Op, mine mostly ran around the neighborhood until 4-5th grade. DD's first organized team sport was rec soccer in 5th. DS had 1 early season of little league, 2 seasons soccer - that's it in elementary school. Middle school athletics seemed to be mostly doing whatever their friends were doing. They both had good success in HS playing varsity on multiple teams in FCPS. They were also resilient. Each had the experience of not making a varsity HS team, so they tried out for a different varsity sport and made it.

Anonymous wrote:Thanks so much, pp! I'm looking for athletic anecdotes. I really appreciate you making the distinction, but I appreciate you sharing about your kids more.

How old is your youngest?

She's 9. She's always liked having tons of classes. I think her ideal is two a day. Yes, she has time for homework and downtime.

If you have a young child and want them to be athletic, the best thing you can do is expose to lots of sports and lots of outside activities when they are little -- we have done almost all team sports plus swmming gymnastics dive team plus regular hiking and biking. Now my DS 11 is a competitive gymnast. My older child is into music but plays sports for fun.

We exposed our girls (now in middle school) to a lot of different sports when they were really young. We're active adults so they're used to seeing their parents and parents' friends playing soccer, golf, tennis, swimming, running, biking, hiking, skiing, ice skating, etc. As little kids, they tried many different things through leagues, lessons, school, camps, etc. Some things stuck - they'd come home gushing about how great it was. Others didn't - dance was meh for my kids, but they have always loved team sports. Once we found what they liked, we increased the level/frequency of activity in those sports. They both play travel soccer and basketball - they developed ability because they liked doing these sports and enjoyed putting in the time to get better. We have never forced them to do anything but now they are pretty competent in most sports (at least good enough to get by) and they're not afraid to try to new things - they have confidence in themselves and I think that's a win.

BTW, both kids took gymnastics for a couple of years in early elementary school and while they decided not to pursue team level competition, the balance, strength and coordination they acquired from gymnastics has really served them well in all their other sports. So glad we did it.

Thanks so much, pp! I'm looking for athletic anecdotes. I really appreciate you making the distinction, but I appreciate you sharing about your kids more.

How old is your youngest?

I've always said "you need to be doing at least one thing for your mind and one thing for your body besides school."

I have four kids, and all four are different in what they do. Being active and being athletic are two completely different things. My son (now 24) has always been able to play a pickup game of anything, but mostly road around the neighborhood on his bike or skateboard. Sometimes he'd shoot baskets in the driveway for an hour or so, either alone or with a neighbor/friend/sibling.

One daughter did all the usual dance and gymnastics classes, until she took a swim class and found out she was good at that. She swam competitively until her senior year of high school when she wanted to quit. Now at 21, she takes yoga classes 2 or 3 times a week and swims for fun 2 or 3 times a week.

My 7th grader does ice skating twice a week and one school sport (right now it's tennis). As a little kid, she really just played HARD. I think at 4, she took a dance class. But mostly, she was taken to the playground every day after school, and she PLAYED. Around 4th or 5th grade she started doing ice skating once a week. She's a natural athlete and really just played.

My youngest likes taking lots of classes. Two dance classes, two gymnastics classes, a basketball class, ice skating, swim, etc. She likes being busy. She falls asleep the fastest.

If you have an athletic middle school or high school student, what did you do or they do in the early years to foster that athletic ability?