my child ready for sports

When is my child ready for sports?

Children of all ages need physical activity. For many, playing organized sports (such as being part of a soccer team or taking gymnastics lessons) is a fun way to keep active. To get the most benefit out of any sport, children need certain basic skills. And some of these skills depend on a child’s age. If they’re not ready, children may get frustrated and not want to play at all.

What are the basic skills my child needs to play organized sports? 

Learning skills like throwing, running and jumping is a normal process that children go through. They learn each skill in little bits, and some learn faster than others. By the time your child is between 3 and 5 years, he will have learned some of these basic skills.

How do these skills affect my child’s ability to play organized sports? 

To play organized sports, children need to learn how to put these skills together (for example, how to run and throw at the same time). That doesn’t happen until your child is about 6 years old.
When your child is young, sports can be changed to make it easier for her to play. For example, you can:

• use smaller equipment,
• change roles or positions often, such as having the catcher become a fielder for a while,
• make games and practices shorter, and
• make the game fun so that your child wants to keep playing.

When should my child start to play in an organized sport?

Your child can start playing an organized sport when he has the skills he needs to play. Encourage your child to play sports he likes, but also encourage him to try different sports when possible. This will help him learn different skills.

How do I know if my child is ready to play a specific sport?

This chart may also be helpful. It shows the skills that children usually have at different ages and the sports they can start to play.

	Early childhood: 3 to 5 years old	Middle childhood: 6 to 9 years old	Late childhood: 10 to 12 years old	Early teens: 13 to 15 years old	Late teens: 16 to 18 years old
Motor skills (movement)	Can run, jump, throw Some balance	Basic skills (running, jumping, throwing) are getting better Balance is improving Starting to learn harder skills (for example throwing for distance)	Getting better at harder skills (such as kicking a ball into a net) Learning some complicated skills (such as hitting a baseball)	Growth spurts; body becomes less flexible Puberty occurs at different times	Skills are closer to an adult level
Vision	Not mature Hard to follow direction and speed of moving objects	Getting better at judging speed of moving objects but still has trouble judging direction of moving objects	Fully developed (as good as that of an adult)	Fully developed	Fully developed
Learning	Very short attention span Learn best by copying others	Short attention span find it hard to remember a lot of details and make fast decisions	Better attention Better able to remember	Better attention span Remembers plays and strategy	Good attention span Good memory
Skills to focus on during this age period	Learn basic skills Having fun playing and trying different things is more important than competing	Practice basic skills and learn harder skills	Practice skills Learn tactics and game strategy	Individual strengths	Individual strengths
Suggested activities	Running, tumbling, throwing, catching, riding a tricycle	Entry-level soccer and baseball, swimming, running, gymnastics, skating, dance, racquet sports such as tennis, riding a bicycle, non contact martial arts	Entry-level football, basketball and ice hockey	Early-maturing boys: track and field, basketball, ice hockey Late-maturing girls: gymnastics, skating	All sports depending on interest.