What sports do your girls do

[Tohaveandtohold]

What would you recommend.

So I have a DD who will be 9 soon. She plays an instrument at school and at a music school for 3 hours on Saturday and she’s very good at it. She likes it as well and also does 30 mins of swimming per week.

She has been doing gymnastics for almost 4 years now (goes to training for 8 hours a week, more during competition season) but myself and dad thinks it’s getting out of hand now. She loves going and has lots of friends however since competitions started after covid, she has been to 4 (2 county and 2 regional) but apart from the second competition when she came second with her group, she has always had a low grade in her individual routines and not come home with medals which is getting her down. She cries for days, we ask if she wants to stop but she refuses.

We don’t care about medals, etc but I care about how this is making her feel. It’s almost like she feels like an imposter, this is getting me down as well but she just does not want to quit, mostly because of the friends she has made as she’s also in a competitive group there.

I feel if you’re committing an average of 10 hrs a week to something, at that age, it shouldn’t be something that’ll affect you negatively. We’ve decided that we’ll pull the plug on it at the end of this term but she’s very athletic and competitive, we can’t just take her out and not find her something else (though ideally, I want something that does not require that much time commitment), sorry this has turned out to be long but what sport will you recommend.

Not exactly a sport, but what about some sort of dancing?

Maybe a team sport would suit her better if she finds the individual dissapointment challenging. 9 is often a good age to start things like netball, basketball, hockey, rugby, korfball, badminton, volleyball, cheerleading anything she fancies really. You could see if they do any groups at school that might help or you could look at your secondary school of choice and see what sports teams they have and pick one of those to start now

My dd who is 9 does netball and tennis. She also does cello, drama, brownies and swimming.

My nieces do hockey, they really enjoy it

2 teen dd's. Does lifting a mobile phone count as exercise?

Dd does tennis. Until she was 12 she also did Irish dancing

I recommend learning a martial art, I did karate for a few years and loved it. Some parts are done alone and the rest is done with other people. Competitions are available of course but they're not the main focus of a martial arts club, so no worries if you'd rather not do those.

Martial arts is great for building confidence in one's abilities and body (unrelated to looks), learning self-defence, and flexibility and fitness, amongst other things. I think a former gymnast especially would take quite well to it.

Many clubs offer the first lesson for free, and you can just watch the first time or get involved if you prefer. This is handy as different clubs have different vibes, so you can try out different ones without having to commit from the start.

Cheerleading is popular in my town. It's obviously a good fit with gymnastics.

I agree with martial arts too, it's only competitive with yourself and good for mental health (if you get the right coach).

My dd is 7 and we are in Ireland. She plays Gaelic football and camogie (team sports), athletics and swimming. She also does piano lessons. She loves them all.

My eldest daughter is now a teenage potato. The youngest loves football and Judo.

It might be worth asking what sports her friends play, that's how we got our youngest daughter playing football in the first place. Piqued her interest then she fell in love with it.

I’m in NI, my 7 and 10 year old do recreational gymnastics (1 class a week), swimming and Gaelic football and camogie. They’ll do soccer/football in the winter when the Gaelic stops. They do love the team sports, it’s also pushed very heavily at school and all their school friends play for the same club.

Thank you so much for your suggestions, I like the idea of team sports as well, just so she’s not dealing with the disappointment on her own if there’s any. Thanks for all your ideas, I’ll look into some netball and hockey clubs around here.
She plays tennis quite alright at a local leisure centre when she goes there for holiday club but I’m thinking we’ll give that a pass for a club because of its individual nature as well so she can just do that for fun.

With her gymnastics background: synchronised swimming or diving.

Martial arts, they each do different ones - one trains 7 hours training a week and competes at a national level the other does 6 hours a week just for the fun. They’re both fit as fleas and can no defend themselves if need be! They both did gymnastics, swimming and football as well until covid hit but neither wanted to go back to those.

Just turning 11yo: Parkrun
9yo: Rugby and cricket

Both also have swimming lessons. Elder DD wasn't able to do cricket this year as it clashes with Scouts.

Agree with another pp - how about trying dance, maybe tap or modern jazz?

Climbing? Good for overall fitness, a gymnast would already have good core strength and flexibility. Can be done for fun but also competitively.
Dance, cheerleading also good alternatives with relatable skill set.
Athletics?

DD(10) plays cricket in the summer, football in the winter, and both in April and May. Has done for 3 or 4 years. She had to give up swimming as it clashed with Scouts.

Triathlon, good to do multisports as it uses different muscles etc. Events are not really about the winning for most, it's the challenge. Our club is really friendly. You can include open water if she's already a good swimmer.

My daughter rides horses (for fun and competitively) and freely admits she's rubbish at everything else (she's like me, I was never sporty apart from the horses) She loves that she has to bond with her pony and that they form a team together. It's also brilliant for teaching responsibility and dedication

DD and I used to do 5K runs together when she was that age as it was a nice way to have some 1:1 time - parkrun is a good one but we also did the odd charity fun run too. If she likes the team element of gymnastics then cheerleading would be a good fit.

DD13 does jujitsu, netball and surf lifesaving. She's just started fun girls rugby too. We all do lots of different sports rather than concentrating on one seriously which helps to keep it fun I think.

IME girls' football has been very relaxed and inclusive. My DD only started this year aged 11 because afew of her mates play. She's not very skilled (understatement) but has been welcomed aboard and given lots of match time.