American in UK

[Sarmarl]

Hello, I am from the US and living in the UK a little over a year now. I have an 8 year old girl. I'm trying to get my daughter involved in sports. I grew up playing competitive football and softball(baseball). I had practices 3 days a week and games on the weekends. It was a very big part of my life. In the US we simply sign up for a team, we don't have to try out and get picked, only when we are older. I'm looking for sports to get my daughter involved in, that will fill a lot of her time, and that she has real practices during the week and learns to compete and play, and makes close friends, as well as a good amount of exercise. All I have found here so far is Wildcats for football, but that's a sort of free play on Sundays for an hour. I wanted something a bit more structured and more often than once per week. It doesn't have to be football, any sport will do. I just want my daughter to get more active and play on a team. If it's a team sport I want it to be a girls team, not mixed with boys. Also her school clubs are not super competitive. I'm at a lost of where to look. I feel like here in the UK sports for girls is not such a big thing as the US. Or is there a sport you guys can suggest I look into? Thank you

It would help if you gave us an idea of where you live?

Try a rugby team? It’ll probably only be one training a week and matches at the weekend though.

Things requiring a lot of training tend to involve some kind of assessment of skill to start. Competitive swimming, for example, had plenty of training! But you do have to be able to swim well enough to be part of a squad in a club.

At this time of year cricket is still going.Football and rugby will start with the new term.Football might be mixed at her age depending on the club as all clubs can't support all girls teams.The recent Euros success for the women will hopefully increase participation.
Ring round clubs local to you.Gymnastics,swimming,tennis,golf,athletics etc are also club based and you can ring any local club to find out what is available.Sports such as netball and hockey do have clubs but they are usually for teenagers and adults so unlikely to be available widely for an 8 year old.

What does your daughter want to do?

mine did gymnastics, baton twirling and horse riding. She hated team sports.

Mine likes gymnastics, I was thinking of horse riding, I rode when I was younger. Is horse riding something that you train often? What I am hoping to understand is what sports for girls in the UK have a lot of weekly practices and games on weekends? Or is there not any:(

If you want specific recommendations, you'll need to give us an idea if your area.

Agree that football availability is reduced over the summer (its mainly autumn and spring terms, but the biggest/busiest clubs are year round). Keep trying - looking for September starting dates.

Netball is the obvious other choice for girls. It will get competitive, but before secondary age it's usually not. Many clubs have juniors

There are all sorts of other sports, though. What else does DD like the look of?

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Riding will be as much as you can afford, but competition unlikely (maybe the odd gymkhana)

Another thing to consider is martial arts - very likely you can train several times a week. I don't know when competitons start though, as mine never competed.

Its a good time to get her signed up for a team sport starting in August/ September. Football ( soccer) season starts end of August. Around me lots of girls are getting into a football team around the age of 8.
Netball is a big team sport for girls in the UK and most girls are starting to play it in schools also around this age. Am sure it would be easy enough to find a local team.
I know a couple that play hockey and rugby. Rugby is less popular with girls though so it would prob be a mixed team at this age.
My daughter does tennis, golf and tai kwan do regularly.
Of course there’s the usual dance and gymnastics that is the most popular with girls.

why are you expecting lots of weekly practices from the start? This is just unlikely to be available.

For British children sports tend to be fun and once or twice a week, or the ones who want to take it further join more selective teams and clubs and train and compete more.

at 8 trying out several different things in a once or twice a week manner and then going further where it’s merited is probably the best way to go.

Would really help to know where you are?

Trampoline, gymnastics, dance, cheerleading all start to create squads around your daughters age.

girls football- the season will start again soon.

It IS different here to the US, try to embrace it.

Another thought. While cheerleading isn’t particularly popular here, Cheerdance is getting really big here if you want here to do something like that. My daughter goes and does Cheerdance competitions which are held about 3 times a year.
As someone up thread said. Most people I know have their kids doing a few different things once a week each and will hopefully narrow it down once they get older.

At 8 there are rules on how competitive sports are allowed to be. I doubt you will find anything that takes up so much time and is competitive. Most will have trials as well so no guarantee of getting in the team. Even when older and in competitive teams it is once a week training and then the match. Most children take part in several activities or have siblings who also have other clubs so taking up families evenings multiple days per week is not common at this age.

Yes, I have a hard time embracing it, bc I loved my sports when I was young and it was such a huge part of my life. My daughter is not as sporty as me, but I also think she just has not had as many oppurtunities. Honestly I feel she is not getting enough physical exercise, and really want her to get emersed and hooked into something. I want her to be part of a team, because of the bond and friendships.
"Trampoline, gymnastics, dance, cheerleading all start to create squads around your daughters age." She loves gymnastics, is this an area of sports that becomes very big for girls as they grow here?
My husband does jiu-jitsu so we may look into that.
Netball I did not grow up with, so maybe is this something that is big for girls in the UK?

We are living in Whitley Bay in northern England. My daughter loves art, music, and video games. I want to put her in something that she has more physical activity and that is very consistent here, where there is a lot of space to grow and she can spend a lot of time in. I'm from San Diego California where we are very active, surfing, and sports ALL the time, competitive or not. We have lived here for 1 year and felt my daughter is not physically active enough:(

Attitudes towards sport are generally a lot more casual in the U.K., especially at a younger age. Football and Rugby can get more serious in the teen years for team sports.

