Practicing 12 hours -- too much?

socalkdg said:
Competitive dancers and gymnast laugh at 12 hours per week.

Many of the dancers and ballerinas at my daughters previous school were putting in 20-25 hours per week, ages 10-15. Very few injuries. These girls have next to no body fat. Gymnast at the higher levels go 20+ hours as well, but I do know that is tough on their knees. My 2005 soccer playing daughter swims for an hour plays basketball a couple hours, and puts in a couple hours at soccer practice. If it is still light out she runs to the courts again after soccer practice. That is a fun day for her.

If the coach rotates what is being done, say 4 hours per week technique, 3 hours conditioning, and 4 hours small sided scrimmages, really shouldn't be too much.
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Gymnastics wreaks havoc on a girls body. Horrible consequences. Your post is highly Misleading. Their growth is stunted. Menstral cycles are delayed. Devastating on girls. I know that scene and it's devastating effects on girls directly. Lots of broken bones also. They usually retire by age 13. The sport went into total overkill in search of perfect "10's". It does seem like girls youth soccer is mindlessly headed in the same manic direction as girls gymnastics which is sad.
 
watfly said:
Nope you can't. The level of intensity and quantity of training required for competitive dance is on a whole other level from club soccer, its not even close. My daughter's training starts at 12 hours a week and easily goes over 20 hours many weeks while always moving on her feet. There is no room for anything but perfection in dance, the pressure is immense. The skill sets required in the various disciplines are insane. The abuse to their bodies can be dramatic. These girls contort their bodies in ways that are not human. Soccer is child's play comparatively speaking, although you do have contact injuries in soccer. The girls do it for the love of the sport, camaraderie and competition...there are effectively no college scholarships for dance.
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Yea, based on what you are saying, there is no comparison. The dancers work a LOT harder. I consider myself a pretty hard core soccer dad but I'd never put my kid through the schedule you are describing, it sounds insane.

IMO a good schedule is 3 1.5 hr. team practices, 1 game per week, and 1 hr. light self practice consisting of some combo of first touch drills, wall ball, cones, juggling, shooting. If he misses a team practice or it's less than 3 team practices, I try to get my boy into a group lesson at my local indoor soccer center.

I think it's counterproductive to do much more than this, unless your kid is a Pulisic and has the energy and drive to do more. The kids have to rest, recover and my kid in particular has to have time to goof around.
 
JJP said:
Yea, based on what you are saying, there is no comparison. The dancers work a LOT harder. I consider myself a pretty hard core soccer dad but I'd never put my kid through the schedule you are describing, it sounds insane.
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It's completely insane but she puts her self through it. We have never pushed her, in fact, we've given her every opportunity to scale back. These girls have a passion for dance and are incredibly disciplined. While she doesn't mind a night away from dance now and then she never complains about having to go to the studio.
 
Pre-DA with so many hours of practicing does not sound right.
Even DA on a boys side don't have that many training hours.
Sounds like your coach is out of touch of reality.
 
soccerobserver said:
Gymnastics wreaks havoc on a girls body. Horrible consequences. Your post is highly Misleading. Their growth is stunted. Menstral cycles are delayed. Devastating on girls. I know that scene and it's devastating effects on girls directly. Lots of broken bones also. They usually retire by age 13. The sport went into total overkill in search of perfect "10's". It does seem like girls youth soccer is mindlessly headed in the same manic direction as girls gymnastics which is sad.
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My older daughter is a dancer, and has put in 20 hours a week no problem for the last 5 years, and is in better shape than my younger soccer/basketball playing daughter. She has great endurance, amazing muscle tone, and as mentioned, zero chance at any type of scholarship. I just don't see how 12 hours per week is a problem for kids, as long as it is a mix of things that they are doing.

How many hours are kids from Latin America or Europe putting in per week?
 
It is harder today to just go out, find kids, and just play soccer or basketball or baseball. In that 12 hours I'd include the kids playing some small sided scrimmages vs each other with the coaches just letting them play and have fun. The last half hour of our practice is always this, and the girls don't want to quit. Always pushing practice past the finish time. They are just having fun.
 
socalkdg said:
My older daughter is a dancer, and has put in 20 hours a week no problem for the last 5 years, and is in better shape than my younger soccer/basketball playing daughter. She has great endurance, amazing muscle tone, and as mentioned, zero chance at any type of scholarship. I just don't see how 12 hours per week is a problem for kids, as long as it is a mix of things that they are doing.

How many hours are kids from Latin America or Europe putting in per week?
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https://www.unigo.com/scholarships/by-major/dance-scholarships

It'll take some good searching through, but there are some in there you might be interested in. There are all types of scholarships all over the place from community service related scholarships to having red hair scholarships. It just takes some looking. Remember, scholarships don't just have to come from the school. Your daughters hard work, dedication, and love for the sport shouldn't go to waste.
 
