What sports do your girls do

Having said my DD plays football, she has now tried out a competitive cycling club (she's only 8 so it's skills training and a bit of light pootling round the track), she's only gone once but it's fun and a friend of hers goes so I think she'll want to carry on.

My dd14 boxes, and has played football for the last 7 years. I’d highly recommend both. She also swam, but stopped when the only route forward was competitive.

Wow that's amazing!! Congratulations to your son!!

I do NOT recommend the sports my 12-year-old daughter chooses to do. After she tried most conventional sports, she unfortunately settled down on the most expensive ones:

Equestrian show jumping - absolutely the pain of my life and I am spending literally every penny on this (of which I don't have many!). I am now being put under immense pressure by my daughter and her trainer to get a second pony 🤦‍♀️

Skiing - thankfully she doesn't do it as seriously as horse riding otherwise I'd be completely bankrupt.

She also really loved rock climbing and wants to take that up again.

At school she's in the netball team, which I recommend 😀

My daughter does cheerleading which she really enjoys . She used to do gymnastics and dance which has helped her . It’s a team sport so not as bad if they don’t win etc .

Personally I wouldn't have moved her if she loved it.

My ds was always behind at swimming despite the number of hours training.

He stuck at it. Learnt resilience and actually learned that the training is part of the process compared to his peers who were winning medals from day one. Their motivation became medals which isn't what sporting bodies encourage at grass root sport.

He's just one a gold and 2 silvers at British champs.

Anyway I hope she enjoys netball but if she misses gymnastics and wants to return please consider it.

I'm a massive advocate of team sports. I coach at my local rowing club and it is so rewarding watching shy and unsure young kids grow in confidence and find themselves. We compete at local regattas so they all experience winning (and losing) together which are important lessons. Keeps them bloody fit too.

Has she found anything she likes yet @Tohaveandtohold?

My girls did ballet and dance with gymnastics (10 hours a week of gym). They eventually dropped the gym (they weren't getting a day off and had competitions on top, and it was expected to take priority over everything else. We chose a dance comp over a gym comp once and got into trouble).

Artistic did you say? You could move into rhythmic gymnastics, we tried that as less commitment was needed in terms of time. We kept the dance (teens still do ballet) and I'm going to stick my neck out and say it's easier to win medals in dance than in the gym comps, or it was for my DC.

My other child only ever did rec gym and ballet and does a lot of ballet now. I would recommend it, but it presents its own problems. Find a good school (definitely not just in results) and that's a start.

Middle dd did parkour for a few years, it's brilliant! Your dd might like it as there's a fair bit of cross over with gymnastics...they do flipping, corkscrews, handstands, swinging on bars etc

Mine did netball and basketball at that age 5 year later she only plays netball for the school but trains for basketball 3 times a week and plays at the weekend.

I've been thinking of getting DD into a sport now that we'll be stopping her swimming lessons but was also looking for something she could do competitively that didn't require an excessive time commitment.

How many hours practice across how many days do those of you with kids doing tennis have to practice to be able to participate in competitions etc?

My daughter is almost 7 and does netball, swimming and acro. Swimming is just lessons, not competitive. Netball is once a week for now and I think matches will start next year. Acro is really fun.
with your dd gym background maybe acro would work for her? Or acro dance?

My daughter is a gymnast, has done other sports alongside it but always went back to gym, her club had a team feel even though artistic was individual of course but that’s what kept her there, only now at 14 she’s ready to move to a different discipline snd has gone from 16 hours training to 6. She loved it though and if your daughter isn’t getting the joy from all those training hours it’s not worth it. What sports do her friends do? My daughter is now moving into climbing and cycling and really enjoying them

DD (10) is also a gymnast. It's her first love and she's been going since she just turned 4. She trains 9 hours a week and competes a few times a year. Some times she medals and others she doesn't but she handles it well. But she gains so much from gymnastics. She has the best group of friends there who are all so supportive of each other. It has made her strong and fit and she's constantly challenging herself. If your DD loves it and doesn't want to quit I don't understand why you want her to give it up. Things can change very quickly in gymnastics and next year she may well place in some competitions but that's not what it's about. It's about the love of the sport.

DD starting playing football last year which she equally loves. I love that she has a team sport too and it's a lot easier to watch a football match than a gymnastics competition! She also does Parkrun and runs cross country in school. I believe the gymnastics goes along way to helping her fitness it all sports.

DD does tennis and dance.

If she's going to continue with music school on a Saturday and you want to get her into a team sport, it needs to be one with matches on a Sunday. Around us that's hockey, rugby and boys' (mixed) football. The girls' football teams play on a Saturday but, at grassroots level, girls can play in boys' (mixed) teams.

You could look at different gymnastics disciplines such as Team Gym or Acro. The work and compete in groups for both.

Tennis is the main one for us, and riding starts next year. We go swimming and skiing as a family for fun. I wanted sports that they can enjoy recreationally in adulthood and that don’t have a reputation for giving girls a body image complex.

I have 9 year old girls. One plays an instrument, she has an hour weekly music lesson and spends 2 hours on Saturdays with her junior orchestra, which she loves.
Both of them belong to a swimming club and train twice a week (their coach as asked for more but I have said no)
They both play netball with a local team once a week.

I know an ex gymnast who got in to fencing - maybe that’s worth trying?

My dds do football, tennis and swimming (the one who enjoys ball sports) and ballet, jazz and contemporary (the one who hates ball sports and running around).

I'd agree that hockey would be good. I think they'd just be training now as the season doesn't start up again for a couple more months.

Cricket is another good one. Perhaps slightly better as there's a big focus on the rest of the team encouraging each other: cheering on the batsman/bowler and celebrating wickets, catches etc.

They're a good pair of sports to do as they have opposite seasons.

I also have an 8yo gymnast. She doesn’t do any other sports on a regular basis because of her gymnastics but she loves football, basketball and tennis, and when the time comes for gymnastics to go (which I presume it will at some point when the hours become too onerous) I will steer her towards football/basketball because I do think it’s lovely playing on a team.

She is also a very strong climber as mentioned by a PP and that’s quite a nice sport if your DD wants that confidence boost from medals because there aren’t generally many kids competing. (None of my kids have competed in climbing; we go as a family for fun, but I’ve heard this from other families.)

Finally cheer, modern dance and trampolining would all be good fits for a gymnast OR does her club have a performance team? That’s where a lot of the ‘retired’ competitive gymnasts from DD’s club go.

One does football and one rugby, but over the years have also done climbing, kayaking, cricket and then - through Scouts - lots of other things occasionally (archery, sailing, rowing, orienteering, stand up paddle boarding, canoeing, and l others I have forgotten).