The Late Bloomer Myth

[Unregistered]

The wussification of the "young" generation continues...

a) so now we are comparing the physical grind that accompanies professionals to 16-18 yr olds? mind you that pros's can't sub for even a 30-second break

My kid started and played the full game with the exception of maybe 2 or 3 games where she may have sat out 1/3 of those games. This included post season where the team made it to the finals. From there she went to Long Island for a tournament. Some others will add a tournament in Raleigh to a similar schedule. It's a lot of soccer without a break.

b) I know I'm not alone, but when I was 18, I wouldn't stop for a second, and I would have played 5X per week if I could...players like me who loved to compete (like my sons anyway, who play club at U14 and U12) live for game day and wish they were playing mroe often. Thank goodness they have town soccer on Saturday as well : )

What kids like to do isn't always in their best interest. That is supposedly why God gave them parents who know better. Sometimes even God screws up though.

[Unregistered]

My oldest kid is in 8th grade, so I'm not there yet, but I do "follow" HS soccer---primarily because I'm a fan of the game and the town-by-town rivalries. Anyhow. from what I have seen, the overwhelming majority of teams play 2 games per week. Regular season starts in Sept, ends late October...so about 16-18 (max) games in 8-9 weeks is not 3X per week.

I took the schedules of a number of high school teams ( most played 18 games before post season) and divided the total games by the number of actual weeks played. It came out to 2.5 games per week. Some weeks they play just 2 games. Other weeks they play 3. The biggest problem comes when games get rescheduled due to weather. A couple of my kid's club teammates ended up playing 8 games over 10 days for that reason.