Do your children play contact sports?

[Glitterballofdreams]

My son is 4, and very active. He enjoys sports with his father, and likes to talk about them and watch them.

I’d like him to try some sessions, there is a good rugby team nearby. However I worry with the recent findings of how contact sport can affect health.

Do you let your children play contact sports? Am I over thinking it?

Yes my 4 year old plays football, goes boxing and tonight started mauy thai

Rugby is non-contact until age 9, and only very controlled contact then. Take your son to Rugbytots or Try Time or whatever, and see how he likes it. DS adored it so we carried on, despite him not being a “typical” rugby boy (he is small and skinny and far too polite to snatch the ball off the opposition 🤣)

My nearly 3 year old plays football and at that age it is about learning the basic rules of football, ball skills etc not running around tackling each other. I doubt rugby is contact until they are much older.

Rugby until 9 is tag rugby (non contact). My 6 year old plays league and absolutely loves it, great little community aswell.

Yes DS played both league and union. League from about 9 until 17, added union about age 14. Would have played younger if he had shown any interest. There are lots of rules around contact to try and help protect them.

DS is 11 now and has played rugby since he was 4. It has been amazing for him in so many ways. I would 100% recommend it.

Also, in England, it's tag rugby until they are 7 or 8 anyway

My 8 year old has been playing rugby for three years. My 11 year old is a junior coach.

I haven't encouraged my children to play rugby although they do do other activities with an element of risk.

A relative of mine played at a competitive amateur level and broke several bones playing over the years including leg, arm, nose and many ribs.

The stories of brain injuries worry me too tbh in rugby and boxing especially.

A teen near me was in local hospital with a broken neck from rugby a few weeks back and extremely lucky not to be fully paralysed.

If DC had been desperate to play I probably wouldn't have stopped them but fortunately they don't seem interested and don't have the typical build

i would never encourage it, so many cases of MND amongst rugby players.

Yes, my kids play ice hockey, so it becomes semi-contact at older age groups but they are well protected with lots of protective equipment unlike other contact sports.