My 6yr old ds cried uncontrollably yesterday about running races. How can I help?

[pepsi]

Firstly my ds has weak muscles, hypotonic, the paed said, the paed has told us that he wont be the sporty type or really atheletic because of this. Anyway, yesterday he had a friend over and they played great but suddenly they started arguing about winning .....he is not normally competitive so I didnt think winning/losing bothered him. Before I knew it he was crying unctrollably about never winning the running races they do at playtime and how more than anything he just wanted to win a race. He cried so much and for so long that I cried myself.

I hadnt realised that it was such a big thing. He friend he had over was really sweet and tried to help but all I could do was let him cry it out. So, what can I do to help his running speed? I hadnt ever thought about this at 6 before, but can I help his speed or stamina by taking him running. Trouble is he is obessed by trains and would rather play trains for most of the time. He is not very good at catching or any of the the events held on sports day. I have tried in the passed to practice these things at home but he is never interested for more than a couple of minutes. Its hard because he wants to be better at these things but doesnt want to try because he thinks he is not very good. Some of the boys in the races are a good 6 months older than him....dont know if this makes a difference. Ive told him that winning isnt everything and that you cant be good at everything and that he will be better than these boys at something else....of course when you are 6 this doesnt matter.

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I have thought about after school clubs. He doesnt want to go to football, I do have his name down for swimming lessons but there is a wait. He goes to Beavers though. We dont have sky, but do try to get him to watch sport when its on TV...like the world cup but he wasnt really interested. I have tried to things in the garden but he never wants to do it by the rules. ie. we played rounders with the family, every time he got the ball he threw it into a tree....laughing cheekily....Or if you create an obstacle course he always wants to do something else with it. When he was younger if was all very sweet but as he is getting older Im realising how not practicing anything is having an affect. He is the same with school work, will happily sit and be read to but as soon as his reading book comes out he goes all silly and fidgety. I cant decide whether he is just lazy or if its a confidence thing. He does love riding his bike though and told we went for a long bike ride........not helped by his 4 year old sister who insisted on taking her scooter and then moaned all the way that the paths were too bumpy so I ended up carrying the wretched thing with her moaning behind me.

pepsi would swimming help improve his muscle strength, sorry dont know too much about hypotonic, but would have thought if his muscles were strengthened in the water he may gain enough strength to race more competitively with his friends

Pepsi, I really feel for you and your DS My DD also has hyptonia and I was dreading sports day this year. She was saying that she is always last at races and just wanted more than anything not to be last. I got DH to practice the sack race with her and nearly killed him as he didn't let her win. On the day she was last by loads but was so determined, jumped all the way and didn't fall over once, so got a huge cheer. Which thank goodness made her feel good about herself and she told me proudly that she got the biggest cheer out of all the losers.

Sorry, none of that helps your DS. I would arrange it so that you have some younger children round to play, if he has a younger sibling that would make it a bit easier. Have some fun races that you know he is going to win. I have absolutely no idea how to improve running speed, I guess the more they do of it the better but haven't got a clue. And I would find as many non-sport interests as possible to help increase his self esteem. DD does piano & drama, both of which have really helped her.

Luckily enough I have had ds down for swimming lessons and the sports centre have just phoned to say they have a space for September. Funny how sometimes things happen just when you need them.

I wonder if badminton might be good for him? You don't have to run around so much for that as you do with tennis. You could get a small garden set and see if he likes it.

Good luck with the swimming for him anyway

badmington is another good suggestion.....have tried it though and so far not gone too well. He has such poor co-ordination ......we do suspect he might be dyspraxic in fact.....that he finds it hard to hit a ball/shuttlecock with a bat. Its so hard to try and do something he can do to build his confidence when everything we try doesnt go too well. Hopefully swimming will be good, we havent tried teaching him ourselves, we just play and do the slides but he loves it. Fingers crossed.