Choosing Sports for Middle Schoolers
Your child is now officially a middle schooler, congratulations! Middle schoolers tend to have more Extracurricular activities than in elementary school. One of the most important extracurricular activities is sports.
Besides the obvious physical and health benefits of any sport, there are more advantages in the US. Sports can bring immense advantages such as scholarships, grants and other forms of support. This is only valid for a certain number of sports.
We realized rather late that the sports that our children choose (field hockey) were fantastic, but not available at the High School of their choice in our area. If your child cannot compete in a school sport (mostly basketball, baseball, football and sometimes soccer for boys and volleyball) they will have to do the regular physical education classes and they will not get to compete on behalf of their school.
Besides doing sports at school your children can of course also excel and accomplish many of the same goals through private club sports. In this story, we want to focus on High School and College.
Our experience has lead to this article about selecting a sport carefully and wisely depending on your interests, objectives, dreams and desires and skills.
Education comes first!
Making a career of a sport is not impossible. We see high school and college athletes join major and minor teams all the time. Keep in mind though that your student should never let sports get in the way of their education, no matter how much they love it or how good they are. Always make sure that their education continues in order to give them options as they progress in their school and professional (sports) career.
Interest comes Second!
Whatever sports they have in mind, let them decide and make sure that they enjoy their experiences. Do not force a child to enter into a sport that they are not happy with. That will make it extremely difficult for both of you to achieve the desired results.
Research Third!
If you are not familiar with what sports your child’s school offers then you will have to do a little bit of research first. You can go to their school website or talk with the school’s athletics coordinator. For example, Thousand Oaks High School ( http://www.conejousd.org/tohs/Athletics.aspx#) has their athletics information posted online.
They have lots of sports to choose from and as you can see they have a good standing with their girls’ basketball team. if ever your child wanted to play basketball, then you are sure that your child will be on the right track. Of course the better the school team, the more competitive it will be to get on that particular team. That will determine the efforts that you will need to put in in order to be assured a spot on the high school team.
Pick the right sport. Easier said than done!!
Your child might be torn between two or maybe more sports. As a parent, we feel that it is our task to help your child decide without forcing a decision that we would like to see . A difficult balance sometimes.
Some things you could consider in the discussion with your child: Is your child good with working with others or do they work better alone? Do they have the time and interest in pursuing a sport at the required level? What are their goals for college and further academic career? This is a great moment to tackle those fundamental questions.
High school sports allow anyone to try out. If your son or daughter does well enough in the tryouts, he or she might have a spot on the team. Practicing and trying out will allow teens to discover if they truly like a sport and have an aptitude for it.
There is no harm in trying
If your child wants to try a new sport other than the one they are playing. Let them try. You`ll never know what your child is best at if they will only stick to what they are used to.
Moreover, most schools operate according to seasons. And their sports programs do the same. This means that students can play more than one sport as long as the games and practice times do not conflict. This means that a teen can choose to play a fall and a spring sport without running into overlapping schedules. Another way around this is for a student to play a school sport and a private league sport.
Allowing teens to try out many different sports allows them to find a sport that they like more than others.
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