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Youth tackle football

Keefe

Keefe

Well-Known Member
How many of you have sons who played or are playing tackle football?

At what age did they start?

For those experienced parents, at what age do you think allowing them to play is appropriate and why? Also, have you ever heard any coaches give their opinion on the “proper age” to begin playing?

I’m asking because my son will be 7 next year and next fall can start playing tackle. A few friends who coach think 8-9 years old is the right time and before that isn’t needed for multiple reasons.

I wanted to get others opinions as well.
 
To my understanding, the risk of CTE trauma is great enough that I would not start him in tackle football. It's that there will be one massive concussive blow, it's that there will be several smaller blows that have a cumulative effect.
 
I played football growing up and throughout high school. I made the decision, with my wife, to not put our kids in to football. There are a ton of ways that kids can stay active, learn teamwork, have fun, and whatever else they might get from playing football. It just doesn't seem worth the risk, even though I don't think the risk is super high at this level.
 
SoberasHotRod said:
I played football growing up and throughout high school. I made the decision, with my wife, to not put our kids in to football. There are a ton of ways that kids can stay active, learn teamwork, have fun, and whatever else they might get from playing football. It just doesn't seem worth the risk, even though I don't think the risk is super high at this level.
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It's been shown to be way worse the earlier a kid starts actually. Sure at the moment it isn't as the hits aren't as hard but they also aren't as resilient and the trauma at the earlier age tends to have a stronger effect over time.

So for me, my kids never had that much interest in sports in general, although all of them played jr jazz for 3 or 4 years, and my oldest played football for only a couple of years, so we never had too many issues with injuries for them. But I had my fair share from football before I quit football to focus on basketball in high school. I had 3 concussions requiring hospital care, 2 of which from hits I delivered. 1 from getting clocked really really hard right as I picked off a pass that took me out of the game entirely. I will say that the resulting recovery time was hard, and I felt fuzzy headed for a good month after. I also had 2 concussions from martial arts, 1 sparring and 1 in a tournament. I felt like basketball was a better approach for my to get a scholarship, so I dropped football starting my jr year and stopped tournament play in martial arts the same year. I can't say for sure I had any lasting results of years of taking hits like that, but looking back I'm glad I stopped when I did and I'm glad my son's weren't interested. I think the risk far outweighs the benefits.
 
I played football. My wife and I made the decision to not have our son play tackle football. For me it came down to understanding what goes in to making an elite level player. I did intend on making sport a central pillar for my son to build his identity around. Ten years of potentially concussive pounding before he even got to college was not what I wanted to see even though he's built for it. We chose a different main sport that happens to also be a fall sport in high school.

That said, sport starts to get serious at the 10u (10 years and younger) level. Most of the standouts on 10u teams have played for a couple years. In my personal experience, with the exception of a couple sports, there doesn't seem to be any advantage for kids who start earlier than 8 years old.
 
Thank you, everyone. He’s in first ground now and tackle starts in 2nd….I’ll definitely withhold him til at least 3rd or 4th grade. Possibly longer. That is, if we ever let him play. Most everyone I’ve spoken with, even football coaches, say to wait til he’s 8-9 years old. Or that they might not let their kids play. I will of course see how things naturally play out. He’s doing a ridiculous amount of sports at the moment.

Fall: Travel soccer, flag football, Sunday night lacrosse practice…fall ball could also be added sigh

Winter: Travel soccer, rec basketball, rec wrestling

Spring: Rec baseball, lacrosse, football speed and agility, possibly travel baseball

It’s a ton but I’d rather have him active than watching garbage on Netflix after school…plus he seems to like going for social reasons. Things just aren’t the same as when I was a kid and we would walk or bike all over to hang with friends…add that he’s never sighed at going to a sport and it’s fine. The biggest pain in the *** is just the chauffeuring. Carpooling helps a ton.

I’m thinking in 3-4 years his taking to soccer will either gain or wane and that’ll drive what he wants to do since it’s year round which I can’t stand. I also can’t stand that his coach has the kids in the same position all game long. But whatever.
 
I’ll post a couple videos of long tds little man had last week if I can figure out how to do it.
 
Keefe said:
6 rushes, 215 yards, 3 tds lol
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How cute! My nephew was an excellent soccer player, and most of elementary school they imposed a 2-goal maximum per game for him. Hope they don't do that to your talented and fast QB there.
 
JazzGal said:
How cute! My nephew was an excellent soccer player, and most of elementary school they imposed a 2-goal maximum per game for him. Hope they don't do that to your talented and fast QB there.
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Haha. Thank you. We’ll see I guess. I’m curious how he does the rest of the games this year.
 
Keefe said:
Thank you, everyone. He’s in first ground now and tackle starts in 2nd….I’ll definitely withhold him til at least 3rd or 4th grade. Possibly longer. That is, if we ever let him play. Most everyone I’ve spoken with, even football coaches, say to wait til he’s 8-9 years old. Or that they might not let their kids play. I will of course see how things naturally play out. He’s doing a ridiculous amount of sports at the moment.

