Sports to try for an un-athletic girl
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Anonymous
Clutch those pearls. The horror of kids trying a new rec sport! |
Anonymous
+1. I recommended softball on this thread from experience. I also help run our league. We pride ourselves on welcoming new players at all age levels. I have a softball pitcher and she's legitimately all-star good. She's also not naturally athletic...at all. She just works hard. She started at 8 when she was OP's kids age, but plays with girls who are new to the sport. We expect with the level of coaching our league provides new girls will be fully caught up in a year and able to play on their HS JV teams if they stick with it (varsity in this area of course typically requires you to be a B level travel player, but that's a whole other story). PP is wrong that no amount practice being able to make you catch a softball. My pitcher used to look terrible trying to catch. Then she started learning to pitch and DH said to her probably 100 times "Half of pitching is catching the ball" as he threw it back to her from the bucket where he was sitting. She's not making diving grabs in the outfield or anything, but she can definitely catch a softball and her coaches have no problem putting her in prime positions to do so. It just takes hours of repetition. Is DD pitching for the Sooners some day? No. But she's helping her team win regularly. When friends noticed her transition from scrub player to decent pitcher, many came forward with stories of girls who simply through work and perseverance also became good pitchers, even collegiate ones (yes, back in the day when playing in college was way easier than it is today, but still). Coach PP who is grumbling about newbies, I hope you aren't coaching 12U in our league. Because your attitude gets back to us, we don't need you. Take your kid to one of the pay-to-play C level travel clubs that loses most of their games, there are a plethora and they are always looking for players. Yes, you can complain about the parents who truly don't care and drop their kid off for 2 hours of babysitting. Those parents will never work with their kids or help their coach prep a field or run GameChanger; they might not even watch games. But just unathletic kids who are trying? Those kids deserve MORE of your coaching because having them learn things will make your whole team better rapidly. Some of the newbies I've seen at 10, 11, and even 12 are now far better than the kids who played for years and thought they "had" to go travel to get away from newbies. |
Anonymous
Um no |
Anonymous
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I'd say martial arts of some kind.
But also, don't push it. Sign her up for things she enjoys, if that's not sporty, that's ok too. Find other ways to be active. |
Anonymous
| My un athletic DD had tried ice skate, soccer, basketball, golf, dance, gymnastics, tennis and fencing but neither worked for her, while DD loved summer swim team, winter ski/snowboard, horseback riding, and krav maga. DD also enjoys leisure biking, rollerblade, ice skate ( when hang out with sibling or friends), indoor rock climbing and zipline. |
Anonymous
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I could have written op’s post except my daughter also doesn’t like swimming or biking or running or dance and has terrible balance.
She does horseback riding but I wish I could find other things she would enjoy that keep her active. I could not care less if she never does a sport. I just want her to stay physically active through childhood and her teenage years, and that’s hard when she has zero desire. |
Anonymous
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Volleyball. My kid who hates running loves volleyball.
We tried dance, gymnastics, swimming, etc. but she was not a fan. My kid also enjoys golf, but only lessons, not tournaments. She doesn't like competition at all. She loves horseback riding but only competes in little local shows, not the ones we need to travel far to or any bigger District/State shows. |
Anonymous
I think like with softball, there's an element to volleyball that responds well to hard work and repetition. Does being naturally athletic (and freakishly tall) help? Absolutely. But the unathletic kids can keep up enough to have fun just by putting in work. |
Anonymous
Right! |
Anonymous
| My unathletic girl likes tumbling class bc she can feel the accomplishment of learning new skills at her own pace, and it is helping her overall strength and coordination. Also rock climbing. |
Anonymous
Better than all these team sports people are recommending where people are counting on the kid. It needs to be something individual. |
Anonymous
| Lacrosse. That’s where all the unathletic boys go to at least |
Anonymous
| I second the recommendation for a summer swim team. I was not an athletic kid, at least not in the traditional sense. I lacked the hand eye coordination, confidence, and aggression needed for the team/ball sports. But I enjoyed playing in the pool. I tried summer swim team at 8 and it turned out I was really good. I swam for 13 years including college. I discovered in college that I also enjoy weightlifting and agility/HIIT type exercises, and still do these things now. It's funny to think back on how I hated PE as a kid and didn't think of myself as an athlete. I am now quite fit in middle age and regularly show up the former team sport "jocks" at the gym. Had I not tried swimming, I might have gone my whole life just thinking I'm just not athletic. I like to think there's a fitness activity out there for everyone, whether they discover it as a kid or later in life. Don't force a team sport if it's not your daughter's personality. |
Anonymous
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My kid went to a martial arts birthday party, came home, and said "can I try that?" I didn't think it would stick since nothing else had yet but figured why not.
That was 15 years ago. DC spent the last six years also teaching there, and still takes classes when home from college on breaks. |
Anonymous
| Fencing, rock climbing |