What's new
By:

Youth tackle football

Miggs

Miggs

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.
Click to expand...
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
Click to expand...
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.
Click to expand...

Haha. Thank you. We’ll see I guess. I’m curious how he does the rest of the games this year.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page
Back
Top