Keeping girls in sports
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Anonymous
| If your dd plays or played sports in high school, what did her sports life look like when she is young? I am getting increasingly worried that the way sports functions for young girls has the effect of burning them out or injuring them so I am hoping some lessons learned from the BTDT folks. |
Anonymous
Most kids, boys and girls, quit sports by 13. |
Anonymous
It's a very misleading stat. Many of them didn't care in the first place but were only pushed by their parents. If the kid is actually into it, the #'s are much different. Also, some kids figure it's just not for them and that's fine as well. |
Anonymous
Which sport(s)? |
Anonymous
Also, many kids quit some sports at 13 to specialize in their main sport or switch to another sport. A lot of former club soccer players start track in high school, for example. I don't know of any really athletic kids with athletic parents who just cold-quit all sports at 13. |
Anonymous
| I have this same question but for boys! It seems like if your kid plays soccer as a kindergartner on a mini-kicks style rec team, and has fun, and is good at it, the expectation is to have him in competitive U8 travel ball by second grade, and if you opt out of that, all that's left of the rec program by age 7 or 8 is the kids who have never played soccer before, or the kids without much athletic talent or much desire to play, since all of the moderately athletic kids who enjoy sports have moved on to a travel team. there seems to be zero middle ground between training for 6 hours a week, and kicking the ball around without a purpose with kids who don't want to be there. at age 7. |
Anonymous
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Both my girls played sports in HS.
Both played rec soccer and baseball/softball in ES. Not very serious and mostly played to be with friends, etc. The oldest was basically going to quit in middle school but then the pandemic hit, and the schools allowed kids to get together in person for sports practices prior to classes, so we decided why not try out for the HS team since at least she'd get to see people in person. She played through HS, and now plays a different sport club moderately seriously in college. Its funny because if you'd asked me at age 10, I would have said she was not really an athlete and probably wouldn't stick with sports. My younger one switched to a different sport in MS -- first trying some rec leagues and then joining a low level travel team in 8th grade. She's on the JV team and plays off season on a second-string travel team. I don't think there's a single answer. I do worry about long term health effects for the kids that went into club practice in ES -- I knew girls with torn ACLs by middle school or boys who needed tommy john surgery or rotator cuff repair in HS. I don't know what their joints will look like at 40. |
Anonymous
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I have an athletic daughter still playing two sports in high school.
We did not have her do any travel sports until middle school (which is 6th grade where we are). She continued regularly with about 4-5 sports recreationally until middle school. We had her try everything and focused on keeping her with friends and followed her lead. |
Anonymous
This is mostly true. So if you have an athletic kid who likes soccer, you should get them in a club program. You'll hear of some exceptions where kids were playing a bunch of sports from 7-9, then joined a club at 10, but more often than not, kids who stick with soccer start playing club at a young age. |
Anonymous
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My kids played a gazillion sports from 3 to 10.
Martial arts Soccer Football Basketball Sailing Rock climb Hiking kayaking Swimming Tennis Archery Horseback riding Lacrosse Golf And then in middle school, we asked them to pick their two favorites. Two of them ended up playing in college. We ask them to pick one junior year of high school. |
Anonymous
i'm sorry but that list is ridiculous. they didn't actually play any of those seriously |
Anonymous
I think avoiding early specialization is key. Early exposure isn't a bad thing, and certain sports like figure skating and gymnastics require it to succeed, but just don't get sucked into specialization. My oldest kid is now in high school, and the kids who didn't specialize until later caught up and, in some cases, passed the kids who specialized. Just focus on developing athletes who love sports and movements, and something will work out for them. Especially in the early years, it's all about building an athletic base. |
Anonymous
Dealing with this with my DD. The rec program is co-ed so the girls don't want us to play which leaves you to play travel which I really don't think is the best for kids so young, too much soccer year around? I just want something in between and I think MOST parents feel this way it's the craziness of just a few who ruin it for the majority. |
Anonymous
No, of course, not. Are you a psychopath? I introduced them to a multitude of sports and activities and determined which ones they were interested in. I noted that sometimes they were 3,4 or five years old you think that a 345-year-old should do something seriously.? |