Playing sports: When did you start?
June 5, 2008 @ 2:39 p.m. by Joannaby joanna
As I was heating up my Healthy Choice french bread pizza — it’s not too bad, actually — I was talking to my co-worker about how I have two of my boys, 5 and 3, in swim lessons and T-ball. My 5-year-old plays T-ball, while my 3-year-old is in his first year, which is micro T-ball, essentially learning the fundamentals, playing games that have nothing to do with baseball and whining because it’s so hot (ooops, that’s me).
Anyway, my point is that assistant sports editor Tom Seals made the oh-so-snarky comment that “Caring parents wait to get their kids involved in organized sports when they’re 7″ or something like that. What I heard was “You are the worst parent ever for subjecting your child to sports at such a tender age.”
We’ve already decided that the boys won’t play basketball until they’re older — that’s pop’s decision, so as to prevent burnout. (We’re refusing to succumb to any of the mantras that they’ll be so far behind once they do start. They dribble and shoot because they want to, so there. They aren’t lifting weights. Yet. We’re not even considering holding them back a year so that we can be assured of a Division I scholarship to UCLA — if they stay in their current grades, they’ll just go to Southern Illinois, you know what I mean?)
OK, so what’s too young? When did your kids start? How about yourself? When did you play?
I didn’t play anything until I was in eighth grade, and that was basketball. I don’t blame my parents for not being the superstar athlete that I could have been. I was the youngest of five and my job was going to watch them play, not me playing. I do have a brother who’s still irked that he didn’t reach his full potential as a baseball player because mom and dad made us go on family vacations so he missed part of Little League baseball season (I realize how old this makes me — No. 1, family vacations. No. 2, choosing them over sports or having them not even related to a sports trip.)
As for my kids, we have them involved because it’s fun. Yes, we had a coach keep score in soccer and they all knew they were undefeated. But we do not care about winning or losing. It’s learning and having fun for at least several more years. As for swimming lessons, I sincerely doubt that they will be anything close to Olympic-caliber swimmers, but they will be safe in the water.
So there’s my info. Fill me in on yours.
June 5th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
I started T-Ball in 2nd grade. I don’t know how old I was, but those were the good’ol days. Having fun with your friends, running around together after the game was over, not caring what the score was. I started getting burned out on baseball when I was in middle school. I played baseball at Westurban and I was also on a MAYB team. Too much going on at one time. And then our high school just wasn’t very good at baseball. But I still played, going to camps and out of state tournaments. I think its good that they start young, as long as they are having fun and you don’t push them at all.
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June 5th, 2008 at 4:54 pm
One son started sports around 10, played a few years and is now a professional musician. My second son want to play baseball when he was three (and was watching sports before that). He is headed to college on a baseball scholorship. My two daughters have not shown any interest in sports.
I once read that you can’t tell what athletic potential a person has until after the age of 12. Based on what I have seen over the years, at younger ages it is always the biggest and fastest kid that is the best. By high school the athletisum then shows up and that is what takes them to the next step.
I say, if the child wants to play what ever age let them but make sure they understand, once you start the season you must finish the season and the coach is always right. I also feel that since you committed to a team you must show up to support the team.
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June 6th, 2008 at 9:31 am
Our son has been playing football since the first grade, it is his passion and he wishes he could play all year and will never get burned out. Basketball was a little later, maybe 4th grade, and of course t-ball before school started. Sports at an early age in opinion is great for kids, teaches them many great lessons.
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June 6th, 2008 at 11:29 am
I started when I was about 4 or 5 and that is about 55 years ago. Played any sport that I could. We grew up old school, you always keep score, no playing just for fun. My son started playing as soon as I could get him on a team and he loved it. My grandson is going on 4 and can hit a pitched ball, kick a football and is even messing with an 8 pound shot in the back yard. No matter what age you start a young person, teach them to run and run correctly, it is the foundation for all sports.
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June 6th, 2008 at 12:36 pm
When should someone start lifting weights to get bigger and stronger?
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June 6th, 2008 at 10:43 pm
How dare he make a snarky comment. I mean a rude or sarcastic comment would have been fine, but SNARKY. Oh no, that just won’t do.
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June 8th, 2008 at 7:04 pm
Is that sarcasm Lion’s Roar? Hmmm. Or do I need to define snarky for you? Or were you just trying to think of something funny to write and failed? (This is sarcasm Lion’s Roar. I hope you see that and we don’t suddenly have all-out war on this blog.)
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June 8th, 2008 at 9:38 pm
My husband and I have 3 daughters and son. With the girls being the oldest I didn’t want them to be into sports because I teach Physical Education and had to choose between my music and sports and at a young age chose sports….I miss my music even today.
So we put the girls into dance, piano and gymnastics around 3/4 years of age. As they got older (around 7-10) they wanted to play sports with their friends. I truely believe my daughters are better athletes today, with a stronger work ethic, more disciplined and injury free (knock on wood) because of their dance training when they were very young. This I would recommend to parents for boys and girls alike.
Our son wanted to start young to follow his sisters and started at the YMCA at 3 playing soccer, then West Urban tball at 4. He has been with the same group of boys and families for the past nine years as he is now 13. The only problem we ran into was that he didn’t like to overlap sports….when he was playing basketball he was playing basketball and didn’t want to start baseball during basketball or football during baseball so we would sit out some of the camps when we could to try to keep his mind at peace. He’s just now this summer able to overlap without stressing.
My opinion (for what it is worth) is to experience as much as you can with your child so you can be open to when their breaking point is and be sensative to their need to sometimes just be a kid.
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June 8th, 2008 at 9:51 pm
Deb,
I agree with the point you made, about how being in dance and gymnastics made your daughters better athletes. I thought it was interesting to learn the Eddie George, former NFL running back; took ballet when he was younger.
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June 9th, 2008 at 11:07 pm
Football is one that you have to start pretty early, for most kids. You have to learn terminology, positioning, and most of all - toughness. Starting at 1st grade seems crazy, but it’s good. My kid will struggle going into Middle School w/ only 1 year of experience. He’s not athlete enough to overcome the lack of practice and mental/physical toughness.
Baseball can be fun, early is okay, but too many people are playing 10 year old or less kids 60+ games a summer. That’s just stupid! Ask the WSU kids, they are exhausted from that many games and they are high level.
Hoops, good to start early, but too many teams run up and down the court as fast as possible and don’t get a fundamental thing accomplished.
Yeah, I’m a geezer.
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June 11th, 2008 at 3:14 pm
Geezer,
You don’t have to be playing competitive football to learn the terminology, positioning, or toughness. I would not put my kid (if I had one) in football at that young of age. Their bones are still maturing too much and for fear of injury I would keep them out. I had 1 year of experience before middle school football and did just fine. In fact, we lost only 1 game in middle. High school on the other hand is a completely different story. Coaching makes a world of difference.
I will agree with you for baseball, 60+ games a summer is crazy. Another issue with baseball is how early kids start throwing curve balls and mess up their arms.
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