This is a really good and also difficult to answer question. I am in your boat, with a 7 and a 10 year old who play, but I grew up playing select and high school ball so do have some personal experience. The correct answer is that it probably depends entirely on your kid and you, as her father, are probably a much better judge of whether an additional day of training each week is more likely to grow her as a player or make her despise the sport when she gets older.

I can tell you what I have done so far which may turn out to be right or wrong. Both of mine started rec soccer at 4 and then moved up to academy at 7. Academy training is twice a week and I started both of them with a 1 hour private training session when they turned 7 as well. I started the extra training, not necessarily to try to make them world beaters, but because if left to their own devices, my kids will attempt to spend as much time with iPads or video games as they are allowed. The extra training gets them out of the house and running around outdoors and both of them tell me they like the private training better than their regular practice.

My advice would be to find some other non-soccer activity or sport that she enjoys and cross-train with that instead of paying for speed and agility training. Or play futsal or indoor soccer if she'd rather stay with something that's closer to the game.

My oldest son burned out of club soccer. He seemed like a natural in rec at 5-6 yrs old. We moved him to the club's "youth academy" and he made their travel team in that and was put on the pre-USDA team the following year, playing a year up. Before we knew it, by 11 years old, he was on the DA team training 4 days/week, with matches all over Tx and sometimes out of state all year. After he was no longer in DA, he had his club team training 3 days with matches all over texas almost every weekend, his state ODP team training for entire weekends 6 or so times per year all over texas with one showcase in Tx and one showcase out of state every year, and the coaches were still encouraging extra technical trainings. Brief Christmas and summer breaks always included indoor or futsal teams and tournaments as well. ...but he didn't burn out until Junior High, where he was in football at school, and had a club soccer team, ODP soccer team, and Jr. High school soccer team (spring only). Spring of his 8th grade year, he'd be hitting the weight room pretty hard at school for off-season football, then going to school soccer practice or match after school, then going to club practice at night. After a couple of concussions from soccer and a couple of bad coaches at club, he stepped back from club and ODP soccer for a year. Just did high school football and high school soccer at school in 9th grade. Loved every minute of it. Still loves the game and might go back to a smaller club that plays in lesser competitive league competitions just for fun, but won't go back to a big club and doesn't have interest in playing or trying out for an MLS Next or ECNL type of environment again.

All that being said, due to title IX, there really aren't scholarship opportunities for men in soccer. If kids aren't on a professional track (MLS+ Next - formerly USDA), they should play because they love it. For girls, where there are so many scholarship opportunities, it's probably even more crazy competitive. Parents will absolutely be sending their daughters to all the extra technical trainings for all the speed & agility ball work. There are some good trainers out there with fun competitive environments. If your daughter is training with the club team 3x/week and goes to a trainer once a week for an hour or maybe once every other week, it shouldn't burn her out if she loves it.

Basketball and tennis are both good, complimentary sports to soccer..

To the OP, sounds like you and your wife have the right attitude going into it. Focus on enjoying the sport at this age. Fight getting sucked into the rat race of competitive youth sports. Below the age of 15, the notion of elite is a joke so ignore that talk. If your kid really loves the sport, you won't have to push her to improve - she will do the work on her own because of her love of the sport.

Ghost of Andrew Eaton said:

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Chuck Cunningham said:

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My daughter started playing at 4. Went to academy at 7 and select in the 4th grade. She just finished her freshman year of high school and will play u17 ECRL as a sophomore.

She did gymnastics/tumbling for years until it physically became too much.

She played rec bball and volleyball.

She played all middle school sports.

Her club coach always encouraged multi sports.

The funny part is the soccer players were the only ones who could compete with girls that bball and vball were their main sports. They dominated xc and track.

I don't have much to say other than find a club coach that makes it fun.

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I've coached JH and HS and I recruited soccer girls for all the other sports. They can play anything and are much more competitive than other kids who play other sports, generally.

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Yeah. It's funny when a soccer player plays defense in basketball.

They're stunned when they get called for a foul for shoulder to shoulder.

"Dad, we played a small sided game in basketball practice."

"Small sided game?"

"Yeah. It was five v. five."


While they do foul, soccer kids understand defense easily when it comes to basketball.

We have taken both of them to the Aggie soccer camps for years and had hoped they'd both play here, but the oldest wanted to blaze her own path. I can't blame or fault her, and she will be in good hands at the place she chose.
The younger one is just now trying to figure out her path. They are different players and need to go down their individual paths. We shall see. They really enjoyed playing high school with each other this year but who knows if they'll play on the same team again. The girls/women's soccer opportunities and landscape is changing at a very fast pace at the moment, so we will see what the future will hold.
We are just trying to enjoy the time we have with them before they head out on their own adventures. It goes by faster than you ever realize.

Youth soccer is mostly a money making scheme for coaches and clubs. The clubs know how to twist par ents heads up. Super expensive and disruptive to family time. I had two boys go down that road and would do it differently. A lot of this is for arrogant parents living through their children. Parents are the worst, I suggest earplugs.

My advice is to stay balanced with family time and what they like. If your kid really loves soccer let them play if you have the means. Don't burn them out.

If you live in a nice area your kid won't make the high school team if they don't play select. So consider that as well. Both my sons first question asked during tryouts is what club do you play for? They played select and high school, but don't take it too seriously.

The big false claim is spending all that money your kid will get a college scholarship. What they don't tell is you spend more sometimes in club soccer than if you just saved it for college. Most scholarships will be partial, e.g. 1/3 or 1/2. Best advice is have the focus on academics. My oldest was offered 1/2 academic and 1/2 athletic to a couple of smaller out of state schools. Most get like 1/3 athletic scholarship at some ridiculous out of state private school. Luckily he chose to just be a student and get an engineering degree at A&M

Proceed with caution