Why the Off-Season Matters
The season’s over.
The boots are drying on the back step, the shin pads are buried in a kit bag, and for the first time in months, Saturday morning is free.
And almost immediately, the thought creeps in: should they be doing something?
The Essentials
Rest is not the opposite of progress. Children grow and recover during downtime. The off season is when their bodies catch up from a full season of football.
Burnout is real, even in young children. Kids who play one sport year-round are far more likely to lose interest and drop out altogether. An estimated 70% of young athletes stop playing organised sport by age 13.
A different sport over summer is not falling behind. It builds a more well-rounded athlete and gives growing bodies a break from the same patterns.
This is different from training two sports at the same time. Swapping sports between seasons gives the body variety and rest. Doubling up during the same season does the opposite.
Your child does not need to train football year-round to stay competitive. They need to stay active, stay curious, and come back to pre-season with fresh legs and a clear head.
The Deep Dive
There is a quiet anxiety that builds after the final game. Other kids are signing up for clinics. The group chat has gone silent. You start wondering whether your child is losing ground.
“They are not losing ground — they are gaining it.”
The American Academy of Paediatrics recommends children take two to three months away from any single sport each year. That is not a soft suggestion. It is a frontline recommendation to protect growing bodies and growing minds.
Children’s bodies are still growing and changing, and they don’t cope with constant sport the way an adult body can. A full season of football puts real stress on developing muscles, joints, and bones. The off season is when all of that repairs, adapts, and comes back stronger.
The mental side matters just as much. Children who play one sport year-round start to experience it as an obligation rather than play. The joy drains slowly, and by the time you notice, the damage is done. A break gives them space to miss it — and missing it is one of the most powerful motivators there is.
This is also why a different sport over summer is so valuable. It gives the body a rest from football’s specific demands while keeping a child active and engaged. What it builds, and how to think about it, is a separate conversation — one I cover in the next article in this series.
What I’d flag here is the boundary, because “variety” can mean two very different things. Swapping sports between seasons is variety. Training two sports at the same time is something else entirely.
I had a player once — technically one of our better kids — who was training both AFL and football at the same time. Both winter sports, both competing for the same energy and the same weekends. I raised it with his parents. They told me variety was important to them. But what I saw at training was a child who arrived already exhausted from an hour of AFL, struggled to stay engaged, and just didn’t have much left to give. He wasn’t a difficult kid. His brain and body were simply running on empty. It hurt him as part of a team, too. We never knew if he would be available on Sunday because it clashed with his AFL match. Some weeks he could only play one half. The other kids picked up on it and started questioning his commitment. That is not variety. That is a child being stretched in two directions at once, and nobody winning.
I see the other side of it every year, too. The kids who play cricket over summer and come back for football in winter come back brighter, sharper, and noticeably more switched on than those who pushed through. It is not a subtle difference. You can see it from the first session.
And here is the part that might reassure you most. The vast majority of athletes who reach professional or Olympic level played multiple sports as children. The pressure to specialise early — to commit fully to football at eight or nine — is not supported by the evidence. It is driven by culture and fear, not by anything we know about how children actually develop.
So if you’re sitting there wondering whether they should be doing more right now, the answer might actually be the opposite. A child who spends the summer playing, moving, and trying something different is not falling behind. They are doing exactly what their body and brain need them to do.
The Takeaway
Mindset Shift: The off season is not an interruption to your child’s football development. It is a fundamental part of it.
This Week: Let them rest. If they want to try a different sport, encourage it. And if they just want to kick a ball around the garden with no structure at all, that might be the most valuable training they do all year.
Once you’ve decided they’ll do something — what should it actually be? That’s the next article: What Should My Child Do in the Off Season?
