Sports & Fitness Kids Sport

In December, Kona broke her right index finger playing netball. She played a few games of indoor after it, but then has had to nurse it for a month. She went awesome at grading this week.

Now this morning we are nursing another broken finger, this time the right ring finger - playing indoor again last night!

Gonna be a long season!

pinkboy

 

For something different, Sydney North volleyball is looking for teenage kids who might want to play interclub volleyball. Tryouts are next two Thursday nights at Sydney Olympic park. Volleyball is a great sport to watch and play when you can play it well, but it takes time to get good though for most of us although some people are just naturals.
PM me if you want details.

 

I'd look at a getting her into a team sport if she was interested as gymnastics and athletics are more individual.

Something like soccer or netball.

Having a variety of individual and team sports is meant to improve various skills of different kinds. I don't have any kids so my experience is limited to reading and watching friends.

 

I coached my sons basketball team for a couple of years. I think I enjoyed it as much as he did.

I think sport is one of the best things you can do for your kids... Just make sure there is enough time for them to be kids as well.

Enjoy it while it lasts, they grow up very fast.

 

Providing she is enjoying it and agreeing to do it then it's not too much of an issue but she can always have the option of informally practicing those things from home whenever she is bored or to have a playdate with other kids.
The downside of an extra busy schedule is:
- less time for imagination play
- less time for social play with other kids
- homework time will be hard to schedule in - my 7yo in year 2 has homework each night

My kids are 'allowed' 2 extra curriculars. One which is always swimming as I feel its super important and the other of their choice. Generally this is 1hr for swimming and one afternoon for the other.

Their school has an excellent music programme as they have done a lot of research into how music helps with mathematics etc. They give the kids in year 2 and year 5 an instrument and lessons during school time included in the school fees. Year 2 is string instrument and year 5 is band instrument. By pure 'luck' my youngest 2 are grad 2 and 5 this year and we are now the proud 'owners' of a Cello and a Glockenspiel (and drum sticks as he's percussion).

It's going to be a challenge to fit in 10 mins of music practice, homework plus reading time but we'll somehow manage.

 

Sports and music are both great, to provide balance to academic development. My kids tried out different activities when they were younger to let them explore. They had a go at swimming, cricket, soccer, karate, tennis. At the same time, they were learning piano. Plus they had time to be bored.

Now 2 are in high school, they have streamlined into only 1-2 activities each outside school. They were allowed to drop swimming when reached Stage 9. One is in futsal, one in NPL soccer (3x trainings a week! Crazy!!) and one doesn't want to do any sports. Piano is still running. School is busy. And yet they can find time to play computer games

Strike a balance. And enjoy her childhood with her. It runs out too quickly!

 

Our youngest last year was doing:

Monday - Drama
Tuesday- Netball
Wed- Acrobatics
Thursday - Dance
Saturday- Karate/Netball Game

The middle child was Netball training & Games

The oldest did no sport (unless League of Legends/E-Sports are sports)

 

.....and it begins!

Grading carnival tomorrow. Kona has 10x half games to play (She got into U13A squad as well as Captain of her 11A team), has to umpire 5x half games as well. I also have my U13C team and we also play 5x half games.

There goes my Saturdays!

pinkboy

 

Our daughters' activity level will drop a bit now based on some of the feedback in this thread and letting her do what she wants to do.
Little Athletics on Saturdays has now finished until next season, glad because it was a long morning which drags on for about 3 hours.
She wanted to quit her 1 hr sprinting training session, so we went with that.
We will drop down from 2 x 2 hr gymnastics classes to just 1 x 2 hr next term.
However, I will enroll her in a general skills training class which is just 1 hr to replace the gymnastics class.

I guess I was being selfish trying to make her into something she might not want to be, and I was not active myself at the time.
Now I'm training 6 times a week myself and hopefully that sets a good example for her and I hope she gets influenced by it, but if not, I'll be happy either way.
Plenty of time to develop high level later if she wants to.

