My nephew plays football
- Thread starter PittCity
- Start date
yeah me too until i was 15, what I was saying is do Parents let kids play football in this area still ? Its not the 1980s .....
I wish more kids would play football.......... i think its the best sport ever.
I wish more kids would play football.......... i think its the best sport ever.
No. Humans werent designed for it. Besides that, I think it is incredibly pointless to play tackle football before middle school. Football is a speed/athleticism game for the skill positions and a size/strength game for the lines. Its not a "skill sport" and what I mean by that, its not a sport you have to play from a young age to acquire appropriate skill like soccer, baseball, or hockey. Playing RB when you are 7 doesn't help you when you are 16.
I respectfully disagree. I coach youth football and there is a drastic difference between kids that have played for a few years and kids that just start in middle school. Kids are training year round nowadays.
I've seen that numbers are low in the area. I only have 13 kids on my team and most coaches I talk to are dealing with the same problem.
A
anon_vmuicqnzlyp3u
Guest
If you blame football for a lack of success from your child you are likely a weak parent. PS: It's 2018
Every sport, be it football, baseball, wrestling, etc. train 12months out of the year. That is th way it is now.
A
anon_vmuicqnzlyp3u
Guest
Its because the kids who have been playing since they were 5 are better athletes than the kids starting at 12.
A good athlete gains no advantage by playing football 7 years earlier and I'd even argue its counter-productive to start that early as they are more susceptible to injuries/burnout.
If you have a stud athlete, have them play soccer and basketball until middle school and then if they want to play football, go ahead. Playing football before middle school should strictly be "for fun" because it doesn’t make you a better player
One of the most ignorant posts ever on this board. And there have been many real doozies. You obviously never played one snap of organized football.
Do you post shit like this to be provocative or are you really that clueless?
I grew-up in a large neighborhood where early youth football was played regularly, but without the organization and parental involvement that exists today. There was plenty of hard contact, but no one wore uniforms, pads, or helmets. Going at another guy’s head was unthinkable, and no one ever used their head in tackling or as a battering ram, so there were very few head injuries. All games were played in the neighborhood - no travel.
Today, it’s ultra-organized: coaches galore, full uniforms, and travel at an early age.
IMHO, I think our brand of neighborhood football 40+ years ago was better, safer, and had greater participation.
Today, it’s ultra-organized: coaches galore, full uniforms, and travel at an early age.
IMHO, I think our brand of neighborhood football 40+ years ago was better, safer, and had greater participation.
Agree. Football is %90 athletic ability/mental and %10 technique. That technique can be learned rather quickly, no question if a kid starts in 7th grade buy 10th he will be caught up in technique. Mental aspect plays a big role as well which is what you see at a early age. Its not exactly natural to have the aggression/fearlessness required to be really good.
I was always taught to tackle with my head up and drive my shoulder right through the others guys gut.
By 10th grade? A kid playing for the first time in 7th grade should be "caught up" on the mental/technique side by midway through the season especially if they have a good knowledge about football from watching it.
There is a reason there are NFL players that didn't start playing until HS. That has never happened, I'm sure in baseball, hockey, or soccer.
How is it so clueless no denying football is not a sport like wrestling which requires significant amount of time to learn the technique. Wrestling for example pretty much requires a min of 5 or 6 years to compete at a high level. FB there are guys like curtis martin all the time that played for 1 or 2 years and were really good, dominate players. Something like golf or baseball are very similar. The technique requires significant amounts of time whether the person is a natural or not. Now move up to the highest levles like D1 or the NFL and your damn right there is a lot of learned skill but his post was correct that starting in Jr high is plenty early enough.
My brother in law is a local HS coach and he pretty much agree's that playing FB in the peewee leagues is worthless as far as making kids a better FB player. My son started playing flag FB in 2nd grade but when the local league went to tackle in 3rd grade I pulled him until his 6th grade year. I just don't think its worth it to take the hits to the head at that age. Maybe its never worth it, but I also don't think you can go through life refusing to take any risk especially if its something the kids want to do.
jeez if only this guy had started playing earlier he coulda been a real player https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ezekiel_Ansah
My son is about 18 months and tosses a ball left handed. I will be grooming him to be a left handed bullpen specialist so he can play 20 years of MLB and only have to pitch to one batter every other day. What could be better?