It's out of the ordinary for soccer, but as far as being too much only you and your child can decide that. If the passion and commitment are there for your kid and its not a burden to your family, why not give it a shot for summer? If it becomes too much physically or mentally then you can just scale it back at that point. Personally, I think the odds are greater that you kid will get in better shape which will prevent injuries, than your kid will incur overuse injuries (that's a non-medical, completely uninformed and only anecdotal opinion).

I do think the coach made a mistake by not assessing the team's interest in this level of training prior to scheduling the practices. That's a big commitment to expect from families without buy-in first.
 
PLSAP said:
https://www.unigo.com/scholarships/by-major/dance-scholarships

It'll take some good searching through, but there are some in there you might be interested in. There are all types of scholarships all over the place from community service related scholarships to having red hair scholarships. It just takes some looking. Remember, scholarships don't just have to come from the school. Your daughters hard work, dedication, and love for the sport shouldn't go to waste.
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Keeping a 15 year old girl busy all the time and away from boys has made it worthwhile already. Sending that link to my wife. Thanks for the info.
 
socalkdg said:
My older daughter is a dancer, and has put in 20 hours a week no problem for the last 5 years, and is in better shape than my younger soccer/basketball playing daughter. She has great endurance, amazing muscle tone, and as mentioned, zero chance at any type of scholarship. I just don't see how 12 hours per week is a problem for kids, as long as it is a mix of things that they are doing.

How many hours are kids from Latin America or Europe putting in per week?
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Does New York's Julliard give scholarships?
 
This is second hand, so I am not sure it is right, but on a recent team trip to Spain we got to watch the Man United 2005s play. One of our parents asked one of their parents how often the boys train. They said 4 hours a day, 4 days a week. So 12 doesn't sound like a lot when compared to 16. Summer might be the time to do that since I cannot imagine how players could pull that off during the school year.
 
justneededaname said:
This is second hand, so I am not sure it is right, but on a recent team trip to Spain we got to watch the Man United 2005s play. One of our parents asked one of their parents how often the boys train. They said 4 hours a day, 4 days a week. So 12 doesn't sound like a lot when compared to 16. Summer might be the time to do that since I cannot imagine how players could pull that off during the school year.
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Did you get a breakdown of the training? I find it hard to believe they could run hard for 16 hrs per week. Also, what was the game schedule like.
 
Such a wide variety of practice and training types. One hour of private keeper training for my daughter in 85 degree weather wipes her out. Put her with 14 other girls and in the evening and she can go 3 hours if they work on touch, passing, some conditioning, then small sided scrimmages.
 
socalkdg said:
Such a wide variety of practice and training types. One hour of private keeper training for my daughter in 85 degree weather wipes her out. Put her with 14 other girls and in the evening and she can go 3 hours if they work on touch, passing, some conditioning, then small sided scrimmages.
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My kiddo was at keeper practice last night. They do two 1hr sessions, 2nd one optional - but he always stays for the 2nd. He is pretty drained (diving, hitting the artificial turf) - more than his regular team practice where he also plays the field. they also do a lot of breaks for water. Last night one of the coaches asked if my kid wanted to stay after he saw us messing around on the field. my kid looks at me and says "im kinda tired". The other coach didnt hear him tell me that and says "you should say 'yes', just jump in". So he practices at a higher intensity for an extra 45 minutes. We get something to eat go home and we get a knock on the door "can you come out and play for bit?". I tell him to relax and he says "im not tired anymore". So he goes out and kicks the ball around with his buddies for another 30 minutes. Active kids have a deep well of energy - sometimes its just a matter of when they WANT to have it. We have been lucky its been cool - would happen with 90+ weather
 
