The point is that you do get used to contact, and you do learn how to hit and be hit, and if you don't already know how to do that by the time you try out for 7th grade football, more than likely they will sideline your kid. At least down here in my neck of the woods, each coach has more than 80 kids, they do not have much time to teach the kids that have zero experience. Learning how to hit, or a position PRIOR to getting to Jr. High is essential, you just learn so much in pee wee football, how to line up, how to block, how to tackle.... You will be WAY WAY WAY behind if you just hold out until 7th grade. DD
You're entirely missing the point. The point is for the kid to have fun, socialize with peers, and get exercise. That is all done through learning how to line up, learning how to block, and learning how to tackle. Nobody in their right mind sends their kid out for peewee so he can be a 7th grade football star.
I wonder what the injury stats are for peewee football, so I googled it: Here's what one guy has to say, but you should probably research more. Maybe talk to a pediatrician and see how many kids he sees each year dead, castrated or mangled from pee wee football? http://www.winningyouthfootball.com/wp-blog/?p=1915 Other factors to consider include: (1) whether the child has rage issues that may require release through either football or torturing small animals (2) whether you or your wife come from "athletic" genetic background (3) whether you and your wife are or expect to be poor, making professional football one of the only few ways by which your son can expect to get out of the ghetto
That is not what I am saying....I am saying the coaches are super busy and if a kid has not learned anything about the game, any fundamentals, they will be MILES behind by the time they get to 7th grade, and most of the time unless the kid is a great athlete, they will just go the easy route and work with kids that have experience already. Nothing more to be read into what I am saying here. DD
In all my years of playing pee-wee football, the worst injury was having the wind knocked out of someone-- except for my broken arm at age 10! Even so, played for three more years. Let him play if he wants to.
I find the entire peewee football thing, hell, even junior high level, to be really offputting. The pads, helmets, etc are all twice as big as the kids themselves. It's an extremely expensive and wasteful sport compared to the alternatives. And then there's the whole violence factor. I can't imagine people are "letting" their kids play football at a young age, to me it sounds like the whole reason youth football was invented was because of the parents, not the kids.
Back during the "big hits nfl" hoopla last year Gregg Easterbrook (espn, tuseday morning quarterback) wrote several great articles on concussions, but this one really resonated with me personally. Here's the link; it's long, but the relevant bit starts with the bolded portion "should football be played?" and the ending opinion is quoted below.
We play flag until 9, or 4th grade. I played PeeWee football at 8, loved every minute of it.....would not want to deny either of my sons the experience. DD
Sign him up!!! A lot of safety Moms in here... He will have a blast, and he will make new friends in a good crowd, and he will learn to toughen up a bit too, which is great.
The problem with this for a lot of kids is that the dad (or sometimes mom) has more invested in football than the kid does. If he starts playing at 5 and then wants to quit at 7 is he mature enough to tell mom and dad directly? Probably not. Are mom and dad paying attention to the other signs that show the kid does not want to play or are they intentionally not dealing with them? If you're going to play football you need to be mature enough to walk away from it on your own if you don't like it. It shouldn't be something you do because you're scared to tell your parents you don't want to do it or because they enjoy it so much you don't feel like you should take it away from them. And the article quoted by rhad says just about everything I have inadequately tried to convey in this thread.
I played organized football from the 3rd through 10th grade. I always thought if I had a boy, I wouldn't encourage him to play, but if he wanted to that was fine. However, the new findings about football concussions and even lower level head injury has made me rethink that. I strongly encourage any parents facing this issue to watch this Frontline episode- http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/football-high/ I love/loved football, but there are real questions about the long term consequences to brain functioning from taking so many hits to the head, if someone ends up playing over multiple years.
My first boy decided against tackle football and is into Karate, my 2nd one is into every sport, and likes flag football. If they want to try it, they can, if they don't....no bother from me either. Whatever they want to do, I will support them. DD
I wouldn't have any concerns for him getting hurt, no more than you should if he is doing anything else in life. But 5 is probably too young from a strategy standpoint. It painful watching 9 year olds play...can't imagine how bad it is at 5
Your kids are older than mine, so you have different perspective, but this seems like the dumbest parenting philosophy ever.
