Advice to a Youth Sports Parent: Separating Development from Dollars
Should we go to the invite-only U9 All-American camp?
Recently, I was contacted by a parent who was seeking advice about her daughter being invited to a U9 All-American soccer camp.
Here are a few things that came to my mind and/or were discussed with the parent.
Congratulations to your daughter on being acknowledged as one of the top youth soccer players in America …. BUT …
This looks and smells like a youth sports money grab! Shame on those who continue to capitalize on the busine$$ of youth sports in this manner.
And even if it is “legit”, save your money until mid- to late- adolescence when talent identification and selection becomes more of a reality towards the next steps in the athletic career of your child.
She’s nine years-old. This is not a make or break event. I understand that she is super talented and scoring at-will, etc. in the top league in your area …. but … if she continues to develop, those individuals or organizations that invite the “elite” to specialized camps will send another letter. I doubt they will remember that you declined the opportunity at age 9 or 10 or 11 …. and they will surely want a talented 14 or 15 year old.
Is the child socially and emotionally robust enough to handle the camp and a potential negative experience? I would hate to see this go any further sideways if she is a gifted young athlete.
The prediction of talent is tricky, really tricky - and the developmental pathway often takes many twists and turns. There is no clear path for elite performers. As shown in a systematic review and meta-analysis of 13,392 athletes (62% male and 38% female) from a wide range of Olympic sports, junior performance has very little, if any, predictive value for senior performance. And highly relevant for this specific instance, the younger the junior age category, the lower the correlation between junior and senior performance.
Focus on continuing to have fun, and play and be with friends - and aim to develop into a diverse mover, challenging the fundamental movement skills in fun, creative and engaging ways (including playing other sports, either structured or unstructured) ... and then let’s see what happens over the next few years.
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Same here in the UK. Theres' zero correlation between performance at under-9 and performance at 25 and yet still people pay for their child to be part of 'elite' squads.
I don't know how the organisers sleep at night.