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[quote=Anonymous]would really appreciate your input and suggestions on athletic/sport options for my DS who is going into 7th.

He is quite uncoordinated - has a secondary diagnosis of Coordination Disorder with ADHD being his primary DX.  He is otherwise a pretty social kid, who just happens to be "quirky".

His/our goal is not for him to become a "super athlete", rather for him to be involved in the same types of activities his peers are involved in - so this is probably a social goal as well as wanting to increase his confidence, self awareness and health!

His ADHD affects his coordination quite a bit because of his slow processing speeds - so if a ball is flying at him he may not be as quick to react. He can catch it fine but it takes those synapses longer to react - brain says "ball coming at you...get ready....raise arm...catch ball" , which is what we experience automatically without even having to think about it.  Its just harder for him as it takes longer.   It also affects his agility because he's just not exercising those muscles BECAUSE he's not good at them so why bother trying..."  So its a vicious cycle.

I am looking for more of a mainstream environment for him, because although he's not coordinated or athletic he doesn't really fit into a program for those with physical or neurological disabilities - I do hope that I am not offending anyone.  :oops: My apologies if I am.

He tried Sports Plus - their swimming program - and didn't really feel that he fit in. Maybe it was just that particular group, but he was much higher-functioning than the particular group of kids that were in his session.  Because of this, he didn't really have examples of other mainstream athletes to see how they operate in the sport.  Which is what we ultimately want.

Tried TKWNDO - he was really not interested at all.  Even tried a few different studios, including ones known for their "welcoming environment" - but it just didn't interest him.

Have tried Dynamite Gymnastics and Agility in Rckvl.  Now that he did like, but I know they've gone through some management changes recently and a lot of the good instructors left.  We tried the one-on-one sessions for a while, which he enjoyed but the expense was exorbitant so we had to stop before he could really get anything out of it.  So instead he joined a group class -which he also liked.  I am not sure though of the quality of instruction - as I really want a coach who is not going to let him get a way with not participating because something is too hard or too challenging.   Sometimes instructors just don't give a crap - its just a paycheck for them...so they would really rather not deal with that aspect of he job.

So - Am I looking for the proverbial Unicorn here, or is there something out there where he would fit in?  We are in Bethesda.  Open to traveling, to a certain degree.

TIA
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