Kids Sports

“Not trying to be all “ah back in my day blah blah blah” because I never want to be that guy, maybe times are just changing and instead of actively participating and being decent at 3 sports, kids are narrowing it and just focusing on one or two.”

My kid just turned 6 and was enjoying wrestling and basketball and was already told that he would have to pick one because they are “conflicting” sports. We’re still navigating how sports will fit in, but at this point we’re pretty sure that we won’t give up our family pursuits of camping, whitewater rafting/kayaking, and other outdoor stuff, and we aren’t going to spend our kid’s childhoods functionally divorced because of sports. I don’t think there is one right answer – just attend to what your family as a whole and as individuals value and make your best decisions.

My son’s Lake Conference high school baseball coach told the kids if you want to be on the team don’t miss any practices over spring break. One kid, who could have helped the team, had a family vacation to Florida planned to celebrate his grandma’s 80th birthday. He went on the trip (good for him).
This coach also likes to “develop” promising underclassmen in lieu of playing seniors that are just as good. This happened to my son. After a few weeks the coach realized my son was better and played him the rest of the season. He ended up as MVP and went on to a successful division 2 career. The coach later admitted his misjudgement to me.

tindall wrote:

“Not trying to be all “ah back in my day blah blah blah” because I never want to be that guy, maybe times are just changing and instead of actively participating and being decent at 3 sports, kids are narrowing it and just focusing on one or two.”

My kid just turned 6 and was enjoying wrestling and basketball and was already told that he would have to pick one because they are “conflicting” sports. We’re still navigating how sports will fit in, but at this point we’re pretty sure that we won’t give up our family pursuits of camping, whitewater rafting/kayaking, and other outdoor stuff, and we aren’t going to spend our kid’s childhoods functionally divorced because of sports. I don’t think there is one right answer – just attend to what your family as a whole and as individuals value and make your best decisions.

Your son can enjoy both wrestling and basketball for a long time yet. I know many kids that do both. If he is still into both sports when he hits middle school then yes he will have to decide then because they are overlapping. My son never wanted to play basketball probably because he’s been shorter than most kids his age his whole life. He’s 12 and maybe 4’6” and 81 lbs so wrestling works better for him.