Youth Football...

I think having your son crash skulls with other kids is not advisable. Have them play another sport if they like.

 

I would never play Youth football.

 

I think around 3 years old is a little too young, if you want my opinion.

 

Have your kid play flag until Jr. high.
Or move them to a safer sport like basketball, soccer, or baseball.

 

I left it up to my boys, and neither played anything beyond Flag.

Oldest chose Karate and guitar.

Youngest soccer and basketball.

Weekends are full and it rocks.

DD

 

My youngest (7) has expressed interest. His momma expressely said she did not want him ever playing. Over the years as more of the research has come out I've come to agree with her. When he asked about it the other day I explained to him some of the dangers and why we thought it was a bad idea and he decided he'd rather do something else. So hopefully it never really becomes a problem.

 

I would have been fine with it, I played, but not sure about the wife, she really did not want them to, she is smarter than me.

3 boys my youngest sons age 12, got concussions this year.

DD

 

I am not a parent but I don't think I would let my kid play until they were a lot older. These new studies are showing its not a great idea for young kids to play.

http://www.espn.go.com/pdf/2015/0128/otlBUfootballstudy.pdf
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0094936

 

Flag football until jr high. A lot of my comfort level would depend on the school/district and level of competition (5A football is a bit different than, say TAPPS or small town 2/3A) and also the position they played.

 

I heard some studies suggest you shouldn't play full contact football until age 16. My boys will not.

Besides, youth football in Kingwood is a cluster. A bunch of douchebag dads driving jacked-up duallies and trying to live their NFL dreams through their young kids. Hey Buck, you're coaching 8 year olds.....you don't need a headset.

We'll stick to golf. And drums.

 

I was at a 6 year old basketball game Saturday, one of the coaches was yelling at his players. (The dude was about 5'5")

 

Ignoring the injury aspect...from a learning and skill perspective, young kids just don't learn and develop any skill when they are too young so I don't see much point in it. I never really thought about it until I watched nephews play and it was pretty worthless when they were younger. Plus, the guys that "coach" the young kids don't always have a lot of great knowledge or experience.

I think I started in 5th grade and looking back, i don't see much of a point looking back. I don't think i started to actually "get" playing football until 9th grade.

If you want them to be involved in the general idea of the sport, just put them in flag until they are a bit older.

 

Flag Football until at least jr. high. I'd even argue until high school if they're still into it.

 

It's amazing, isn't it? Some people have absolutely no perspective in anything they do.

It's great that parents get involved and coach their kids. This isn't about the wussification of kids or anything. But screaming at a 6-yr old doesn't teach him/her anything other than you're a loudmouth a**hole. It typically makes them listen to you less. If you want to teach them to be better players, run a better practice. The more coaching you have to do in games means you did nothing in practice. The best coaches do very little during games except watch to see what adjustments might need to be made. If you watch an EPL game, the coaches are standing on the sideline but are rarely saying much of anything. How much actual coaching do you see Bill Belichick do during the game? It goes for professionals as much as it does for colleges as much as it does in high school as much as it does all the way down to Under 5 soccer.

 

I won't take that personally, but it's an excellent point.

My dad coached the youth sports he knew and knew the coaches of the sports he didn't, and I would never trust my (theoretical future) kids to a whole lot of the jackhole fathers I've seen. I've coached. I've experienced them. I wouldn't trust yours or anyone's kids to them either. Probably mentioned it a few times here, but overbearing helicopter parents can ruin a fun youth league or just ruin a youth's fun faster than anything.

 

I played organized tackle football from 3rd grade into high school and I loved it. I used to feel that if I had a boy (I've only had daughters), I wouldn't encourage them to play football, but I wouldn't prohibit them either. With the new info on concussions, I now think I would prohibit them from playing tackle football until high school and I would strongly discourage them even at that level.

 

And the stuff I said earlier goes for baseball, soccer, golf, tennis, swimming coaches/fathers/kids just the same.

Talk to a 20 year old who had his arm blown out by his dad/coach when he was 16 or earlier; or had his knees ruined with football or wrestling or basketball or whatever.