My son played both at 8th grade.....played on a R3PL team and also my JV team. We did the whole go from a jv game to a club practice routine. He hung in there ok.....but it clearly wore on him and at what point is enough enough?
School work has to factor into the equation also....
But he had a blast with the older guys and it was fun coaching him again after a bunch of years away. I wouldn't trade the experience for anything....but I'm not sure I would do it again. If that makes sense.
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I would suspect that most coaches would agree that the more touches on the ball the better for any players development. If the coaching is strong as it would be at both NW and Irmo the so called bad habits that some would pick up would be limted. However, the benefits of gaining confidence can not be underestimated at these ages.
In 7th grade my some missed 3 club practices in the spring season and in 8th grade he missed none although he did miss the mid-season JV tournament. Practices for JV were right after school and club started at 7:00 PM.
I always left the decision up to my son due to the extra curicular type issues that come into play when playing for your school. If he wanted to play JV soccer I worked with the coaches to make it happen.
If you are forced to choose I don't think there is really any question but to go with club. However, I question coaches who force a player to choose. The old adage of which comes first the club or the player?
