What age to start football?

[Buff99]

At what age would you allow your son to play full contact football. The earliest you can start is 5 here.

[numbere]

IMO never, its not worth the amount of time and effort. He's better off spending his time studying for AP classes. If he's dying to play a sport then golf or tennis would be a much better option.

Injury rate aside, one can only play football when they are relatively young. A sport like golf or tennis can be played for the rest of your life and can be very useful for networking or when pursuing a career.

This is coming from someone who played for 4 years in high school, two of which were spent as a varsity starter.

[Buff99]

Wow never thought of it that way! That's a very unique opinion.

[NACH3]

Very interesting numbere! I'd never have looked at it that way - but they're sure able to grow exponentially in the classroom which in turn wil give them the best option for their next chapter in life! Whether it be HS OR college ETC

[Buff99]

I think playing football at any age is worth not having the greatest job imo. There is nothing like it.

[djgreen]

young as possible I played my whole life starting little league and I could have had a full ride to app state who was back to back champions at the time the only reason I didn't go is because I got into trouble with the law it is a great sport it has taught me a lot of life lessons that I still carry today and I never broke a single bone just scrapes and bruises you also got to look at the social aspect It made me pretty popular in school being good at sports and a very social person in general

[Buff99]

I agree with starting them as young as you can. Just make it fun for them the first year or two. I still push my son but I know he is only 5 so you have to know when to back off and praise him up. DJ that's awesome man..getting a full ride anywhere is really a major accomplishment.

[djgreen]

yea it was but I was to much of a rebel in high school and lost it all and quick, but its ok because I learned from it and changed my ways and I ended up going to school for free somewhere else so in the end it wasn't so bad but I owe a lot to sports it made a man out of me on and off the field

[Buff99]

Definitely agree dj its invaluable

[RaginCajun]

i say let the kid choose what they want to do.

i was given the opportunity to play every sport at a young age and i am pretty good at all of them

i think that being on a team helps on develop skills that can be used later on in life.

[MuscleScience]

I once would have said to all those who were against kids playing football stop being over protective pussies. But as part of my masters degree, I ran a concussion lab at my university and saw some pretty eye opening stuff and how badly traumatic brain injuries affect young kids and college age adults.

Now my kids will stick with baseball, golf and their studies.

[Buff99]

Damn, well the concussion talk just made me depressed. I wish ice hockey was more popular around here. That is a bad ass sport.

[RaginCajun]

Damn, well the concussion talk just made me depressed. I wish ice hockey was more popular around here. That is a bad ass sport.

you talk about concussions, then wish ice hockey?

i would think that there are more concussions in hockey, they play more games

[djgreen]

the whole time I played I never had a concussion that I know of, Iv only see a few other people get them but its not as common as people think in my experience

[Hazard]

the whole time I played I never had a concussion that I know of, Iv only see a few other people get them but its not as common as people think in my experience

Same here..... Played football from 5-18 and never had a concussion. Only knew one person who got one. I did break a kids ribs though..... And also dislocated someone's shoulder. I used to hit hard lol

[Sfla80]

Didn't even play football. Competively.

Had 4 concussions by the age of 14.

Kids are gonna get hurt no matter what.

[MuscleScience]

That's the crappy thing about youth concussions as they are harder to detect than in adults and can manifest years later.