Which Sport for a balanced life?!

@XelaM parental experience should definitely be taken into account when your child chooses a sport.
Our Rugby club does the best fry up or bacon rolls on a Sunday morning and then the bar is open for hot, soft, alcoholic drinks (and soup on cold evenings) for training.

Much better than vending machine coffee at the local pool when DD swam.

Swimming took less of a toll on my washing machine though.

Come join us… first ones on me 🤣

Socially being a cricket parent (sitting on a bench outside the club house with a G&T on a hot summers evening) is much nicer than a 9am Saturday morning at the local recreation ground in winter!!!!

Try 5am at a muddy livery yard in the freezing cold and pouring rain 🙈

My daughter clearly picked the wrong sport! Would love to sip G&Ts at a cricket ground in the summer 😭

Haven’t read the whole thread so maybe someone has already said cricket. Clubs tend to train only the summer ( extra winter indoor sessions can also be attended when they are a bit older) and once they start playing matches it is summer only.

Clubs are desperate for girls so she will get more opportunities to play in the A team than a boy would, there is less competition but the training is still excellent. Socially being a cricket parent (sitting on a bench outside the club house with a G&T on a hot summers evening) is much nicer than a 9am Saturday morning at the local recreation ground in winter!!!!

Yes it is a choice to some extent.

but IME kids who drop to lower hours because they want a year to focus on GCSE’s or A’levels etc are inevitably dropped from national squads etc

it’s a cut throat world- it’s not only about performance and results it’s about being seen to be committed to the training hours, and there are no compromises for education.

ds’s sport many are home schooled if they reach national squad standard that early, or even just deemed to have the potential to reach that standard. High performance training is full time, so they need to be available in the daytime, and be able to attend multiple domestic and international training camps, and attend monitoring appointments. That also rules out uni. Or at least any demanding degree.

all of DS’s peers have either made the choice to train full time, or have sacrificed academic potential. I don’t know anyone who isn’t doing a sports science degree which fits around trying.

some are going to the US for NCAA and uni. But it’s a GB policy that if you can’t attend all GB camps and selected comps you are off the squad. Even though many other countries compete NCAA and for their country.

lottery funding has given NGB’s a shit load of power to control how, when and what athletes train and do. Go against them, you lose your funding and your place.

Any sport if you are national level requires lots of training hours.

Good clubs will have different streams for their participants to follow. If you are national level the truth is you have to maintain the training to compete at that level but if you don't want to then chose a squad with a lower training requirement and enjoy that - just don't blame the club/ coaches that you've dropped your training to meet your needs and aren't then performing at the level they've proven you can do with a training programme they've said needs to be adhered to to meet that.
Also don't complain you can't remain in a national squad if you aren't willing to commit to the criteria.

My sons a swimmer. I don't recognise any of the negative experiences described here.

His club had 2 streams. Some swimmers swap on exam years - some continue to qualify for nationals but many don't. They've chosen a lesser number of hours training. They know they can't have it all. And that's fine.

It's not the hours of training expected for elite level that's the problem imo it's people wanting to be or remain elite level but not commit to the requirements of training for that.

It really does depend on the club, that isn’t my experience.

I was going to say rugby too, it's much less full on than other sports until they get to U13s in my experience. Mid week training isn't even a thing until close to secondary and boys and girls play together until that point too. Much less faff than football until they're a good bit older.

Avoid gymnastics, it's brilliant but can be very time consuming (like swimming!)

I would say netball. My daughter plays in a school and county club. She trains once a week and plays matches on Sundays. The elite netball squads are fantastic to go and watch - good for body image as lots of shapes and sizes, good sportsmanship and very encouraging of younger girls who look up to them. A lovely non-toxic sport from what I’ve seen so far!

I was going to suggest surf life saving too, it’s a really friendly sport, depends on your location though!

not horse riding - if they compete it starts to take over all your weekends which highly antisocial hours! And is extremely expensive.

Out of all the sports my kids do or have done (riding, netball, rugby, swimming club, tennis, gymnastics, surf life saving) I have to say rugby has the nicest most laidback community feel to it.

Not sure if you are wanting training or a hobby. I imagine training is always quite heavy going and sounds like quite a lot for a 6 year old. How about a hobby like judo or tai kwando (spelling) until she decides for herself what she's really interested in.

Running, particularly track, is great for life balance. There is little investment needed, facilities are plentiful and usually close by, and you can do a lot of your training just going out of your front door. Most importantly sprint and middle distance don't have huge volumes of training (unlike many endurance sports). You can become a very track fast runner on comparatively little amount of training, compared to a distance runner who has to put in hours. The same is true of track cycling and BMX compared to the other cycling disciplines, but obviously for that you need to live near a velodrome or BMX track.

I coach cycling, and while at your daughter's age it is just fun really, it gets serious quite quickly, with expensive kit, a lot of travel if you want to compete, and a lot of time in training (often hours at home on a smart trainer).

