Non-competitive beginner level sports for teens - does this exist?
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Anonymous
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I have a 13 yr old who tried a couple of sports/activities when younger, but has become pretty inactive. To my surprise, he has now expressed interest in trying baseball or another sport. The sports leagues I know about are super competitive, and even school teams have tryouts that he would not survive. Is there a place for a kid like this to dabble and learn baseball or another sport, and just have fun in Arlington/Falls Church?
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Anonymous
| Rowing or fencing would be some good choices. Most kids don't start rowing until that age so most will be beginners. |
Anonymous
| Cross country or track. Almost no one starts before middle school. |
Anonymous
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OP here, thank for these ideas. Will run them past him.
Anyone know of non-competitive options for baseball? |
Anonymous
| Ultimate frisbee |
Anonymous
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Not gonna lie... Highly technical sports like baseball are going to be challenging to break into at his age, especially with little other experience.
I agree with the above suggestions and would also recommend volleyball, archery, rock-climbing, parkour/ninja gym or wrestling. |
Anonymous
| 13 is late to start rock climbing unless he is athletic and has a lot of strength already. |
Anonymous
| He should just go to a batting cage and bat for an hour or so, once or twice a week. |
Anonymous
| Recreation League soccer - any age can start, it's for fun |
Anonymous
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Probably too late for baseball, IMHO, unless he is very athletic and you get him a private coach or coaches to work on skills. If he is a beginner, he’d need a batting coach and a separate fielding coach, most likely. Still a long shot even then. Sad that things are this way, these days, but just being honest.
There are still rec basketball leagues at this age if you look around. Track and cross country naturally start at this age or later. Usually wrestling and football are easy to start around now as well. Or how about boys volleyball? Our HS just added a team but not sure if this is common. A lot of this will depend on the area, of course. Swimming? Golf? Especially if he already has experience in either. |
Anonymous
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My 9yr old takes batting lessons at Ignite. Not to play elite travel baseball - just to be able to hold his own as a mediocre rec player. He wants to play with his friends and as long as he is willing to put in the work, we support him. We’ve seen a huge improvement going once a week for 3 months.
He’s on the younger side for the kids we see there. The lessons are a good compliment to batting cage time. |
Anonymous
| For baseball- Look at little leagues or other rec leagues (Cal Ripken etc) in your area. Some little leagues have 50/70 or Juniors ball for this age. Even for those, most kids will have a fair amount of experience but it is rec. |
Anonymous
| I don’t live in the area but in my city CYO sports offer high school boys’ basketball and baseball. They run during the HS seasons so they’re an option for kids who don’t make their HS teams and don’t play on a travel team. It is easy to join a team if you go to a Catholic school or are part of a parish, but if you’re not part of a parish they are happy to squeak you in to complete rosters. |
Anonymous
Ignore me, I posted this but just looked at the northern VA CYO website and they only run sports through 8th grade. I’m sorry! |
Anonymous
| You can try rec baseball at 13 with no experience. There aren’t try outs. Your little league will have a juniors division. Little league is by zip code, so ask friends who play from your neighborhood, they’ll point you to the right league. My daughter started softball in HS, It’s never too late. |