Youth Football

Both of my older boys play tackle football and also flag football in the spring. My 11 yr old started when he was 8 and my 13 yr old started just this year.

My son (6) will NOT be playing football (he can play touch, not tackle). While you can get injured playing any sport, broken bones heal. Traumatic brain injury - not so much. A recent study (albeit small) showed that brain trauma in 7 year olds playing can be as severe as for college players. Also that most injury occurs during practices, not games. And finally, there is evidence that kids don't have to have obvious 'concussions' to have substantial loss of brain function - learning, memory, etc. These risks are so NOT WORTH IT. There are a gazillion other sports with lower risks.

http://espn.go.com/espn/otl/story/_/id/7601017/study-impa...

http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2012/01/26/gupta-on-where-b...

I am sure you will get lots of 'well, you can't protect them from everything' responses. No, we can't. But it is clear to me that the greatest impetus for kids to play football is their parents followed secondarily by the media. If you ask the kids (even the ones whose lives are forever changed) do they regret playing, they say no. To me that says 'kids who are at the age appropriate developmental level of kids' - they ride in cars with drunken classmates, they have unprotected sex, they take stupid risks - they are KIDS. It is my job to be the parent and recognize that football is a silly game - not a vocation, and not worth risking your brain.

The youngest I've heard of for organized youth football programs (tackle) is 3rd grade. Some areas don't start them with tackle until 6th-7th grade because of the injury issue. You can often find touch or flag football programs for kids younger than that through community ed or the YMCA (looks like you found one).

My oldest played tackle football from 3rd grade to 7th grade. He was just too small and finally realized he could no longer play competitively and was in danger of getting seriously injured. I didn't like him playing football, but we didn't make him quit. He came to the realization on his own.

Our youngest played one year in 3rd grade and didn't like it. He's also very small. He is currently recovering from two concussions he got this winter playing hockey. It has been almost three months since the second one and he's still having symptoms. We have a physical therapy appt this morning. It is not a situation I would wish on anyone. It has been difficult, frustrating and scary.

My husband and I don't really believe in making our kids quit or take on activities unless it's their choice, but under the circumstances we have strongly encouraged and guided our youngest son to make the mutual decision to quit hockey. Concussions occur in a variety of sports and activities, but football and hockey probably have the highest incidence. Given what I've been hearing and reading about concussions and football in particular I personally would be reluctant to encourage football (but I'm probably biased right now). I feel very lucky that our older son never got injured in his 5 years of playing organized football. A lot of his friends who played football have blown out their knees, backs, etc. and they are only 14-15 years old. So those are my thoughts! Good luck.

Both of my boys play spring and fall flag football. I don't have it in my heart to let them do tackle yet. They both started at 4 and are now 5 and 7...so my 7 year old is in his 6th season and my 5 year old is in his 3rd season.

I would let my older son play tackle in the fall (I think) but my husband works too far away to help with practices and that is 4 nights a week. I can't dedicate that many nights to one kid, unfortunately.

A lot of boy sports are rough...and I personally think it's unfair to not let them try something they want to. The family I used to nanny for is like that and those boys are some of the weirdest ones I know now...they shelter them WAY too much. (NOT saying protecting your kids from sports you think are dangerous is sheltering...these boys weren't even allowed to play soccer!)

ADDED - it's good that so many places don't start tackle until kids are older. I am pretty sure it starts at 5 here...but those teams aren't nearly as rough as the older ones.

My oldest loves football, but I just couldn't see putting him in tackle. He is very small for his age. We learned of the flag football league in our town and he's played for two years now and loved it. They start at age 5 and go all the way up to 13. Their slogan is "Save Your Brains- Play Flag Football". The older boys are just as competitive as the older tackle players. You should see them play! I've also been told that they also don't have much trouble transitioning to tackle in high school because they have learned the fundamentals and their bodies are actually in better shape because they hadn't gotten beaten up during their younger years. As long as my son wants to play, we've told him he'll play flag until he is in high school.

My boys both started playing flag football in kindergarten and they absolutely love it. My oldest is going into 5th grade next year, the first year he can play tackle, and he really wants to play, so we are planning on letting him. He loves it and has shown that he has some talent - if he decides its too much, or if he does get injured, we will reevaluate then.

good luck!
~T.

In my town it's $50 to register and $50 for equipment rental. I cannot afford that or my little guy would already be playing. He is 5.

Around here its flag football until the 5th grade. ( that just changed in the past couple of years from 7th grade)

All of my boys loved playing flag football!

When my oldest tried tackle football in 7th grade he didn't like it because he was the smallest one on the team and got pushed around alot. He finished out the season and never did it again.

#2 got into it in 6th grade ( this was the first year it was available to him after the grade switch) he loves it! He is such a shy quiet kid but when he gets on the field he is amazing... he is so bold and aggressive. Its a whole different kid!

#3 got into it in 5th grade and he hated it!! He hated being so sore and full of bruises all the time. He has AD/HD and by the time he got home from practice his pills were wore off and he couldn't concentrate on his homework and his school work fell way behind! Between the teachers getting on his case with his work going downhill and always hurting he wanted to quit. Since his Dad wouldn't let him he asked to sit on the bench for the rest of the season in his jersey and cheered on his team. He has not and will not go back out for it.

We don't to it because Pop Warner football's time commitment is ridiculous to us. Pop Warner requires 10 hours of conditioning before the kids can dress to pads, and 10 hours of practice with pads before scrimmaging, and then so many hours of/opportunities to scrimmage before playing real games. What this means is that for two hours a night, five days a week in August, the kids play football. They can't miss practices, so families can't go on vacation and we always vacation in August because my work schedule doesn't allow me time off in July. After August, the schedule relaxes a bit to two school nights of practice and games on the weekend. This is for any age (as young as 6 in my town). I understand that PW does this to reduce injury, but for us, it's way too much of a commitment for a little kid's sport (and I say that as a hockey parent - when hockey looks more reasonable than another sport, that's really saying something).

So for us, it's the time commitment, not the injury potential. As I said, we're a hockey family and our kids also play lacrosse and our daughter does boxing, kick boxing and Muay Thai fighting, all which have some risk to them. My 8-year-old wants to play football so we're keeping him to flag football in the fall so that we can avoid the time commitment that Pop Warner requires.