Fall: Travel soccer, flag football, Sunday night lacrosse practice…fall ball could also be added sigh

Winter: Travel soccer, rec basketball, rec wrestling

Spring: Rec baseball, lacrosse, football speed and agility, possibly travel baseball

It’s a ton but I’d rather have him active than watching garbage on Netflix after school…plus he seems to like going for social reasons. Things just aren’t the same as when I was a kid and we would walk or bike all over to hang with friends…add that he’s never sighed at going to a sport and it’s fine. The biggest pain in the *** is just the chauffeuring. Carpooling helps a ton.

I’m thinking in 3-4 years his taking to soccer will either gain or wane and that’ll drive what he wants to do since it’s year round which I can’t stand. I also can’t stand that his coach has the kids in the same position all game long. But whatever.
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Agreed I wanted mine to be active instead of TV zombies, I think that is a good call. I also think it is good to let him try a lot of different things. It both prepares him physically for many different activities which bodes well for reduced injuries down the road, but it also lets him try different things to see what he really loves and wants to stick to long term. My parents did that with me, supported whatever I wanted to try, and I ended up a 3 sport athlete in high school, reducing to bball only my jr year on, but I think the others helped me be more prepared for the focus on basketball later on. We supported our kids in it all too. They just ended up with not much interest in any of it. Was too bad about that with my oldest, as he had some athletic ability and talent in both football and basketball, but he just never really loved playing either one. But I think it is always good for them to have those choices available to them, to at least have the experience. All of my kids played soccer and basketball for a few years each at a minimum. My daughter played a few years of softball where she did pretty good until her asthma got the best of her. They all say they were happy they had the chances to try out different sports, so that is a plus. Good on ya for how you are working with your kids on this stuff. Even if they end up not really being into it, it will be a character building activity that will last for years to come.
 
Keefe said:
6 rushes, 215 yards, 3 tds lol
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The kids has jets.

Carpooling also helps with the social aspect, which will help keep him engaged. My son's best friend is the kid he carpools with, and he didn't even know him when we set the carpool up.

Lastly, watch like a hawk for signs of burnout. My kid was doing 4 sports including one night every week where he went straight from one practice to another with the only break being the 8 minutes it took to drive between venues. We don't do that any longer.
 
Yes I know about burnout. It’s very real. This will end sooner rather than later. It’s simply too much imo but he’s so young that I get the sense he doesn’t look at it that way and is just there running around having fun. Idk. Maybe I’m wrong.

He always says lacrosse is his favorite sport yet he doesn’t go out back and practice off the rebounder. Baseball and football are the two sports he asks me to go out back and practice with him. Having a catch. Throwing pitches. Etc. So we’ll see. So far as jets, tbh, I thought he looked about 85% speed there, I think, because he’s not holding the football properly…so I’ll show him how to hold it again…but yeah, little dude has speed.
 
I think I might pull him from sports all of next summer (really spring sports end around June 1) so that he has nothing for 2.5 months…just do vacations and let him play…I’ll go out back with him to have a catch and all like that if he asks me of course but no organized team sports.
 
I played high school football. My wife was adamant about not letting our boys play. Eventually, I joined that camp. Then I learned how they actually teach kids to tackle around here (not leading with head, using shoulders, etc) and I wanted them to play again. My wife finally acquiesced when my oldest son was going into 6th grade. My middle son is now in 6th grade and is in his first year of tackle football. They both stepped right in and absolutely killed it. My oldest son is a sophomore and getting plenty of varsity time (lettered as a freshman) and the middle boy literally plays every play of every game.
I used to have a neighbor that played JUCO level and was on the BYU team (I don’t think he ever actually played there though) who said he wouldn’t start his boys til high school. He moved away well before that age, so I don’t know if he stuck to that.
 
Based on all the input I’ve received, I’ve determined there’s no way I’ll let him play tackle football next year and most likely not the year after either. 4th grade would be the soonest I’d let him play. And I need to do more research on my own because my understanding iirc is that all the little concussions at a young age are very, very bad.
 
Keefe said:
Based on all the input I’ve received, I’ve determined there’s no way I’ll let him play tackle football next year and most likely not the year after either. 4th grade would be the soonest I’d let him play. And I need to do more research on my own because my understanding iirc is that all the little concussions at a young age are very, very bad.
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FWIW, my two oldest kids got hurt waaay worse playing lacrosse than they did their main sports. My oldest daughter played travel club level soccer for a decade and never got a single injury. Her senior year of high school she decided to play lacrosse and boom, a concussion that makes her miss three weeks. My oldest boy plays tackle football for years and nothing. Freshman year plays lacrosse and breaks his freaking wrist.
 
bigb said:
FWIW, my two oldest kids got hurt waaay worse playing lacrosse than they did their main sports. My oldest daughter played travel club level soccer for a decade and never got a single injury. Her senior year of high school she decided to play lacrosse and boom, a concussion that makes her miss three weeks. My oldest boy plays tackle football for years and nothing. Freshman year plays lacrosse and breaks his freaking wrist.
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Yeah honestly even though he’s been playing for a year and a half I sort of worry about soccer more. No head protection. Turf fields 60% of the time, always indoors and 1/3 of the time outdoors. My son got an awful one indoors. He had a headache for 2-3 weeks after slamming down.
 
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