How did you choose sports/activities for your young children?

[7Worfs]

DS3 is currently doing only rugby (as far as you can call it rugby at that age), and has been on a waiting list for swimming for ages - I hope we make the cut by the time he starts school in 2023.

I think in the next few years we can start introducing him to more sports and clubs, but I am just not too sure how to choose and not get it wrong. This concern only came to me this week, as I was watching him kick a ball around with DH and noticed he really likes it and shows decent control of the ball. I checked for football classes and they clash with the rugby club. Now I'm torn about it, what if I choose the 'wrong' sport for him, whilst he is still too young to choose for himself?

Did you take any particular approach when selecting for your children, e.g.:

• wait for them to show aptitude/interest
• sign them up for lots of things and see what they enjoy and want to do more of
• sign them up for the more popular activities or those that are well invested in in your area?

Sign them up to loads of introductory sessions to try things out. The governing bodies of tennis, cricket and squash all do cheap introductory courses for young kids for roughly age 5-8. Local football teams will usually do tasters as well, plus once in school they get to try lots of sports. Most preschool type sessions will be very expensive, but once they hit 5 there are loads of cheaper options.

My daughter has been with the same sports club for nearly 10 years. She started this sport rather than anything else as the classes were a convenient time on a Saturday morning.

Honestly that was the deciding factor!

I am overthinking it, BrushWall 😁
It's a combination of PFB syndrome and thinking about my own childhood - I was pretty much left to self-manage my school performance and activities, which had its positives and negatives.
Just hoping to hear how others choose from the myriad of options available these days.

We started my DS in martial arts because he was a power rangers fan and was doing karate kicks all the over the house and to his little brother😂
Sounds a ridiculous reason really but 2 years on he absolutely loves it!

Swimming was a non negotiable because it’s an important life skill so that was first on the list when DD turned 3. She expressed a vague interest in ballet and I knew a teacher who ran a very informal class so she does that too, but definitely does not have a future as a dancer!

When she starts reception I’ll just play it by ear. Might see if she wants to try tennis as there’s a club in the next street and I know they do holiday clubs.

I signed my DC1 up for lots and see what she liked. Now she is 7 and doing ballet, swimming and multi-sports. DC2 is too young for sports.
i was always very keen on swimming as that’s such a crucial life skill. The rest I am fine if she stops doing something (she also did a term of football, other dance classes etc).

oznia that's great, it was meant to be!

solarbirdscalm thank you, I'll make a note to look out for intro sessions, good to know 5 onwards is the more appropriate starting age

Katy123g I think you spotted early signs of passion and aptitude, not ridiculous at all! :)

BobbinHood / AdriannaP Same for swimming, I really hope we make the cut as it's such an important skill - the waiting list is so long.

I waited until ds announced at 5 that he wanted to learn karate. And I booked him swimming lessons (a necessary life skill) at 6.

Since then he's been pretty clear on what he wants to do. 🙂

DS does a combination of sports I like, sports DH likes, and whatever is offered in afterschool club on the days we work late

So he does Rugbytots because DH and I both like watching rugby and neither of us fancied the crazy competitive football squad in the park (trials for the three year olds to get into the squad). He does swimming because I love the water and everyone needs to swim - luckily he now loves it too. Gymnastics because school offered it and he loved it, then when school stopped offering it we found a class elsewhere. Doesn’t seem to be enjoying it as much now though, so I’m considering dropping it.

We do tots tennis off and on (go to holiday clubs etc) because I play and he seems to like it. He comes ice skating with me when I go but not to formal lessons. Occasional yoga class (did it at nursery and enjoys it). Art club and taekwando at school, and has done dance, science club and gardening club in other terms.

My philosophy is to let them try loads of things, but if they hate them let them stop. I can predict fairly well what DS will enjoy and what he won’t - wouldn’t enjoy formal music lessons at this age, for example, which is a pity but he just wouldn’t. Hates being “wrong”. Likes messing about on the piano though.

MintJulia That's good to know, 5 seems to be a good age to start trying activities with their input

Changechangychange Sounds like a good approach - I also want to sign up DS to a musical instrument (likely a piano), hopefully he hasn't inherited mine and DHs tin ears

My little boy does a rugby class on a Saturday morning - we actually wanted to sign him up for football but the waiting list was too long whereas rugby he got straight in so that decided it. Swimming because it is a life skill and really important to learn, although we may drop it once he starts swimming lessons at school. He wants to do martial arts as I think he likes the idea of aiming kicks and wearing a white suit!

My daughter does modern (used to do ballet as well but dropped it) as it's offered at her school as an after school activity. And art because she loves it and is showing some talent for it.

Swimming they both had to do as it's a life skill.

Eldest begged me for ages to do ballet when she was 4, then after a while wanted to do tap and modern too. Then wanted to do gymnastics so she stopped some of the dance. Then she wanted to do cheerleading so she is giving up the other stuff to concentrate on that.

