I can’t remember if I’ve said this already, but my youngest nephew (going into second grade) is playing soccer for the same club as my son this year. He’s playing up a birth year, and made the top team.
He’s also trying out for a travel baseball team this week.. now T is begging me, not happy that I won’t let him.
Here’s the thing, this nephew is in like 1% of athletes. I’m not joking, this kid is sick.. physically and mentally, he can just pick up any sport and excel at it.
T is athletic, but not on that level, the vast majority of kids aren’t on that level.
Plan for my nephew is to only play fall and winter soccer, skip spring soccer so he can do travel baseball instead, and then just go to tryouts again when spring is over. There are not many kids who can do this, I don’t know of any in T’s age bracket or close to it. However, that kid will almost assuredly get a spot even with skipping spring.
Obviously T knows that his cousin is next level athletic, but now he’s mad at me for not letting him try out for travel baseball (he is trying out for the stacked team at school though, which no doubt he will make). How do I explain to him that he can’t do both travel sports when his cousin does, that he can’t skip spring soccer if he wants to continue to play? Just tell him that his cousin is a freak of nature?lol.
*I think I shared it here, but T was really conflicted this year over choosing travel baseball or travel soccer... but finally decided to stick with soccer, main reason being that he can get a higher level of baseball competition and teammates on the stacked team at school, while not equivalent to the training in travel, it’s still decent. There isn’t a stacked soccer team.