Just Ireland? All kids activities so competitive

[TaimGoMaith1000]

My kids are involved with Irish Music but on a casual level. They are members of the local organisation that promotes irish music, singing etc. Some kids won at the fleadh which is basically the Olympics for irish music and dancing and there was a celebration for them and it was well deserved. The classes and activities starting back in september are focussed on selecting the best for bands and other competitions. It got me thinking tho, where do the non competitive kids fit in. My kids aren't sporty and gave up gaelic football as they werent good enough for the competitions so werent picked for the teams. There aren't any casual sports for us living rurally. Anyone else see this and find a solution for their non competitive lacking in confidence kids.

We had this for gymnastic (SE London). While the group was officially recreational, it was a testing one for the competition groups and children who didn't make the cut were often left with no attention.

One musical theatre group was similar, they were connected to an agency who covered TV and West End theatre/musicals and you could see who got the most attention and solos, not just for major productions but also for a small Christmas play or end of term thing.

DD was definitley happier when she moved to other hobbies. In the end it was the main reason she stopped all sports she tried apart from riding.

Does your local library offer chess club ?

@reluctantbrit yes that's exactly how it happens. One of them does horse riding and its much better. The other doesn't have anything and @Paradoes isn't into any competitive games but will keep looking.

It seems a shame that while we encourage participation and keeping fit and healthy the options for doing that non competitively are limited especially teens on. I didn't see this coming!

Is there a junior parkrun near you at all? Daily Mile at school?

I live in a busy city centre, so we do have recreational sports - but they are parent run and led. The club coaches who give up their time and love their sport are going to gravitate towards the better, more committed kids and competitive clubs.

Schools often run less competitive clubs, but there would need to be an appetite for it, so again you'd have to be involved getting it going.

We went for non mainstream sports in the end, hard to find and more expensive to participate in so aerial dance, (hoop, silks, pole etc) and canoeing.

Sorry no replies till now, away for a few days. Thanks for replies and will keep looking. Agree@bagsofbats will have to try to find the very non mainstream things.

Brownies/Cubs? Ours do a lot of taster sessions of sports that aren’t as competitive and are just keen for participants- canoeing for example.