Are "sports" worth it at 3? - Page 2

[Mirzam]

Originally Posted by LynnS6 

Ds started organized sports at 8-9, and he was just fine. Yes, he had some catching up to do, but the leagues (even Little League) weren't so competitive that he couldn't catch up. He learned much faster at 9 than he would have at 7, so IMO, it's a wash. Now, my kids are never going to be elite athletes, so it's not important for them to get into club soccer or baseball at that level. I also firmly believe that it's not developmentally appropriate to have highly trained athletes by 2nd grade. Furthermore, if your child has athletic talent and does physical things, they'll catch on to the skills of whatever sport even if they don't have 1-1 coaching.

As I said in my post above, with soccer (don't know enough about baseball to comment), leaving it to nine is way too late even if the child is a gifted athletic, they just aren't going to be able to develop the required technical skills to be a high level competitive player. I do have an observation about an other sport though. My DS, who is an extremely gifted athlete, participated in a two hour cricket training session in England this summer. My DS has never played cricket before and had no clue how to bat or bowl. However, he was able to pick some of the techniques pretty quickly and he did extremely well, bowing especially is a very difficult technique to master. But unless he gets intensive training (which obviously he won't because no one that I know of teaches cricket around here!) he could never become a good cricketer. Interestingly, he was the best at catching and throwing the ball of any of the boys in the group.

I also somewhat disagree with you about it being developmentally inappropriate for 2nd graders to be highly trained athletes, it really depends on the child and the sport. But I do think the most important thing is that that 2nd grader is having fun, if it isn't fun, then it certainly isn't developmentally appropriate.

[LynnS6]

Originally Posted by Mirzam 


As I said in my post above, with soccer (don't know enough about baseball to comment), leaving it to nine is way too late even if the child is a gifted athletic, they just aren't going to be able to develop the required technical skills to be a high level competitive player. I do have an observation about an other sport though.

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I also somewhat disagree with you about it being developmentally inappropriate for 2nd graders to be highly trained athletes, it really depends on the child and the sport. But I do think the most important thing is that that 2nd grader is having fun, if it isn't fun, then it certainly isn't developmentally appropriate.

Two things: I'm not saying "don't do any sports". I'm saying start with classes. If your child is a gifted athlete, you'll find out in classes by 3-4. Then enrolling them in leagues at 5 might make sense. For most children, it doesn't. I can't tell you how many kids on dd's t-ball team were out in the field playing with the dirt when they weren't up to bat. It was NOT fostering a love of the sport, except for maybe 2-3 kids. 

In order to become a highly trained athlete, you need to focus a lot of time and energy on that sport. If children are focusing on a sport at age 6-7, they're not out there playing and learning. There are programs out there that will have 7 year olds practicing 10-20 hours a week. Really?? Yes, gymnasts and some swimmers do better if they start young. I think it's a shame to focus on one thing to the exclusion of others at such a young age. 

[Mirzam]

Originally Posted by LynnS6 

Two things: I'm not saying "don't do any sports". I'm saying start with classes. If your child is a gifted athlete, you'll find out in classes by 3-4. Then enrolling them in leagues at 5 might make sense. For most children, it doesn't. I can't tell you how many kids on dd's t-ball team were out in the field playing with the dirt when they weren't up to bat. It was NOT fostering a love of the sport, except for maybe 2-3 kids. 

In order to become a highly trained athlete, you need to focus a lot of time and energy on that sport. If children are focusing on a sport at age 6-7, they're not out there playing and learning. There are programs out there that will have 7 year olds practicing 10-20 hours a week. Really?? Yes, gymnasts and some swimmers do better if they start young. I think it's a shame to focus on one thing to the exclusion of others at such a young age. 

First, I don't think sport is only for gifted athletes it should be for everyone regardless of their potential and level, if they want to play. Children as young as five, whatever their perceived potential ability should not be in organized competitive sport, IMO. There should be absolutely no competing at that age, it should be all about learning and having fun. So what it they are out playing in the dirt and not batting, it doesn't matter. The only people that it seems to matter to are the adults. 

Yes, to become a world class athlete you do need many hours of focused training, as I mentioned at least 10,000. While I don't condone having kids at 6 or 7 training hard, gymnastics really is the only sport that comes to mind where this happens because there is so much they need to master at a young age. Competitive gymnastics is not for everyone and it takes great commitment. My niece is 7 and is in a serious gymnastics program, though she certainly isn't training 20 hours a week yet.  She wants to be there, she loves it, if it ever becomes too much for her or she stops wanting it, I know my sister and BIL would pull her, or put her in a less demanding program immediately.

Sports like soccer do not require a child as young as 6 or 7, 8, 9 or 10 for that matter, to focus on that to the exclusion of anything else, in fact this is a bad thing and for many would result in burn-out. They do not need to be in a competitive environment, like on a travel team, in many cases this is detrimental to their development as there is way too much pressure on little kids to win. Winning games and developing skills can be at odds with one another. At a young age, to win games you need big, fast kids that can out run and out muscle their opponents, no skill involved. Young soccer players do need to be taught the proper technical skills at age 6 or 7 though, but that doesn't take 10 hours a week. Two or three is more than plenty, then let them play in the back yard with a ball. Unfortunately, the US has a winning mentality when it comes to youth sports which is actually detrimental to a young child's development and I wish that would change. 

I don't think we are really disagreeing. I have been immersed as a parent in youth soccer for several years now and know how bad most of it is out there. I am sure baseball is just as horrendous.