Maybe rugby. At 6 our local club just do Sunday mornings at that age and it’s only tag. Lots go and it looks like they have great fun. My dd is now 11 and he trains one night a week and then it’s either training or matches on a Sunday morning so it’s not too much. Dd dances competitively (solo and troupe) and the hours are horrendous, plus you’re expected to attend extra at a drop of a hat near comp time. It totally takes over so I definitely wouldn’t recommend it.

Athletics they will encourage her to try everything until she is at least 11, so she will get all rounded training (sprints, middle distance, throws, jumps). However, most clubs don't take juniors until they are 8. She can do junior parkrun on Sundays now which she may enjoy.

At 6, the most important thing is that she continues to enjoy being active and works on functional and soft skills (which could ultimately translate to success in a number of sports) - so on her swimming stroke, on her flexibility, balance, coordination, speed, endurance, hand-eye coordination, throwing and catching, hitting a ball, listening, following instructions and communicating, teamwork.

She's still very young to specialise in any sport (except for maybe gymnastics and tennis), and many people who ultimately become professional sports people will continue to build fitness and functional skills in a number of sports until they are at least 10 or 11. Focus on fun and her trying lots of things she loves at the moment. There's no rush to find "her sport" and she needs to have the opportunity to find that for herself as she matures and develops her personality.

Hockey. All three of my kids play, plus DH and myself. In fact I play in an adult team with my daughters now.
They all started at about 6 or 7. My DH has played his whole life and I picked it up again about 13 years ago.

It's truly unisex so plenty of social opportunities, it's fun, great for mental health and making friends and keeps you fit. It's also polite and well-mannered generally - something which football isn't great at.

Training when they are young is about 1.5 hours a week (once a week), with some weekend tournaments during the winter with very little during the summer. This tends to stay the same as they get older, or can increase as much or as little as you want.

My daughters now for example do junior training, ladies training, school training, Indoor training and County training. Plus ladies and junior matches at the weekend. But they are all now older teens now and love the social side of it.

They also now help out with coaching and umpiring and so earn some money from that too.

Athletics ! If she enjoys running she might enjoy park run / fun runs - there are junior park runs too which she would be well suited too which are 2k. Our local junior park runs are fun, welcoming and very social. Some kids take it seriously ( Eg getting a course record ) but equally I have watched plenty run in costume too . She might enjoy running enough to join an athletics club ( many have junior sessions) where she might enjoy any track distance or cross country but also other events like long jump , throws, etc

the great thing about athletics and running is that it is relatively cheap in comparison to other sports - most kids have trainers - and events like park run are free. My daughter was spotted at a park run by an athletics coach who asked her to consider joining the athletics club . She is now a high level athlete with a uni sports scholarship . For full disclosure she actually started doing park runs etc because she entered a fun kids triathlon with some friends and we found she was a very fast runner . She loved doing triathlon until she decided to focus on track athletics . So I second the poster who suggested triathlon .

running and athletics should not take over life at a young age ( and no early starts like the swimmers ) - so that’s another plus point and most schools . There are plenty of options to compete at what ever level as well.

@MusicMum80s I had one like yours! We found her a multi-sport club which she did on Saturday mornings (they also had sessions on Sunday mornings). 9-12 at her age, 9-1pm when she was a bit older. She did a load of sports such as hockey, softball, cricket, athletics, football, TAG rugby, badminton. But also had the chance to try a few slightly different sports: martial arts, archery, cheer, trampolining etc.

She ended up representing her secondary school (or club) at 11 different sports without ever getting to county level in any of them. Suited her personality perfectly.

Have a look at martial arts, there are so many benefits - discipline, coordination, balance and flexibility to name a few.

My DC do a MA called Kuk Sool Won, DD started at 7 and now, aged 9.5 will be joining the next black belt cycle in the autumn. There are opportunities to compete if they want to, but it doesn’t become compulsory until you enter a black belt cycle, and even then you only have to compete once per cycle (each cycle takes a minimum of 2 years to complete).
Her younger brother started last year aged 5 and is up to his yellow belt so far, if he moves up belts at the average pace he will enter the black belt cycle when he is 8.

@HoisttheMainSail we’ll have to agree to disagree on this one!

I said " you can't go into GCSEs doing sport and music and drama and art and Scouts etc" because the average child cannot do all of them. Even an exceptional child can't do all of them to a very high standard, and I get the impression that the OP's daughter may be pretty high achieving and wants to do well.

You can do some of them at 15/16, probably even two or three, but not all of them.

Or you can maybe do more of them but not to a particularly high standard?
😁

@HoisttheMainSail why do you say ‘sadly you can't go into GCSEs doing sport and music and drama and art and Scouts etc

of course you can! Music outside of school helps with the music gcse, gcse PE needs 3 sports - 1 of which needs to be individual, Scouts is ideal preparation for the DofE expeditions.

our ds does all of this and is on track for 13 A /A* in his GCSEs

IME girls football is very inclusive and generally one training. Session in the week and a match at weekends. Ditto rugby. Any team sport really tends to be twice a week max at this age. DS is just increasing training for football now at U12.

IME anything a bit niche/less common tends to be more laidback but it depends on what is available where you live eg fencing, fives, skiing (dry slope/artificial snow).