Youngest does tap and gymnastics because she saw her sister doing it and wanted to do it.

I’ve tried to choose and introduce them to activities that give them a broad range of skills and opportunities.
So swimming, dance, racquet sports, music lessons, football, guiding etc..
Some have only lasted a year or so.
Others continue to be favourites which take up more time.
They’re getting old enough to choose more for themselves now but I keep an eye out for new things to try out!

Football for boys is one that I’d definitely not worry about them missing out on. If they like it they’ll play at school til your sick of it!

We started baby swimming "lessons" as a fun activity and are still at it 11/ 9 years later...

At 4, I signed them up for gymnastics as it's good for coordination. That was replaced at about 7 by Karate. That's at a local community building.

At 6 they took up Beavers and are now Cubs/ Scouts.

DS2 has picked up football as he loves it. DS1 is not interested.

We've been going to 2k junior parkruns since 4. They both love running. It's free, casual and gets Sunday off to a good start.

I've gone for local, fairly cheap, non-competitive (mostly) and a range of skills that can lead to wider opportunities.

This thread is super interesting - I get so frustrated when sports clubs expect parents to pay upfront and commit to membership fees when kids are so young and just want to try lots of things to find out what they enjoy/what they're good at.

I actually found a website that other parents might find uself - I live in London - it connects children to local sports clubs and activities, allowing parents to search, browse and book loads of kids classes nearby, all in one place.

It was perfect for me helping my son try loads of differents sports and activities. A flexible way for me to help him discover what he enjoys, without the usual expense and commitment of joining clubs directly.

He has now fallen in love with basketball and we've joined a club - but we wouldn't have found the club if it wasn't sure them!

They were running some promos and free trials - free sport, event better!! - www.onesportsclub.uk

I think you can message them through their website. Hope this helps 😁

Thank you @londonc90 😊
We are in the country and luckily most activities here offer a free taster.

A little update - my nearly 4yo is still going to rugby and we are also now doing swimming.

I’ve done a map of nearby activities and starting ages, I’ll just let him try things as and when, see what he likes.

DC were both signed up to swimming as babies because a) it's a life skill and b) I swam competitively and wanted to do swimming with them because it was fun for me. They both swim competitively now.

DS started rugby at 2 (rugby tots) because we intended educating him privately and rugby is a key sport in the sector. He plays for both a club and school now.

Once he got to school, we noticed pretty early on he was a fast runner, winning races at sports days and was also pretty quick on the wing at rugby. So he joined a local athletics club in Y5 which he's very active with. His school football and cricket are solid, but he has enough going on with swimming/rugby/athletics that we leave those to school - he's not especially bothered about either football or cricket.

DD swam as a baby for the same reason as above, then we heard good things about a local gymnastics club so signed her up to that. She loved it for a few years, made squad, but she was never going to compete at a high level, lost interest over lockdown so we dropped that. She was enjoying netball at school and again, heard good things about a local club, so signed her up for that, which she's currently obsessed with. Given DS's involvement with the athletics club and that we were at events most weekends anyway, DD wanted to have a go at that as well, which suited us as it was easy to have both of them doing the same activity.

So, a bit of trial and error, what suited/interested DH and I, and a bit of them discovering what they liked through school sport.

I too put swimming at the very top of the list.

After that, it was a matter of what fitted around other things.

You have now made me wonder if I did things correctly[apart from the swimming which was a must, especially where we lived].

We really aren't the sign them up for every activity under the sun sort of people, but honestly, we just offered the opportunity to do things we enjoyed doing and were knowledgeable about. I ride horse and dh likes climbing and mountain biking. So that's what eldest dc does. Youngest is only 5 and just does a bit of biking and maybe some bouldering here and there.

If they expressed interest in something, we'd try it, if it fits with our schedule and see how they got on. Youngest is 5 and doesn't do anything organised as I think that's quite young. But if he expressed an interest in anything, we'd give it a try.

Mainly, I think it's about what you can afford and what you can fit in your schedule while still leaving down time and time for kids to just play and be with friends.

I agree on swimming as a life skill - beyond that I thought in pretty broad categories i.e. something that would help develop ball skills, something to build cardio, something to build strength. Within that we were pretty flexible based on local opportunity, convenience, scope for us to exercise at the same time and what he seemed to like. At the moment he does swimming, tennis, climbing and occasionally does junior parkrun. I vetoed rugby because he's small and slight and I didn't see it as a safe sport to get into (I know there's no contact with kids but I didn't want him to get into it when the injury risks for older players were alarming!)

@lightand I don’t think there is one way to do it correctly, as posters with older children have said, the children themselves reach an age where they choose and get on their own path.

@UnaOfStormhold I like your approach, looking at it from an overall physical development point of view

DD started ballet at 4 because a family member is a dance teacher and asked if she wanted to join the class. She's still dancing at 10, just now does all the classes.

She tried gymnastics at 6 because she enjoys the tumbling bit of acro and also stuck with it.