We struggle with this everyday. When my oldest was one-year-old, I ran into an old family friend who told me her daughter used to play volleyball but kind of got bullied by one of the girls and ended up quitting. Without the structure of volleyball practice, she said her daughter got all new friends, her grades dropped, and she was clearly making wrong choices. My friends forced her daughter to join the golf team and things improved. Before hearing this, I already kind of believed in extra-curricular activities but this story fully convinced me that my kids are always going to do something…anything. I lean more toward sports because that’s just my nature but anything they are interested in is fine with me. So from a very young age we’ve made them do something.
So what is the right thing? And, more specifically for 1379, what is the right sport for your kid? When your kids are younger, focus on sports that encourage hand-eye coordination like soccer, baseball, golf. Sportball has some great programs for kids that introduce them to several different sports. Other great things to expose them to are activities that encourage discipline, balance, and flexibility like dance, gymnastics, and martial arts. The great thing about programs in these areas for the really young is that it’s easy to make it fun — dance like the Disney princesses, gymnastics is putting definition to everyday yard play, and martial arts are a disciplined form of their living room wrestling.
Avoid high-impact sports because your kids’ little muscles and bones still need to grow. If your kids learn how to balance, the discipline of being an athlete, that trying new sports is expected, and that exercise is fun, they will be better off as they enter junior high and high school and are exposed to more team and a full spectrum of high-impact sports.
