What is the best age to start sports programs with kids? What is the best activity/sport for development and coordination?

I believe the sooner you engage kids in activities and sporting events the better. They will develop skills and also the activity will really help offset many bad habits endured at such a young age. Speaking for myself being an active youth really helped keep me socially active and although I put on a lot of weight (due to unhealthy eating habits) sports/physical activity really helped keep me normal. I am not saying throw some shoulder pads on your 2 year old but common sense and physical activity can go a long way with the youth. Because, believe it or not, the "physical education" in our education system has minimal to no education (regarding exercise/physical activity) and lacks the physical part as well.

Fuel the Movement
JM

Kids should most definitely play!

But in infancy, a parent can encourage a child's healthy physical development by allowing the child to crawl, roll, and tumble for as long as possible.

These gymnast-like movements encourage bilateral neuro-muscular signaling which will be crucial for healthy movement structures in a later active life. Also, the more "play" incorporates these multi-limb and multi-directional movements, the more activity and improvement these natural physical abilities will assume.

Kids should always start with activities that are fun but there are 3 activities in particular that is proven to develop kids without specialization and burnout.

These 3 are:

gymnastics - for body control, relative strength development, and flexibility

Running sports - for locomotion training (look up summer programs for kids to get out and just experience the different types of events)

Swimming - this is a great cardiovascular developer and can be started quite young


There is no set age for getting kids involved it is a maturity issue and that is individualized to each child. If a child can get out and play then they can get out and play a sport.

Hi Magali. With the issue of childhood obesity being in the forefront today, this is a great question! There is a huge difference between our kids being more physically active and their participation in an organized sports program, so the answer to this question may be different depending on which part of the question that being answered.

First, all kids should be physically active as soon as they have the ability to be "physical." Physical activity can be something as simple as walking for a toddler. Moving, exploring, jumping, running, pulling and pushing are all examples of physical activity that in my opinion all kids should be involved in at very early ages.

As for sports programs, the answer is slightly different. While there is really no magical age for participation in organized sports, many experts would suggest starting this no early than 5-6 years old. While that age of participation should begin based on the child's "developmental age" even more so than perhaps their chronological age, I believe that whenever that sports participation begins for the child, it should be accompanied by some level of physical training/fitness training (at an age-appropriate level for the particular child involved).

I hope this helps.

LaRue, CSCS
www.lecfitness.com
lecfitness@yahoo.com

Great question, and one that tends to bring about a great deal of debate. My thoughts are that far too many children are pushed to "excel" when, in fact, children should simply play. One of the problems is that the term "organized" that can create a little bit of havoc with the timeline, since some people take the organization of sport to a degree that removes all the fun from the game.

Up to the ages of 5, think in terms of "organized chaos" - Gymboree can be good, as it develops balance, proprioception, multi-directional abilities and spatial awareness, all in the context of play. As well, don't sell the role of the parents short - playing tag with your kids can help develop a lot of these skills along with various forms of locomotion as well. From about the age of 5 or 6 years old to about 12 to 14 (depending on the developmental age of the child, rather than the chronological age), the best thing a parent can do is encourage multiple sports... "early specialization" (ie. Tiger Woods and the Williams sisters) tends to lead to burn out, and the attrition rate by the age of 14 increases as a result.

Well, what worked for my son is that I made sure I took him to the park and let him interact with other children, play in the sandbox, climb monkey bars. At six weeks, I took him to the swimming pool, when he was three years old he was skating, four he was riding a bike, five he was tap dancing.

I think children will learn coordination any way. Coordination is involved in learning how to feed oneself, crawl, walk among other things.

I personally think it is important just to let them be kids.