Sports for children. At what age to start.The natural desire of any parent is to raise a child strong and healthy. Obviously, sports can help a child in this. However, there is not always an unambiguous answer to the question, at what age should a child be enrolled in a particular sports section or school?
Of course, everything is very individual here. What matters is the sex of the child, the degree of his development, and finally, the predisposition to any kind of sport. At the same time, it is simply necessary that the child himself has the desire to study, because visiting the “hard labor” trainings chosen by parents will only negatively affect his mental health. If parents do not take into account the readiness of the child to play sports, they may face the fact that the child will soon ask to pick him up from the section. It is likely that after the first negative experience, the child will lose the desire to study at all. It is in order to avoid such a reaction that parents should take very seriously the age at which to send a child to sports.
Assessment of physical development and condition
The first important step on this path will be a consultation with a doctor. Do not neglect this consultation, because children’s health is at stake, and maybe even their whole life. The doctor will examine the child, identify the presence of contraindications and assess the level of his physical development. Next, try to talk to the parents of those children who are already enrolled in any sports sections. Find out at what age they started taking the child to training, and whether there were any problems afterwards.
Each age has its own sport
As mentioned above, each sport has its own age. However, new, progressive training programs appear every year, and therefore many sports have significantly “rejuvenated”. A striking example of this is the combination of coordination sports, which includes rhythmic gymnastics, figure skating, synchronized swimming and others. Kids are accepted here at the age of three, because the younger the child, the easier it is to develop all the necessary qualities in him. There are even cases when professional coaches personally come to kindergartens to notice talented and promising kids.
At the age of four, the road to the world of sports and rhythmic gymnastics opens for girls. At the same age, they begin to teach swimming. At the same time, if after a year of classes the girl will confidently stay on the water, it is quite possible that she will be taken for synchronized swimming classes. Serious sports championships in this sport can be held among 8-10 year old participants.
At the age of six, if the child has no contraindications, he can safely be given to figure skating.
At the age of seven, you can start practicing acrobatics, sports dancing, table tennis.
At the age of eight or nine, boys can start wrestling. It is necessary to approach weightlifting classes with extreme caution. Despite the fact that formally you can come to this sport at the age of 10, it is better to do it much later. The child’s body has not yet formed, and classes with weights can significantly slow down growth.
Let’s look more specifically at some sports. Martial arts classes perfectly develop a child’s flexibility, coordination and precision of movements, discipline. At the same time, girls can also study it, the main thing is that they are interested in it. Certain types of wrestling are clearly not suitable for young athletes. For example, concussions are not uncommon in boxing, and former boxers often suffer from epilepsy. Karate, judo, Aikido or wushu classes are much safer – in principle, a child can come to the section even at the age of five.
Gymnastics, both athletic and artistic, is a very demanding sport. Heavy loads often lead to sprains, dislocations, and back pain. Of course, flexibility, grace, and beauty develop at the same time, but is it worth the effort? If it’s hard for a child, you can easily transfer him to dance or ballet classes, where the same qualities develop, but with less stress. Of course, coaches advise bringing future champions to this sport at the age of four or five, but it’s not too late for elementary school students to start classes.
Perhaps no other sport can be as safe and at the same time useful for all ages as swimming. Swimming classes form a beautiful figure with a good posture in a child, and also have a general health value. You can start classes at least from three months, because today there are many pools for swimming together. The only thing that the parents of girls may not like is the formation of broad shoulders, but this is observed only in professional athletes, and training once or twice a week does not have such an impact.