 

I just measured Kona this morning because she looked like she had slimmed up a bit and shot up. Low and behold, another inch taller than last check a few months ago. She is now 172cm, or 5'8" in the old scale. Not bad for 11yo. Need her to keep getting taller to play in the big leagues in the future. She might even be able to play seniors this year if they let her!

She has a full year booked already with pre season Junior Premier League, normal club season and first year for Mackay Rep. Then there are School teams and state carnivals as well. Going to be full on.

I estimate she will be taller than me by year end. Im 5'10".

pinkboy

 

Woah! Tall! My 12 yo niece is really quite tall too. Not far off my height. (I'm 167cm).
Get your daughter into Volleyball too.... She doesn't have to be super coordinated to start, but she'll be a great asset on any team in no time.

 

I love that you named your daughter after the Hawaii Ironman!
Bring back memories?

 

Had a horrid race. I was way too over trained and paid the price. I finished, but not in good shape. We too do love the fact we named her Kona. It is a name that is a little different, but not wildly ludicrous like some people give their kids names.

I don't see the skill crossover to be honest, so not going to even raise it with her. With Netballers now getting decent pay, and prime time sport coverage, don't see much future in Volleyball.

I played Volleyball in high school. When I received 'Sportsman of the Year' when I was in year 12, Volleyball was my team sport (one part of the criteria - the others were swimming, cross-country, athletics team, plus individual sport and an academic achievement sport related). I was the first non-footballer in the school 60 year history to receive the top sport award (much to the disgust of many people).

pinkboy

 

Nobody's kid plays Table tennis ? As soon as my son is old enough, he will be accompanying his dad to play Table tennis. I am told its an excellent eye-hand co-ordination exercise for young kids. At the rate my son is getting tall and displaying his strength (body weight of 12 kilos, but wants to (and does) carry bags of 5 kilos) I am guessing he will lean towards the Aussie football - something I am still trying to learn and understand - Aussie rules / NRL bounce the ball when passing dont bounce the ball .. err - Gawd, why is it not as easy as cricket !

 

My niece who's about 10 turning 11 played her first game of netball today. Her team won.... 30-0. Wtf??

 

Kona won her 12A by 4 and her 14A by 2 today. Kona played 2x full games at GA. In the last quarter of the second game she could hardly trot and I was pumping her up to dig really deep.

My 16A girls got taught a lesson 36-16 (spanked). Back to the drawing board for me!

pinkboy

 

I played table tennis when I was very young. I played for the first 2 weeks ago and I still have the killer instinct but need to work on consistency. My son seems to like it but cricket is his thing.

 

I don't like to see kids pushed into any sports just because their parents want them to do a sport.

I reckon; expose them to as many different sports as you can; and if they have any interest in any of them; support them as much as you can to pursue it.

 

I'll admit that I pushed my daughter into sports early on, but completely backed off for the last 12 months and let her know that if she doesn't want to do anything she doesn't like, then it's completely her decision and I'll support it.
Good news is that she now loves all her sports, physical training, competition and friendships formed through participation, so the stage has been set.
I would have loved to have had the same opportunity growing up but missed out and had no support at all.

 

I played pretty much zero sport until Grade 6 of school - got introduced to baseball by a friend at school who played it, and did that exclusively until aged 14 when we moved interstate - Riverina region..

Up in the Riverina country towns during the mid 70's, there was not a lot to do other than sport. There was no baseball there, so that ended that for me, but we had footy, cricket, basketball, table tennis, golf (ultimately to become my profession later on), tennis, soccer; even badminton and volleyball.

So; it was a natural progression into some - or even all of these sports - we didn't need support from parents; we just did it. I did all of the above - not all of them particularly well mind you, but some at a decent level. I became a sports nut.

Based on this; I don't think it is too much of an issue if kids don't do sports at an early age; they may get the bug for it later on.

In the Country it is much easier; we could ride our bikes to every sporting activity pretty much - unless you become involved in inter-Town sporting events.

Living in the Cities is harder; harder to get kids to and from sporting events, so yeah; the parental support is much more needed in this instance.