soccer as a full-time commitment

[Robert Parker]

So at what age should players make the decision to commit to a sport, soccer in our case, on a full-time basis?

[Jeffrey Geller]

I think this depends on your goals as well as where you live.

I generally tell parents after the end of their U12 season, if soccer is what their child loves and wants to work hard at, it is then time to commit 100%.

I coach U8-U12 and am very understanding of players who still play other sports. While most of these other sports programs are ridiculous (practicing 3-4 times a week and making players sign contracts that they will not miss practice or will not play in games), I try my best to compromise and the parents are usually very grateful. Sometimes it is tough when you're missing your best player because he has a baseball or basketball game, but I don't want to make the parents choose one over the other.

I also tell parents that I believe me playing baseball as well as basketball growing up is what made me a very good soccer player. There are many skills and themes that cross over between these sports, especially basketball.

With all that being said, if you child goes to a small school, they may have a chance of one day making the Varsity team playing soccer only during the school season therefore not really needing to commit 100% to soccer, ever. However, if your child goes to a larger school, like where I coach, you need to start playing competitively at a young age to have the best chance of making the team. That's not to say that we don't have players who don't play year round, but they are few and far between.

Like anything else in life, the more time you work at something while receiving quality instruction, the better chance you have at being successful.

[Ron Kruse]

I don't think that anyone else can make that choice but the player/parent dpending on the age of course. Jeffrey has made some good points about school size ect. I played multiple sports, school as well as local league, as a youth and most of the time there was very little over lap when it came to seasons. We did practice 3-4 days a week, sometimes more, and that was not an issue becuase we knew ahead of time what the time commitment was. This is tough one but i still think the decision needs to left up to the player with pros and cons provided by coaching staff and parents. Kids need to learn how to make informed decisions that will effect them as well as others...... ever heard of the "the six degrees of seperation"?

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[Richard Defabritus]

Just posted on another thread - for girls, it shouldn't be until High School. Girls have a much higher rate of ACL / MCL / meniscus injuries and that's partially due to specialized training in 1 sport (muscular imbalances which leads to a weaker posterior chain).

Encourage girls to play more than 1 sport. Wouldn't hurt boys either...