How to help your child be better at sports

Spike Li wrote:

The best thing to do is to avoid all organized and formal sports until AT LEAST age 10. 12 even. Seriously, let your kid be a kid without competition when they are little. Take them to the park, play with them, play catch, tag, hide and seek, etc. You spending time with them in active play is the best thing for them both physically & emotionally.

This

Pre841 wrote:

Coordination can be gained from simple activities such as wall ball (by herself or with another).

Hand to eye, feet, movement etc are easily gained from something so simple. All she needs is a rubber ball and a wall.

Funny. I spent quite a bit of time throwing a rubber ball against a brick wall as a kid and agree that it will teach good, basic athletic skills. A tennis ball or racquetball is good. I would even break out those small rubber crazy balls that were very hard to catch. Doing this not only teaches eye hand coordination but also throwing skills and how to use angles to put the ball where you want it (bouncing the ball off the ground then the wall to get different trajectories off the wall)

I lived out in the country and didn't always have friends around to play with, no video games, and only 4 channels on TV forced creativity.

Simple games of pitch and catch with your kid will go a long way helping develop skills also.

gymnastics and jumping rope are good ones. play soccer (keep away especially) and basketball (on a short hoop) with her for coordination. run with her. These are good activities for building coordination and strength, as is swimming.

you can tell the people who are actually parents by their answers

Spike Li wrote:

The best thing to do is to avoid all organized and formal sports until AT LEAST age 10. 12 even. Seriously, let your kid be a kid without competition when they are little. Take them to the park, play with them, play catch, tag, hide and seek, etc. You spending time with them in active play is the best thing for them both physically & emotionally.

I kinda have to agree with this. I've seen my friends chase sports all over the SE with travel teams all with the big payoff supposedly being the chance for a college scholarship... I don't know one that has landed one yet.

Many of their kids quit the sport before HS, much less college. In all but a few sports the REAL athletes separate themselves around late middle school into HS. All that crap you did when they were 6-11 was a wasted effort (IF you did it thinking there'd be a "payoff".)

There's a line between exposing your kid to sports and drilling them with it. Usually folks cross the line.

Just about everything you posted is 100% wrong.

TRW wrote:

Been coaching youth sports for 20 years. Have your child participate in a variety of sports as soon as she's willing. There's a huge carryover benefit to playing multiple sports. In other words, the time she spends playing soccer will enable her to pick up lacrosse, basketball, field hockey, etc. much faster. I've found generally the best players at any sport in high school tended to be the ones that were multi sport athletes in their elementary and middle school years.

Correlation != Causation

They are good at multiple sports because they are more athletic than the other kids, no matter the age.

Working with a professional pediatric occupational therapist is a good first step. Being involved is a good second step and letting you child have unstructured play time a third.

Thanks again for all of the input. I was thinking about checking with an occupational therapist too. She had one when she was young, but when she changed schools she stopped seeing her. There is lots of good advice in this thread. Thank you.

yogiyogurt wrote:

rffdccwe wrote:

False, imo.

10 or 12? At LEAST? Get real.

Play tag with mommy or daddy????

I guess you're trolling (and probably the OP too).

Failure to practice a sport until 10 or 12 ensures in most cases you will never play it. Period.

HS sports are very competitive and unless you have a solid youth background in a given sport(s), you ain't playing. Thats a fact. Except no cut sports like XC maybe. Sure, odd kids are gifted but most need to get on-board early.

HS's around here have 1500-2500 kids. Chances of making the basketball team are nil to start with. Now, dont practice until you're 12. Play tag with mommy. LMAO

Just about everything you posted is 100% wrong.

How? Specifically?

I've been around sports as a participant and coach for a good while. I'm not some retarded millennial as typically posts here.

Your post may be relevant if the OP wanted his daughter to make a varsity team at a large HS but that isn't what he is asking.

Basic athletic skills are developed in children by playing. That simple. No militant training regimen required. It can start with the parents then progress to playing pick up games with friends.

Sounds like you missed out on a lot of fun as a kid.

Perfect example of the saying that goes 'To a hammer, everything looks like a nail.'

First, don't coddle her. Don't tell her she can't do anything that other 6 years olds are doing. Sign her up for soccer and basketball year round, put a basketball hoop in the backyard, buy her a bicycle and a scooter and some hockey gear. When she's 12-13 you can take her out of sports and let her decide if she wants to continue or move on. Those developmental years of running on grass and basketball coordination, both in a team sports environment will give her both running form, endurance and hand eye coordination. Plus, they're fun!

Coach smoach wrote:

Your post may be relevant if the OP wanted his daughter to make a varsity team at a large HS but that isn't what he is asking.

Basic athletic skills are developed in children by playing. That simple. No militant training regimen required. It can start with the parents then progress to playing pick up games with friends.

Sounds like you missed out on a lot of fun as a kid.

Perfect example of the saying that goes 'To a hammer, everything looks like a nail.'

WTF happened to you all as children that leads you to associate words like "militant" with youth sports? Jeez, I'm sorry you were so traumatized, but for many millions of people like me, sports were actually fun.

this is another one of those questions that needs some idea of the posters background to be able to evaluate their answer.

I've never been picked last, occasionally first and always in the first 50-60%.

If someone has a background in being pick last I'd value their answer higher than the typical Lets Run athlete that always gets picked first.

Maybe sports just isn't her thing.

Let it go.

Coach smoach wrote:

Your post may be relevant if the OP wanted his daughter to make a varsity team at a large HS but that isn't what he is asking.

Basic athletic skills are developed in children by playing. That simple. No militant training regimen required. It can start with the parents then progress to playing pick up games with friends.

Sounds like you missed out on a lot of fun as a kid.

Perfect example of the saying that goes 'To a hammer, everything looks like a nail.'

But I was not replying to the OP, I did that in another post, I was replying to a different poster.

To your point, sure, no argument, but most kids *already* "play" they don't need to be told that. They run amok at any opportunity. Particularly boys.

ANd I never suggested "militant" I agreed with another poster on "travel teams" for instance.

I'm merely advocating that for kids (or parents) with aspirations beyond youth league sports, they would be wise engaging in organized instruction by, and probably before, age 10. Especially team sports.

Every year or level in sports things get more competitive and unless a kid is unusually talented, it gets more and more difficult to break in, or be a starter, or be a star (whatever your aspirations are).

rffdccwe wrote:

Sorry, I don't actually think you are trolling...

Maybe some tumbling or gymnastics or trampoline classes or training? It seems to me, engaging in activities that address gross motor skills and strength would be better than, for example, joining a baseball team (or T-ball at that age).

Dont put the cart before the horse I guess is my suggestion. Especially if she is already short on coordination and strength.

Might also consider swimming. Most kids are very weak in their upper body and I have seen swim team participation transform kids, in one summer, from being unable to swim a length to looking like they are cut from granite.

+1. I agree with the tumbling/gymnastics/trampoline. This has worked great for my 9 year old daughter. Plus we've done a little bit of running.

She is already struggling so why would you want to kick things up a notch?

If your legs are beat up from jogging 10 miles a week do you join a marathon program?

The cream rises to the top. Athletics is a meritocracy. Around puberty kids that have athletic ability separate themselves from the kids who's parents trucked them off to baseball practice every day, hired their kid a hitting coach, and sent them off on travel teams.

if your kid ends up being 5'6 125 lbs, it won't matter how many youth basketball camps he attended as a 8 yr old, he will not play HS basketball.

I think there is great value in exposing children to lots of different sports, but at some point biology will dictate what sport they are best suited.