New Natl Guidelines: Limit Soccer to 8 mo/yr; less training

The North American Trainers Association just came out with guidelines for competitive, elite sports, summarized here: [url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/17/health/children-sports-injuries.html].

Suggests: a) <8 months per year per single sport; b) no more than 10 hours per week for 10 year olds; c) 2 days of rest per week; d) delay single sport specialization for as long as possible; e) Period of prolonged rest from the sport after the end of each season. This is the most restrictive of the recommendations to come out so far but follows increasingly rigorous guidelines on sports specialization, from groups like the American Academy of Pediatrics.

I know we struggle with this as it seems like the price to participate on teams at the quality of Division 1 LHGCL is year round play, serial tournaments and difficulty taking extended (1 month) time off. Coaches, teams, clubs need to win and players don't want to lose their starting spots. FOMO, etc. How do others feel about this? Any DD's experiencing burn-out etc? Any teams/coaches/parents getting it right?

Good luck with the #nodaysoff crowd

Bless their hearts

I think most kids, including mine for sure, are just like I was -- wanting to play whether there was a referee or not. If the team takes a month off, my kids will be playing pick up games or finding other ways to play. The thought that they will sit for a month is just a theoretical concept.

Theres always a U90 tournament and guest play to pad a teams results.

I kind of like that they came out with these guidelines, even though I know (and am also ok with) it won't change anything.  Are some girls obsessed and playing all the time, even without practices and games?  Definitely.  Those are the girls that will still be playing in high school and college and beyond; they truly just love the game.  

But there's also a pretty large segment of girls that just really like soccer (as opposed to love/obsession) and have other interests as well - as they should at such a young age.  A lot of girls that are playing at this higher level are naturally more competitive, and are driven to succeed in all of their activities, not just soccer.  If they feel like soccer pigeon-holes them, they'll eventually rebel (or burn out) and quit.  Balance is extremely important.  

There's definitely a "know your kid" factor here and it's on the parents to manage this in my opinion.  But I'm confident a good chunk of the girls we see out on these fields every weekend won't be playing soccer at a serious level in a few years.  Too much of any good thing is... too much.  

And that's not necessarily a bad thing either.  Lessons are learned and character is shaped at this level whether it's a long time love of the sport or just a brief season in life.