I'm a big believer in kids experiencing multiple sports. Like anything else, when you experience different things with different people your horizons expand. The obsession with having to create super athletes in a single sport starting at age 5 or 6 is warped, in my opinion.
My daughter joined a competitive swim team in I think 4th grade. She loved it. We didn't realize until after she'd joined, however, that it was 10.5 months a year. They got 3 weeks off in August and about 10 days at Christmas and that was it... Still, she loved it. 4 practices/week. The coaches asked her to go to a 5th and we said no. It would be too much time for her and our family. She became good. Good enough that I thought if she kept it up she might swim in college.
But after fours years she started to burnout. The pressure to attend an extra Saturday practice. Or two! Attend more meets. No down time. And as high school approached she wanted to try and experience something new. She finally stopped swimming entirely and joined the volleyball (fall) and lacrosse (spring) teams in her high school and has never been happier. She won't do either sport beyond high school but that's so not the point. She's learning, meeting new people, competing and getting better. With the pandemic volleyball this fall has been moved to February-April. So she decided to play soccer- having never played one minute of soccer in her life. She's mostly riding the bench but did play in her first game the other day. Again never been happier...
