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While it does seem to be the norm, you don't have to buy into it OP. There are other venues, such as the Y, or Upward (maybe just in the south), that are more instructional and low key. If a child has a natural affinity for a sport, trust me, the coaches won't care if they start at 6 or 10. Ability will trump experience.
I will say though, that my own boys preferred the more demanding schedule for the sports they liked. They didn't want to be on teams with half-hearted participants.
If your child has a strong preference for one sport, concentrate on that, and let the other go.
Admittedly it's been a while but when my kids were growing up there were two different types of youth sports. Recreational leagues through churches, parks departments etc., usually inexpensive, and focused more on having fun than on winning. Missing a practice here and there not a big deal.
Then there were the competitive leagues which usually cost quite a bit more, did a lot more out of town games, more practice games, and just more intense overall.
In our area the recreational leagues kind of tapered off after about 7th grade, probably because school sports really start taking off at that age, but the competitive leagues seemed to maintain interest pretty much through high school.
Maybe OP should check to see if there are other, less demanding clubs to join?
In my experience, the best athletes spend the majority of their time playing...UNSUPERVISED. Playing ball with your friends on the court, field or ice provides more lessons than a coach ever could. The natural instincts you develop in pickup games are what separates "average" from "good" and "good" from "great."
Parents push their kids into sports instead of allowing their child's curiosity to guide them.
In my experience, the best athletes spend the majority of their time playing...UNSUPERVISED. Playing ball with your friends on the court, field or ice provides more lessons than a coach ever could. The natural instincts you develop in pickup games are what separates "average" from "good" and "good" from "great."
Parents push their kids into sports instead of allowing their child's curiosity to guide them.
And in my experience the opposite was true. Sports are a huge thing here, and not starting them with proper coaching young can be a huge hindrance in the big sports. We did have time to develop our natural instincts, though, when we had scrimmages. Truthfully, we learned much more in games than in practices, but we could only learn many of the things we learned by having good coaches.
We have a 9 yr old and twins 5 yr old boys who start kindergarten this fall. In my region (northern Minnesota)...youth hockey when it starts in late October and runs through early Spring can be a huge ordeal time wise..... but so far our kids are not into that. Our 9 yr old does youth basketball (organized by our town's youth basketball association) and for his grade 3 rd grade it runs from Nov to March and consists of two 1 hr practices a week and once Saturday game....in the late winter there are tourneys and can have 2-3 games on Saturday.
For baseball and T-ball that is strictly a summer activity here due to weather (May-Jun-July) at least for the ages up thru 12 yrs old. Tball for the 5 yrds old is practice twice a week and one game and for cal ripken two practices and one six inning game a week.
I truly appreciate all of the replies, clearly I was out of touch with what's the norm. I just have such conflicted feelings about this. My gut screams "Noooooo" but I don't want him to be left behind when it is time to get serious about a sport. He goes to bed at 7pm but last year when we participated in recreational track the practices didn't even start until 7:30, ending at 9. That can't be good for his academic performance, to be that exhausted at school.
I will take the suggestion to look for more "recreational" sport opportunities.
Welcome to the suburbs! I feel your pain. I just wanted to provide some support and let you know that taking this year off will not ruin his opportunity to participate next year or even the year after that. I promise.
I truly appreciate all of the replies, clearly I was out of touch with what's the norm. I just have such conflicted feelings about this. My gut screams "Noooooo" but I don't want him to be left behind when it is time to get serious about a sport. He goes to bed at 7pm but last year when we participated in recreational track the practices didn't even start until 7:30, ending at 9. That can't be good for his academic performance, to be that exhausted at school.
I will take the suggestion to look for more "recreational" sport opportunities.
That was one problem I had with wrestling in first grade. Practice was 7 to 9. My son's bedtime was 8. I let him stick with it for a bit, but put a stop to it when it because difficult to wake him in the morning. The weekday meets lasting almost until midnight are what ultimately exhausted him, not being up an hour later for practice.
The reason most practices are in the evening is because the coaches have full time jobs and wait until after their dinner. You'll run into that even with most community leagues. Look for recreational opportunities that are run by people who are paid to do it. That way the coaches are available during the daytime or afternoons. Things like karate, gymnastics, etc. Check out what's available at the YMCA, boys and girls club, and your local community center because those places also have staff during the day.
Here, the practices for younger kids tend to be closer to 5:00, then the older kids practice later. I've seen lacrosse kids start practice late, like 9:00, but they were older kids.
The problem with the 5:00 practices is being able to get there on time, if both parents work.
OP, I wouldn't push it at this age. A year from now, he'll be used to longer school days, won't be napping, and will likely be fine with a later bed time. There is nothing wrong with waiting.
SoFresh99, I totally agree with you. My son is starting first grade, and he is "behind" all his friends when it comes to sports. However, since he is not pushing it yet, we have kept to rec leagues and swimming. If he pushes for something more competitive, so be it, but I've talked with several coaches of older kids (a relative is a D1 college coach) and they say the push for young athletes to be so competitive is unnecessary (as far as development goes) and can be unhealthy. There's been a dramatic increase in stress injuries in young athletes, and there seems to be a correlation between over exertion at a young age and inappropriate training (often due to inexperienced or untrained coaches) and increased injury. They are also seeing more burnout in HS and college b/c kids have already been competing for 8-10 years.
I've had a lot of conversations about this because my area of study is child development and it seems like youth leagues are out of control in some areas (we used to live outside DC, and the competition for young kids was ridiculous). In talking with professional coaches they say kids who don't start at a young age are not necessarily at a disadvantage. Often they are better off because they start a sport b/c of their own interest and have more focus, and are better able to understand the intricacies of play, so they pick it up faster. [Sorry, awful run-on sentence there.] Also older kids tend to have better muscle control. So I wouldn't sweat it if you don't have your children playing team sports at 4. There is also some compelling evidence that free-form, unstructured play is far more beneficial to healthy development than having only structured activity, as another poster mentioned.
Clearly from the other posts this kind of practice/game schedule is pretty normal. The question is, does that make it ok, just because it's common? And does it make it ok for your family, and what you want your kids to be doing?
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