golf

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Volleyball! They don't really start until 5th grade. I know because I have the 9 y.o. who has wanted to do it for two years now.

Good call (and great sport). The folks saying tennis have no clue -- huge advantage for early starters.

Given the responses on this thread, it seems like it might be more helpful for OP or others who have the same question to hear about what seems to be the relatively smaller number of sports that might be hard (though by no means impossible for the athletically gifted) to break into later because of the advantage for early starters that PP identified.

PP mentionted tennis. I'd add soccer, basketball, and hockey, all of which require skills that take a long time to fully develop.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:...in this area where lots of kids are athletic...

do you mean DC area has high concentration of athletic children? i thought we have more smart kids. are they somehow good in sports too???

Is this a serious question PP? Any metropolitan area is going to have a lot of smart kids, a lot of athletic ones, and some who are both. Large metropolitan areas almost always have a lot of options for families who value academic achievement, and this area is among the more competitive in the country for kids who are serious about lacrosse, soccer, and possibly some other sports I don't know much about.

Anonymous wrote:Volleyball! They don't really start until 5th grade. I know because I have the 9 y.o. who has wanted to do it for two years now.

Good call (and great sport). The folks saying tennis have no clue -- huge advantage for early starters.

Anonymous wrote:...in this area where lots of kids are athletic...

do you mean DC area has high concentration of athletic children? i thought we have more smart kids. are they somehow good in sports too???

I asked this same question recently, and someone told me lacrosse.

Crew for sure

A lot also depends on which HS you are zoned for if your primary concern is making the HS team. At some schools it is extremely difficult to make the HS team for any sport unless you have been playing on a high level travel team for years. At other schools it is just the opposite and even kids new to a sport stand a chance of making the team. But if it is just to see what your child enjoys most then it is a great age to try all sorts of different things.

The thing is there are so many activities outside of school for kids to still belong to at all levels. Sports continue outside of the high school sports teams. I just don't get the hype of travel sports just to be on a high school team. Some of the kids on high school teams barely make any practices and only attend games because they're so busy with their club sports as well. Hardly the bonding activity high school sports used to be. More just a place to show off talent for college recruiters.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Gosh, talk of being "shut out" of team sports as an adolescent sounds so sad to me.

What the hell are we doing to our kids? I would never want my kid to "specialize" in a sport unless she wanted to (and it didn't involve me driving all over God's green earth every weekend or weekday).

Shutting out means not getting on teams for school. So yes, in this area where lots of kids are athletic, you can't walk into school and get a position on most if any teams. High School is very different then the "everyone gets a trophy" mentality parents try to instill in young ones. You aren't good, you don't make the team.

I don't think the parent is pushing but just trying to find something her child may like now or in the future. Nothing wrong with that.

Ugh. This does nothing to make me feel cheerful-er.

Anonymous wrote:Gosh, talk of being "shut out" of team sports as an adolescent sounds so sad to me.

What the hell are we doing to our kids? I would never want my kid to "specialize" in a sport unless she wanted to (and it didn't involve me driving all over God's green earth every weekend or weekday).

Shutting out means not getting on teams for school. So yes, in this area where lots of kids are athletic, you can't walk into school and get a position on most if any teams. High School is very different then the "everyone gets a trophy" mentality parents try to instill in young ones. You aren't good, you don't make the team.

I don't think the parent is pushing but just trying to find something her child may like now or in the future. Nothing wrong with that.

swimming, crew, water polo
track and field
volleyball
field hockey
karate

also some of it depends on whether she would eant to be on a high school sports team, or just play for fun. i think around here it is really hard to play on a high school sports team if you've never played the sport before.

Gosh, talk of being "shut out" of team sports as an adolescent sounds so sad to me.

What the hell are we doing to our kids? I would never want my kid to "specialize" in a sport unless she wanted to (and it didn't involve me driving all over God's green earth every weekend or weekday).

My DS does taekwondo. I see kids start at all different ages. Recreational swimming would probably be fine- she could swim on a team only in the summer if she doesn't want it to be too competitive.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
We are not into team sports. My 9 year old started ballet. I want him to try yoga as well.
He has a girl friend who started competitive gym at 10, but she had a ballet background.

Boys who are athletic and coordinated can start gymnastics late (up to 10-11 or so) and do well. There isn't a rush to beat puberty like there is for girls. There's a lot the boys can't do until they start developing bigger muscles around puberty.

Girls can start gymnastics at 10-11 also. If they like that sort of thing but don't want regular gymnastics, tumbling and trampoline might be a good option.

Also, fencing? Archery? Parkour? Swimming?

I can assure you that "every" 9 year old is not playing team sports. My 9 year old takes dance and gymnastics classes. Nothing competitive. She'll play soccer at school next year, and she's done some running. Being active is the key, not being competitive.