How to pick kid's sports

Hi,

I'll tell you how to pick sports for your kids today.
My 7th grade started soccer when he was 3. We started from "Daddy and Me soccer" to community organize soccer (like Reston youth association or Herndon Youth Soccer) until 6th grade.
He had an opportunity to tryout (usually around 3rd grade. Coach will tell you) for "travel team" which more serious then "house team", 2,3 times practice/week and games on weekend. They do year around.
Reason why he didn't do it because he started swim team when he was 3rd grade and I thought that was too much. So he continued to play in "house team" until 6th grade then he tried flag football one season.

So now, he swim 4times/week and that's it. He wanted to play soccer again but I said "Let's skip fall season because we don't know how hard the middle school life". He seems manage school life and swimming which is good.

Soccer is a great sports. Because the game finish based on time. Practice is 1hour to 1.5 hour long, games are 1hour long. That's it!
But baseball is not. they finish when game is over. I think for little kids, they have 2 or 3 hours time limit but still you have to be there and cheer for your kid for 2,3 hours. If you have a little one like me and your husband is working late or travel a lot like mine, then it's hell. The game won't finish until 8pm or later even kids are 2nd or 3rd grade.

So if you don't mind what kind sports your kids play, I highly recommend the sports has a time limit!

How about swimming?
It's a great sports. We started to take swim lesson when he was 6months. Just because we wanted kids to be not afraid of water, wanted kids to know water safety. Then we got a house, got membership of pool nearby and they have summer swim team. So he joined swim team when he was 6. It was great!
he swim everyday, they have meet on Sat and Mon. And he joined year around swim team when he was 8. Swimming is great sports until...5th or 6th grade.
Here the DC area is one of most competitive area for swimming. NCAP had many olympians and PVS(potomac valley swimming) is one of smallest area but we have most swimmers in North East.(I think) Once kids become older, practice will start ridiculously early. My son's team's morning practice start at 4:30am until 6am, so high schooler can go school on time.

4:30am! is not morning to me. That's still middle of night. Because if practice start at 4:30am, kids need to be there at 4:20, that means they need to get up around 3:45am depend of how far the practice pool is.

So if you or your kid are not morning person, swimming may not good for your family...

Do you think "Oh, it's ok, my kid can pick whatever he/she wants to play"?



WRONG!


If you want your kid to play the sports at high school, your kid probably need to start 3rd or 4th grade.
Because you are living in one of most competitive area in this country!


Anyway,

This is a my opinion base on my experience.  So don't panic! it will be all right.