well, and find a team/organization/league that's very good, than it absolutely can be a better experience.

To say that ALL travel sports are awful is just silly.

 

[Lilacs4Me]

I agree with Pea and Me.

My high schooler plays football, where, in youth leagues, the "travel" is inherent just by playing the sport - there is no rec vs travel leveling in football. I suppose one could be in a league where the coaches/teams don't push the kids as hard as another league or team, maybe, but all in all, if you are playing football, it is pretty much expected you will play to the highest level you possibly can no matter what team you are on. I guess the "tryout" part comes not from making *A*specific team, but by making the starting lineup. So it's a little different.

I would personally almost never find it a good idea to put my kids into a travel sport at age 8-9. I just cannot fund that kind of cash for the league and the actual travelling. Soccer...AAU basketball....volleyball....softball...etc just wouldn't work for my family. Maybe if things were different and my kids had more of a passing interest or showed an intense passion - and by that I mean where they are BEGGING me to let them play, and they are the ones taking the lead and showing the effort in improving by taking the initiative at home to get better - then I might have thought about it. But I'd be hard pressed to find many kids who would do all of the above at 8-9 years old. Even my DS16, who would love a chance to play college football, wasn't going in the backyard and working on his stance or on his foot and hand work or studying coaching strategy or playbooks on his own initiative until he was about 13 or so, and he started playing football at age 8. And his little brother who is now almost 11 would rather sit on his bed and play video games then go to (rec) basketball practice or dribble in the driveway. No way will I pay out good cash and waste all of those weekends to cart my kid around the tri-state area for a sport until I see that he wants it more than I do. And DD cheers, but it is competitive rec sideline and competition cheer and middle school basketball cheer, not All-Stars or ICE. Again, same reasons...she likes it but doesn't take the time to improve herself outside of practice. No extra effort=no additional cash or time from me. And all three have played many other sports whether to try them out or for fun or because they thought they might like them. Soccer, lacrosse, softball, baseball, basketball, swimming, gymnastics, tumbling, fencing, wrestling, track, tennis....between the three of them, they have tried a lot of things! But nobody ever loved anything enough to make me feel like travel was worth it (except football, but I've already explained how that is different in the travel aspect)

But like Pea and Me said - it is absolutely an individual family/kid decision. The above is MY criteria for whether I would do it. Other families have different criteria. You have to decide whether the time and money is worth it or whether rec soccer is a better fit. And...food for thought, if he hasn't tried any other sport, consider having him try a few. He is definitely still young enough to learn how to play baseball or basketball, or swim, or play football. There are so many choices - again, it's your call, but I would not invest so much time and money so early if this is the only sport he has ever played. Sooner or later, soccer tends to go year round. Will he have time to experience other things, and at that point, would you want him to if you have already invested so much time and money into soccer?

 

[DopeyDame]

But like Pea and Me said - it is absolutely an individual family/kid decision. The above is MY criteria for whether I would do it. Other families have different criteria. You have to decide whether the time and money is worth it or whether rec soccer is a better fit. And...food for thought, if he hasn't tried any other sport, consider having him try a few. He is definitely still young enough to learn how to play baseball or basketball, or swim, or play football. There are so many choices - again, it's your call, but I would not invest so much time and money so early if this is the only sport he has ever played. Sooner or later, soccer tends to go year round. Will he have time to experience other things, and at that point, would you want him to if you have already invested so much time and money into soccer?

Thanks! Lots of good points in here. I love the "no extra effort = no extra cash from me" idea. That's absolutely tucked away in my brain. As for other sports, I always thought I'd be the mom with kids in three different sports each season. That just seems like the best thing to me. But DS seems to be a soccer kid through and through. He did lacrosse last year and *hated* it. Like absolutely hated it. (I made him finish the season, and then promised to never speak of it again.) I also made him take swimming lessons so that he's a pretty decent little swimmer, but he doesn't want to join the swim team at our summer pool. (Might make him do the 2 week pre-team session this year just to brush up on his swimming skills at the beginning of summer, but that's a safety issue, not a sports issue.) He also did the summer track league in our neighborhood last year. It was fine, he may or may not do it again, but there was whining to go to practices that he never does for soccer practices. He also takes tae kwon do, and will continue that until he's a black belt. I love baseball and even offered to coach a team if he wanted to play that, and he didn't want to. He's not allowed to play football. (I love the sport, and I'm not at all judging you for having your kids play! There are lots of complicated reasons why it's not at all the right sport for him.)

So... I feel like we've explored a fair amount of options and the thing he keeps coming back to over and over again is soccer. At his parent-teacher conference, his teacher even mentioned that every day, all day at recess, he's playing soccer, no matter what. It's that singular focus that even got me started thinking about travel at all. But like I said, I really appreciate everyone's thoughts and reassurance, and we'll definitely be sticking with his rec league for now. If he starts begging for the travel team on his own, then we'll reevaluate.

 

[sam_gordon]

we'll definitely be sticking with his rec league for now. If he starts begging for the travel team on his own, then we'll reevaluate.

One thing to watch during the rec season... is the (or one of the) "stars" of the team? If so, going to travel may be a good move (again, tougher competition). Find out ahead of time when tryouts are. Around here, select soccer runs basically during the school year (August - May). Tryouts for the new fall teams are actually at the end of the previous season (so May/June for team competition in August). Some teams around here say you have to commit (put money down) within 24 hours of being named to a team, others you can let them know a couple weeks before the season starts. It all depends on the number of kids wanting to be on the team.

I only say that to let you know you may need to make a decision before you thought you would.