My son currently is in 5th grade. This is his 3rd year of Flag Football. Tackle football was always an option but I refuse to let him play until 7th grade when there is an actual coach not some dad thinking its the super bowl. One of the biggest problems imo on CTE is horrible fundamentals. These kids are never taught correctly.
Another reason why I hate daddy ball. The ratio of dad coach to son qb or th is so out of whack. How many kids quit football in hs because they were screwed in youth football is high also.
So no tackle till 7th grade for my son.
Another reason why I hate daddy ball. The ratio of dad coach to son qb or th is so out of whack. How many kids quit football in hs because they were screwed in youth football is high also.
So no tackle till 7th grade for my son.
My son played both football and wrestled in high school. By its very nature, wrestling is a combat sport. Your goal is to inflict as much pain and discomfort on your oppenent so that he may give up and get pinned. But, it is controlled aggression. The ref stops the match immediately if there is an unsafe or dangerous hold. As such, there are less wresting injuries than in football. Also, when a kid wrestles, he is wrestling someone in his weight class. In football, that is obviously not the case. So, myn point is, there were a lot more injuries on my son;s football team than wrestling team. That does not mean our kids should not play football. But, I could totally understand why parents would hesitate to let a son play football.
My son who's is 5th grade wrestles too and as I also competed in both also and I agree. With that said too many parents compare little Timmy who will not play college football to a pro. It is an apples to oranges comparison.
Last edited:
If he is a high school coach and his son is in the system. Fine no issues. If he is only coaching because his son is in the system that is a joke.
My thoughts, observations, history
- In my era there was no peewee football. You started in 7th grade.
- I played through 9th grade and realized younger players would pass me by and were far more talented, and at best I'd get to play on an extra point here and there if we were up 4 touchdowns and get my head beat in at practice for 3 years. In fact a number of my younger teammates played D1/Div2 football at Pitt, Va Tech, Purdue, Liberty, and Ohio State. I made the right decision.
This was at a huge AAA school that was very good. If I'd gone to a A or AA school, I'd have probably started at OL for 2/3 years. I was pretty good at fraternity/intramural flag football in college which was far closer to tackle than to touch. I went against dudes a lot bigger than I was. It was no joke, it was real football without pads, especially on the line.
- I turned to tennis, yes tennis, and can still play it well at 58. It is a sport old slow guys can still play since I only have to run 10 feet at a time. LOL. I am now in my 31st season coaching girls and boys hs tennis.
- My oldest son was basically the same football wise, stopped after 8th grade, he also turned to tennis and was a 4 year letterman and 3.5 year starter.
- my youngest son plays Hs football now. Heart is a factor. He had the heart I think his father and brother did not. He started in 8th grade, playing on 9th grade team, as he was too big to ever play peewee football. He had a concussion in 10th grade that put him out of action 3 weeks. No lingering affects, He has had 4.0 grades for 4 semesters during and since then. Div 3 schools calling, mostly because of grades, but also because he is 6'2", 280 and strong as hell. He learned technique just fine in a year without playing peewee football
- you don't find HS OLineman from peewee football, none.
- peewee football is give the big, fast kid at rb the ball who is a superior athlete and is bigger than most of the lineman. Never seen one of them pan out in high school in last 25 years. You also can't "juke" people in HS football, you get killed. But that works with little kids.
- I can name maybe 3-4 kids who played peewee till 8th grade that ever played hs football at a high level... all the others played for school teams from 7th grade on.
- every high school coach I have ever talked to said peewee football is a joke and kids under 12 should not be wearing helmets, neck not developed enough yet.
starting in 7th grade is enough.
My Opinion
Last edited:
That is very true. Someone said "daddys" are coaching a lot of the high school teams too, so their kid gets to keep playing. After 30+ seasons of coaching another sport in a very good conferencing in central pa, I have seen NO evidence of this at all.
No, I would not let my son play football. The evidence regarding CTE is absolutely damning and I don't want my son to make a decision that will affect him for the rest of his life at an age when he's incapable of understanding the consequences. If he turns 18 and he wants to try and play football, then he's an adult and he's old enough to look at the facts and make an informed decision. Obviously, that would make it unlikely that he'd make it to the NFL, but his well being is more important.
