Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Skip gymnastics at 5. Its not really geared toward boys. Dynamite is overpriced and crowded. Karate is probably your best bet at this point. Fencing does not start till age 7 in Montgomery County. You can do a trial class and see if he likes it. If he does, then you buy all the gear and continue. My son loves it. Swim is great but just know that he probably will only get to be on summer swim teams as the winter ones are very competitive and most kids have been swimming for several years once they hit 6 or so. Summer swim team is fun. Some of the county pools have it for really cheap but he has to be able to swim ok in the deep water alone (for the young ones ours has an older team member in there with them).

True of some winter swim teams, but not all. Some of the bigger ones have a developmental group for 8 & under and some also have a pre-team stroke improvement program that is run like a cross between team and lessons. Just look around a little.

We are on the RMSC one and its pretty serious and not at all lesson like. If he is that sensitive and not ok with loud or constant coach comments, he's better off in swim lessons vs. preteam. My kid is the middle of the pack. Its not for beginners.

OP, you need to do swim at least 2-3 a week and not just one 30 minute class to see improvement.

How about music? I know you are looking at sports, but genetically music may be a better fit.

Anonymous wrote:Skip gymnastics at 5. Its not really geared toward boys. Dynamite is overpriced and crowded. Karate is probably your best bet at this point. Fencing does not start till age 7 in Montgomery County. You can do a trial class and see if he likes it. If he does, then you buy all the gear and continue. My son loves it. Swim is great but just know that he probably will only get to be on summer swim teams as the winter ones are very competitive and most kids have been swimming for several years once they hit 6 or so. Summer swim team is fun. Some of the county pools have it for really cheap but he has to be able to swim ok in the deep water alone (for the young ones ours has an older team member in there with them).

True of some winter swim teams, but not all. Some of the bigger ones have a developmental group for 8 & under and some also have a pre-team stroke improvement program that is run like a cross between team and lessons. Just look around a little.

My son is not athletic and has always hated PE at school. We enrolled him in a mixed-style boys dance class at a ballet studio when he was 5 and he loved it! He is now 8 and takes ballet and jazz 4 days a week.

Same kid here too, first grade.

Martial arts, hip hop, golf and basketball at the playground. Also loves swimming and bike riding. Running on indoor or outdoor tracks too.

Oh, OT is over rated. We did it. It was good for specific things like holding a pencil and our insurance covered it but otherwise it was a waste of time.

Skip gymnastics at 5. Its not really geared toward boys. Dynamite is overpriced and crowded. Karate is probably your best bet at this point. Fencing does not start till age 7 in Montgomery County. You can do a trial class and see if he likes it. If he does, then you buy all the gear and continue. My son loves it. Swim is great but just know that he probably will only get to be on summer swim teams as the winter ones are very competitive and most kids have been swimming for several years once they hit 6 or so. Summer swim team is fun. Some of the county pools have it for really cheap but he has to be able to swim ok in the deep water alone (for the young ones ours has an older team member in there with them).

My son is older than yours and never liked team sports. He loves Tae Kwon Do and I would look at reviews of the place and how they are with children before deciding between karate and twd. We picked our place because of good reviews and convenience. We weren't looking for serious competition when he first started.

DS tried fencing and liked the introduction class. He would have continued but it was too much and too expensive since he wanted to continue with tkd.

Another idea is Boy Scouts. I was very anti-scouts for years for personal reasons. After a couple of years he had good friends in a troop and he wanted to join. He did and ours has been great. It's really age appropriate active activities and they get together almost once a week for something. It was nothing like I thought but I hear it can vary by school.

OP here: thanks to everyone for these great tips. It is good to see that there are others who have similar children and they have managed somehow to interest them in sports.

Here is my game plan - I think we will try the following activities:
- Swimming: we are already working on learning to swim and he likes it. So we will persist and maybe once he really figures it out, he will like the sport itself and want to be on a swim team.
- Martial arts: this is a great idea and we will try it. What is the difference between karate and TKD? We are NW DC and can travel to Bethesda if needed.
- Dance: another good idea. We tried a salsa class once but the music was too loud for my DS. A ballet class may be more up his alley so thanks for those recommendations.
- Fencing: ? I will have to ask around about this. I have very little idea how this works or what the kids do and whether it would be a good fit.

I may also investigate doing six months or so of OT. As long as the prices are not astronomical, it probably can't hurt.

And to the PP who suggested doing more sports with him in the backyard, we will try to improve in this area. Admittedly, it is not our forte. DH is a classical musician who was awkward at sports himself (and frankly doesn't really care). I was a collegiate athlete but I find it really hard to work with DS on sports since he is so uncoordinated and I can't relate to that situation. Also, he doesn't like sports so it is a trying process....

I don't think that I will try gymnastics because it sounds chaotic which is really hard for him. Also, he panics when he is put on the spot to do anything. He is very sensitive and gets stage fright in almost any situation. This is why baseball has been so hard -- he can't hit the ball and he knows it and he feels very self conscious about this. And despite what everyone has says, the baseball league here in NW DC is NOT T ball for his age group (they throw the ball) and most of the kids actually can hit the ball, unlike my DS. I don't care if he hits the ball or not if he is having fun. But he does, and that is why he hates going to baseball.

Thanks again!

Anonymous wrote:we did a fair amount of OT for our not so coordinated DS. They usually recommend tae kwon do, gymnastics, or swimming (many insurance plans don't cover any OT costs or minimal). I'd start with TKD which also helps with confidence/self esteem often. We actually switched over to doing PT for coordination at some point, focusing on some basic sports skills. That said, DS turned out to be no less coordinated seeming at baseball than other kids in K or 1st - where only a couple of them seem like they are actually doing something that resembles BB. If you are close to DC, and he's interested in BB - also check out Homerun baseball camps - where they do lots of instruction vs. free form teams.

Also meant to mention, in TKD they often do 'dodge ball' running around too at that age - so they get that kind of activity too.

we did a fair amount of OT for our not so coordinated DS. They usually recommend tae kwon do, gymnastics, or swimming (many insurance plans don't cover any OT costs or minimal). I'd start with TKD which also helps with confidence/self esteem often. We actually switched over to doing PT for coordination at some point, focusing on some basic sports skills. That said, DS turned out to be no less coordinated seeming at baseball than other kids in K or 1st - where only a couple of them seem like they are actually doing something that resembles BB. If you are close to DC, and he's interested in BB - also check out Homerun baseball camps - where they do lots of instruction vs. free form teams.

How about a dance class? Tap, jazz, hip-hop, African, ballet?

If distance works, do agility classes at Dynamite in Rockville. It's awesome. Fun, he'll get stronger, and the only person he'll be competing against is himself.

Swimming lessons. Useful skill amd fun.

Anonymous wrote:Try tennis or swimming.

There is no point in trying tennis at that age. Signed, a college scholarship tennis player.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd try chess. Great sport for nerdy kids.

Yeah, really helpful with getting her DS more active...

Actually it is - its a game of one on one strategy which translates perfectly to a fencing match or a tennis match etc.

But her problem is getting him active... Like, OK, someday maybe he'll be marginally better at fencing or tennis if he starts to excel at chess, but that's not really the issue she's looking to solve in the short term. Fencing and tennis would be better suggestions (and, unsurprisingly, have been suggested).