Kids have plenty of options these days when it comes to sports — there are sports that involve bats and balls (baseball and softball), sports that involve a lot of running (soccer), and even non-traditional sports that have recently become more “mainstream” (skate boarding). As you might expect, some kids become overwhelmed by all of this and aren’t quite certain what sports are best suited to their personality and interest. This decision can be especially challenging for parents if they themselves never played the sports being considered (and therefore feel as though they don’t know how to help their child) – and it can also be a little intimidating for parents who feel they might make the wrong move and set their kid behind others should he or she later want to pick up the sport (with so many kids specializing these days it’s easy to feel behind if you don’t choose the right sport from the start).
While there is no perfect system to follow that ensures you are directing your child to the right sport(s), there are questions you can ask to help determine what sports might work best.
- Does your child like to run and burn off energy? If so, try a sport like soccer.
- Does your child struggle with being “perfect?” If so, be careful with sports like baseball where failure is a regular occurrence (and there are plenty of statistics to deal with, too).
- Does your child like physical contact? If so, football provides plenty!
- Does your child shy away from contact with other athletes? If so, perhaps try a sport like gymnastics
- Does your child like precision and finesse? If so, golf might be a great fit.
The questions above are not meant to make decisions for you, but they can help guide the conversation so that your child is fully aware of what he or she might be getting into with the new sport. It’s also important for parents to “flush out” what the sport really entails – in other words, some kids might be drawn to the allure of fancy football uniforms and helmets, but then be quickly surprised at the physical contact involved with the sport.
It’s tough enough to figure out what sport or sports are best for your child, but even after you go through the selection process you will then be faced with a new set of questions around sport intensity — recreation or travel?? We’ll save that discussion for another time later this spring.
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