Written off at age 9?

[Notcool1984]

Feel so bad for my DS. After years of shyness he has suddenly decided he wants to try some sports clubs and even start competing (no idea where it’s come from!), but it seems at age 9 he has no chance. The sports he wants to try, tennis and football, have pathways locally and by age 9 the level you need to be at is much higher than complete beginner. He likes swimming and climbing but those are individual sports (swim clubs here are v competitive to get into) and I feel so bad for him. Already the school sports are making selections and same names again and again get picked. Feel like as his confidence suddenly builds he has been left behind :(

Try badminton - it's a great sport and kids don't really start until 8 and over so he won't be behind

I don't think 9 is too old at all to start most sports. I also think that any sport where a child has 'missed the boat' if they didn't start intensive training at 3 or 4 years old is not a pleasant thing to commit your child to - if they are going to play sport for pleasure they really ought to be able to choose that sport for themselves and I know at 3 years old most kids have no idea what they want from sport. There were children in my DD's class at school who were competing in gymnastics at a national level at age 8, and they were doing 25+ hours a week training. That's not fair on such a young child.

I love watching the Olympics, and during the last winter olympics I googled the British women's skeleton team, because I had no idea how one would even get into what is effectively competitive tobogganing (I love tobogganing! ) and I found out some very interesting things. Basically the british olympic committee have targeted certain sports as being sports they want britain to excel in. For the summer olympics that includes cycling and rowing. At the winter olympics they are targeting skeleton and speed skating. At no point does a successful candidate for olympic pathway training in any of these sports have to have ever taken part in those sports before. Lizzie Yarnold was a moderately good Pony Club tetrathlete and went along to a selection day out of interest because she had hoped they might consider coaching her for eventing. But they assessed her skillset and sent her skeleton training. I watched Helen Glover win Olympic gold in rowing at the Rio Olympics, as sport she had only taken up at the age of 22. She had seen an advert asking if she could be Britain's next Olympian and put herself forward. Four years later she won gold at London 2012 and is now one of Britain's most successful rowers. Mental attitude and commitment to training is the primary influence here, not what age someone started in a sport at. Without saying what it is, because it is a very, very niche sport, I am current British champion in my sport, a sport I only took up after the age of 40 (Lizzie Yarnold's mum does it too .)

My kids have chosen an eclectic mix of sports, but all of them have only been chosen from the age of 7-8, and there are still sports they want to give a go. As other people have mentioned, cricket is a great sport to get into if you DS wants to get into a team sport. At 9 he'll still be playing with a softball, and the matches only last about 2 hrs max. Cricket has been a dwindling sport so most clubs are keen to welcome newcomers. It's popularity is on the rise again though after England won the World Cup this year on home turf. It's a very sociable sport to get into and even if your DS hasn't played much there will be spaces for him to play on a team as a fielder, and to improve his game at training sessions so he becomes a better batter/bowler.

If he is set on competitive swimming and you feel the local swimming clubs would pass him by as being too old at 9, look outside the box. DH does open water swimming, and there are often races for children. DS (9) raced down the Thames this summer. DD swims very well but didn't fancy the weed. Both DCs swim weekly with Pony Club and take part in PC triathlons which are running, swimming and pistol shooting. You do need to be a member of the Pony Club to take part in these competitions but you don't need to ride. PC triathlons take place in the winter. And of course there is the standard Triathlon which is running, swimming and cycling too. To help their XC running, and to help DD with her compass reading (which is needed for the sport I do and which DD has made a very impressive debut into this year) we've also just taken up orienteering through the winter too. DD's friend's school do this big time and there's a school league and junior races. They are great fun.

Honestly there is loads he could do. But as others have said, he needs to be aware you can't just start doing something and be a contender a week later. Anything takes time to get good at, but at 9 years old, time is something he has a lot of. Let him choose something and find a way of making it work.

DS (11) was similar (He’d tried football, rugby and cricket, not that interested. He’s a cracking swimmer and mountain biker, but his strength is very much in endurance rather than speed, which is not really measured at his age). He picked up Archery earlier this year; many clubs (local to us at least) won’t take take children under 13, so starting at 10 made him very young indeed. He’s preparing for his first competition now. Because of the age restriction, his peers do not have loads more experience than him.

Round my way he could certainly join a football team at age 9. He doesn't have to be on a professional club pathway.

It would be great if he could practise to improve his ball skills (just a kick about in the park with his siblings/mates/you would be good).

Or he could try athletics; I am involved in our local club and we would welcome him at aged 9, in fact the earliest we take people is 8 so he would certainly not be written off. Again, if he did some running outside the club to see if he liked it, that might help. Amazed to see a pp talking about her 9yo training athletics with people who had been doing for years...not sure what clubs take 6-7yos to train, it's really too young, you can't compete before u11 anyway, which is 9-10yo, so 9yo is ideal.

I watched Helen Glover win Olympic gold in rowing at the Rio Olympics, as sport she had only taken up at the age of 22. She had seen an advert asking if she could be Britain's next Olympian and put herself forward.

I remember reading that - though it is a little more complex (speaking as an ex-rower, who was technically good, did the weight training, but was always hampered by being a shortarse). Rowing massively favours tall people! It's all about length-of-levers. This determines stroke length, and pretty much everything is secondary to that. Even "lightweight" rowers are typically significantly above average height.

So what the Olympic committee did was target people who were good amateurs but not elite level in their first sport, so long as they were tall (think 5'10" plus for women). So triathletes, runners, etc. - people with a really good aerobic baseline. Then they trained them hard.

The other thing which made this a viable strategy was the fact that rowing requires amazingly expensive kit, so you're looking at a small pool of countries, and an even smaller pool of people with the social status to get access to that equipment. It's pretty much the ultimate "big fish in a small pond" sport. (Contrast that with football where the likes of Pele started their careers in the slums of south America with a tin can at their feet... and roughly half the male population of the world plays to some degree during childhood, often with obsessive enthusiasm.)

Judo::: shall lift his spirits no end

Or Krav Maga

@BarbaraStrozzi I understand all that, but I was using her as an example to show that there are many routes to sporting success, and not all of them are determined by having been trained up in your chosen sport from the age of 3. Any Olympic medallist will have trained far beyond the level most of us are capable of. But many of them will also have discovered their real strengths later in life than 9 years old.

That's a fair point about Olympians being very different from the rest of us . Which actually makes me think of a pertinent question for OP to think about: what is it your son wants to get out of team sports in particular?

Camaraderie? Falling in love with a particular sport? The pleasure that comes from being part of a collective that's functioning as a single body? (Very noticeable in rowing, I've also experienced it a few times in 5-a-side football when everyone's almost reading everyone else's mind and getting themselves into exactly the right place at the right time).

This might help get a sense of what sort of sport would be a direction to go in.

Same here. Drives me crazy. Are all counties like this is just SURREY?

Would he like ballroom dancing? It’s athletic and competitive and desperate for boys.

Athletics clubs don't start until age 8. I also saw some stats earlier which was in athletics only 20% of the top 20 under 15s in the country were in the top 20% at under 20 so there is a lot of room for improvement over the years

Try rugby! Far more inclusive than football, less about ability and more about learning skills/ being part of a team