Not_that_Serious said:
My kiddo was at keeper practice last night. They do two 1hr sessions, 2nd one optional - but he always stays for the 2nd. He is pretty drained (diving, hitting the artificial turf) - more than his regular team practice where he also plays the field. they also do a lot of breaks for water. Last night one of the coaches asked if my kid wanted to stay after he saw us messing around on the field. my kid looks at me and says "im kinda tired". The other coach didnt hear him tell me that and says "you should say 'yes', just jump in". So he practices at a higher intensity for an extra 45 minutes. We get something to eat go home and we get a knock on the door "can you come out and play for bit?". I tell him to relax and he says "im not tired anymore". So he goes out and kicks the ball around with his buddies for another 30 minutes. Active kids have a deep well of energy - sometimes its just a matter of when they WANT to have it. We have been lucky its been cool - would happen with 90+ weather
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Yeah, it's not the energy that is the problem with over training. My daughter is a keeper and has had that exact same scenario play out, too. As others have said on this thread, active kids can go almost all day long. I don't know how old your son is, but I'll just tell our experience. From 9-13, my daughter was an endless well of energy. Multiple practices and multiple games never bothered her. We'd do a two tournament games and then she'd guest play in a local league same day. Played club soccer, middle school soccer, and middle school lacrosse. Never injured. Never missed a practice or game. Year round GK training. Summer before freshman year, she decides to do HS soccer and HS volleyball on top of club soccer. The HS soccer tryouts were 3hrs a week every day of brutal running and constant high level effort. Volleyball tyrouts and summer conditioning were even tougher. Club season and HS VB overlap, and she's running from one practice to the next. Plus keeper training. At this point, she also hits her growth spurt. To top it off, all four coaches (2 soccer head coaches, 1 GK trainer and 1 VB coach) expect 100% commitment and all have their own very rigorous conditioning drills. She gives it her all. But by October, after an entire summer of non-stop activity, she is the walking wounded. She's got a displaced SI joint requiring weekly chiro visits, a growth plate injury in one foot and is chronically spraining the other ankle. Important to note that at least 1/4 of her club soccer team and about the same percentage on her HS team all start going down with similar or worse injuries. To me it was plain and simple. Too much high intensity, high impact training, not enough recovery time. Despite being one of the best freshmen on the VB team, she had to drop it for next year. We learned our lesson, and now we make sure there is always ample recovery when she does marathon training sessions or has multiple games on the weekend. The weight and power of 14-15 year olds playing soccer is on a different level than 8-10 year olds. And the violence and impact injuries sustained from 5'8' 150 lb soccer players colliding at full speed is not something 80lb gymnasts or dancers ever have to deal with. So my advice is not to use your kids' energy level or eagerness as a gauge to decide if it is too much training. She/he needs to learn to listen to their bodies and if they start experiencing pain, they should not be pressured into playing through it or sucking it up to look good for the coach. Hopefully the coach in the OP is smart enough to set up training regimens that account for recovery time. But given my first hand experience with club soccer coaches, I wouldn't count on it.
 
Mystery Train said:
Yeah, it's not the energy that is the problem with over training. My daughter is a keeper and has had that exact same scenario play out, too. As others have said on this thread, active kids can go almost all day long. I don't know how old your son is, but I'll just tell our experience. From 9-13, my daughter was an endless well of energy. Multiple practices and multiple games never bothered her. We'd do a two tournament games and then she'd guest play in a local league same day. Played club soccer, middle school soccer, and middle school lacrosse. Never injured. Never missed a practice or game. Year round GK training. Summer before freshman year, she decides to do HS soccer and HS volleyball on top of club soccer. The HS soccer tryouts were 3hrs a week every day of brutal running and constant high level effort. Volleyball tyrouts and summer conditioning were even tougher. Club season and HS VB overlap, and she's running from one practice to the next. Plus keeper training. At this point, she also hits her growth spurt. To top it off, all four coaches (2 soccer head coaches, 1 GK trainer and 1 VB coach) expect 100% commitment and all have their own very rigorous conditioning drills. She gives it her all. But by October, after an entire summer of non-stop activity, she is the walking wounded. She's got a displaced SI joint requiring weekly chiro visits, a growth plate injury in one foot and is chronically spraining the other ankle. Important to note that at least 1/4 of her club soccer team and about the same percentage on her HS team all start going down with similar or worse injuries. To me it was plain and simple. Too much high intensity, high impact training, not enough recovery time. Despite being one of the best freshmen on the VB team, she had to drop it for next year. We learned our lesson, and now we make sure there is always ample recovery when she does marathon training sessions or has multiple games on the weekend. The weight and power of 14-15 year olds playing soccer is on a different level than 8-10 year olds. And the violence and impact injuries sustained from 5'8' 150 lb soccer players colliding at full speed is not something 80lb gymnasts or dancers ever have to deal with. So my advice is not to use your kids' energy level or eagerness as a gauge to decide if it is too much training. She/he needs to learn to listen to their bodies and if they start experiencing pain, they should not be pressured into playing through it or sucking it up to look good for the coach. Hopefully the coach in the OP is smart enough to set up training regimens that account for recovery time. But given my first hand experience with club soccer coaches, I wouldn't count on it.
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Yes he is just pre-teen. He use to do martial arts as well, that was removed as he started to train more. That schedule you mentioned sounded brutal. Hopefully she finds herself in better health today. This summer the kiddo wont be doing as many camps and limiting him how much he keeps at camps - talked to his coaches. we train on turf, and might catch up to him over the years. As he has grown his flexibility has been diminishing and gets strains. Im quick to pull him from training. You just have to be firm with coaches. If the consequence is they arent on the team, screw them. Kids, and often coaches, dont understand at times - but they arent the ones that deal with the consequences/bills/medical visits/crying etc.
 
Jerylkoma said:
Too much for every kid.
2 hours for cardio + 2 hours of gym will be enough.
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2hrs at the gym - would even have to break that down further. no need for a kid to go to the gym daily. 2hrs should get you warm up, stretching, weightlifting and cardio/HIIT. thats a long time at the gym unless you do cardio. back in my bodybuilding time, 2 hrs was a long time unless you use to BS between sets - or you did 30-45 of cardio. that or you go to gym during peak hours and have to baby sit machines. if a kid is training daily, id argue they wouldnt need to do any cardio at the gym and then the 2hrs becomes waaaaay too long of session.
 
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