Id give gymnastics a try.

Also swimming and football

Netball is also more popular, tends to have strong, local amateur leagues. But I don’t know a lot about it for pre-teens.

if it’s really more about activity have you considered rock climbing? Not really a team sport, so it misses that aspect, but really popular in the U.K. most climbing gyms will allow you to buy a monthly or yearly pass which would save if you were doing it multiple times a week. Very good for the whole body and the mind with the puzzling and strategy aspect.

for team sports I think football and rugby will be your best options but they are still not going to be as frequent as you are hoping for.

I'd say netball or football are your best bets. My daughter does netball which is once per week with games on the weekend plus (if you're good enough) county practice every 2 weeks plus games monthly. I have heard other netball clubs practice more than once a week.

Just to add to the mix... Whitley Bay has one of the north's very few ice rinks. Figure skating and ice hockey both happen there (including a women's team).

Windsurfing is available at Kielder and at Ladyburn/Coquet.

Dance can expand to fill endless hours.

Feel free to ask me about any of those (my DS does or did these three activities, we're quite near to you!)

Sports in the uk at that age are usually training once a week with a game on another day. May increase later depending on the sport and whether the team and child play to a good level , lots of kids do more than one sport. At 8 my son was doing football, swimming and ju jitsu.

It's quite different to the US I think - my US friends kids play soccer in a little local team and they train 3-4 times a week. Even our Local premier league academy team doesn't train that much!!

Maybe sign her up for a couple of things to get her active and enable her to try different sports.

The girls round here are all into football and netball.

You just won't find that here.

What you need is to mix up different sports on different days/ nights of the week.

Around that age my DD did gymnastics, ice skating, ballet, swimming, taekwondo, athletics, tennis, golf, indoor skiing.

Also go hill walking and cycling as a family at the weekend.

They also did a lot of running about at Brownies.

What sports have you got involved in?

You could look for an athletics club as they can be quite structured. Here’s one near you which is available for 8 year olds. No idea how often they train though.

http://nspoly.org/junior-athlete-pathway/

My son is 7 and is in a similar club but it’s just Sunday mornings. We have limited time in the week as school is until 4pm and then he’s in many after school clubs / sports.

Does her school have any teams she could join? My son does Football, Swimming, Hockey, Rugby and Cricket after school (depending on season) which takes up most evenings. Match day is Thursday which is against other schools.

On Saturdays my son does horse riding. Again this is fairly structured, however he has lessons with his sister so it’s not really to make friends. Other riding clubs will offer joint lessons with similarly skilled children. Pony club could be an option for you if you wanted to do something with others regularly and go to shows etc to compete.

https://branches.pcuk.org/area16/branches-centres/area-16-branches-centres/

Gymnastics is a good idea if competition is something you’re interested in. Join a club and they can compete nationally / internationally

https://www.tynesidegymnasticsclub.co.uk/

Also agree netball is a good team sport popular here.

https://www.tyneandwearnetball.net/juniors.html

Whitley bay probably has cold water swimming clubs as well.

If she is into art and music I would get her into dancing and aim for the competition based class school as opposed to the ones that do ballet and tap type stuff. The dance school we go to does cheer, dance, street dance, lyrical and Latin. I know for sure that Cheerdance UK goes to the northeast at least twice a year ( more comps in Blackpool, home of dancing if you want to travel a bit). They all follow a formulaic three times a year national competition pattern as well as doing two shows a year, so there is always a comp to be focussing on. You could get her to pick one or two disciplines. They also tend to have a team focus as well as solos. So my daughter always trains to do a team dance and a solo for each competition.

I think the weather is a big deciding factor as you will know, you probably don't fancy surfing in November, but some people do it.

As others have said it's more about having fun at this age in the UK.

Does it have to be team sports? Martial arts are quite popular and as a few others have said gymnastics.

Another thought is brownies / guides - although do check out the safeguarding policy. I wasn't a sporty teen but I did do Ju Jitsu and Girl Guides - I got to do things like kayaking with guides.

Dance is really good exercise and there are loads of different types.

As well as netball rounders is quite popular.

Do you have the time to set up an activity yourself?

Hi OP -- i'm also from SD. But i may have lived in UK a lot longer than you (30 yrs). My brother did a tiny bit of surfing. Most San Diegans never try it.

i did soccer when it was new in SD (late 70s). I also happen to live in an English town where one of the England Lionesses grew up (in my son's class) so I know a bit about her journey. Anyway, football (soccer) is the most developed grass roots sport in UK : for girls and boys. Girls & boys play on same teams until yr7 here. Footie is where the most opportunities will be. That said, the local Lioness has written a lot about the challenges she had in her efforts to continue elite training after age 14.

You don't know if your DD really wants to pursue sport (or any other physical activity hard). I encourage you to listen to her first & foremost. The other possibilities I've seen a lot of opportunity to commit oneself to year-round in (in England) are: cyclo-X, cross-country running, athletics, swimming, BMX racing, Judo. You can do all of those competitively at age 8 in my rural county. In Norfolk we even have surfing (not competitive afaik) 😀. Most sports are highly seasonal here, like sailing, rugby, cricket, tennis. Local gymnastics was way too competitive for my kids, actually.