Hoping this won't go political but something to keep an eye on.
I've had a few acquaintances in the P5 coaching rank as well as some that played in the pros say they didn't want their sons to start hitting until they were 12. They saw no sense whatsoever in tackle Pee-Wee football and thought 12 was soon enough. One of them has a son that didn't put on pads till he was 12 and now plays for the Packers.
Regardless of where you come down on the question of when to let them hit, there is the broader context of the largest state in the country at the forefront of legislation to address safety concerns while national participation rates continue to fall. California has already enacted some aggressive rules that limit contact in practice over the past few years. They don't allow contact in the offseason and only two days a week during pre and regular season for youth and high school. I don't know if that has led to a drop in the overall quality of play in California but my perception is that they aren't turning out per capita volumes of elite players they were 15 or more years ago.
https://ktla.com/news/california/ap...der-ban-on-tackle-football-for-kids-under-12/
I've had a few acquaintances in the P5 coaching rank as well as some that played in the pros say they didn't want their sons to start hitting until they were 12. They saw no sense whatsoever in tackle Pee-Wee football and thought 12 was soon enough. One of them has a son that didn't put on pads till he was 12 and now plays for the Packers.
Regardless of where you come down on the question of when to let them hit, there is the broader context of the largest state in the country at the forefront of legislation to address safety concerns while national participation rates continue to fall. California has already enacted some aggressive rules that limit contact in practice over the past few years. They don't allow contact in the offseason and only two days a week during pre and regular season for youth and high school. I don't know if that has led to a drop in the overall quality of play in California but my perception is that they aren't turning out per capita volumes of elite players they were 15 or more years ago.
https://ktla.com/news/california/ap...der-ban-on-tackle-football-for-kids-under-12/
