Personal training for 13 year old DD

[Anonymous]

Has anyone worked with a personal trainer for their young teen DD? Our DD wants to start playing sports, but feels self-conscious and lacks confidence in her abilities. She's also pretty out of shape. So she's not interested in going to the gym or taking group classes - she wants to work 1-1 with someone first, with no one looking at her. I'm thinking a trainer who comes to our home to start helping her with the basics, or meets us at a private gym. We live in DC. Would love any recommendations, or even experiences/advice if you've either considered or done this with your DD.

[Anonymous]

That is a totally normal age to start a trainer. I don't have recommendations in DC but good luck.

[Anonymous]

What sport is she thinking?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What sport is she thinking?

Volleyball or basketball, either at school (not super competitive) or with a rec league.

[Anonymous]

My kids have picked up new sports and we usually just find a clinic. My son has helped out friends starting new sports at this age.
I understand at 13 it's really awkward to be a beginner and she would prefer to do this privately... but starting out it is going to be awkward no matter what.
I would encourage her to pick a sport, maybe watch some YouTube videos or try to play a littl at home with Mom or Dad, and then looking for a beginner clinic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What sport is she thinking?

Volleyball or basketball, either at school (not super competitive) or with a rec league.

Then I agree with PP who suggests clinics and practicing basic skills at home. The fitness portion will come, or she just goes for a walk/run until she's running. I'm not against a trainer, but volleyball and basketball will be better served by some starting with skills rather than fitness.

[Anonymous]

202 Strong in North Bethesda has a "Kids Core" workout/fitness class for 10-14yo kids:

https://www.202strong.com/schedule

[Anonymous]

My teen saw a physical therapist who also does personal training. He has a doctorate in PT, so I assume his prices are on the high end, but he seems very knowledgeable and was great with my teen.

This link is outdated because he recently left Navy Yard to head an office somewhere in NW, but it’s still Rose PT so you could track him down through them if needed: https://rosept.com/therapist/dr-connor-pearson-pt-dpt

[Anonymous]

Can you or your spouse take her to the gym and train her yourselves for awhile? i would think she wouldn’t require anything beyond the very basics at this point.

[Anonymous]

As an option, take a look at this website: Coachup.Com

I just did a search for fitness trainers in DC and this is what I found:
https://www.coachup.com/expert_service_submissions/5545196

Good luck and we hope something works out for her!

[Anonymous]

I would also suggest rec, especially for volleyball (basketball would be a little harder because players start earlier). There will be plenty of beginners and most balls will drop on the court. There will be celebration when the serve makes it over the net and something close to a miracle when it comes back. She will realize that it is normal for everyone to start somewhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As an option, take a look at this website: Coachup.Com

I just did a search for fitness trainers in DC and this is what I found:
https://www.coachup.com/expert_service_submissions/5545196

Good luck and we hope something works out for her!

Agree, I found someone on Coachup for running (for me) and he was great! A clinic run by a local college would be fun too, I have done one with George Mason U vball team.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would also suggest rec, especially for volleyball (basketball would be a little harder because players start earlier). There will be plenty of beginners and most balls will drop on the court. There will be celebration when the serve makes it over the net and something close to a miracle when it comes back. She will realize that it is normal for everyone to start somewhere.

This was pretty much what I was going to say.

Personal training becomes a bit more worthwhile once kids learn the basics of a sport and then personal training helps them get better.

Rec is generally great place to start. It does get harder to get into as kids get older because they're playing against kids who have been playing for several years and are competitive. But we've seen beginners join in at later ages and some sports are easier to get into at a later age than others.

What really makes a difference is parents working with their kids. Where even if parents don't know the sport, they can look up some exercises on youtube and have their kids work on it.

For example in volleyball you can toss her the ball and have her practice receiving it, setting it, serving, etc. With basketball you can find some drills online for her to do to get comfortable with ball handling and take her out to a court to have her practice layups, shots, etc.

And for both basketball and volleyball, there should be instructional classes as well. But I know you said that she doesn't want to do group classes at the moment. I also found that kids who make their first transition from instructional classes to actual game play have some initial difficulty in adjusting to the pressure of actual game play against an opponent trying to win. So strongly recommend signing your child up for rec so they can get the in game experience too and as the other poster mentioned there is some value in working in a group environment.

And I do know some families that weren't comfortable working with their kids on that kind of thing and did hire a personal coach (initially through coachup). And their kid made a pretty noticeable improvement from not knowing how to play at all to being pretty decent in a short amount of time. But at the same time I think their kid probably practiced a lot on their own in between the personal training sessions. I kind of question if the cost is worth it but I guess it does work.