Best Sport for a 10 Year Old to Start

Athletic Recruits
1

I have a couple of 10 year old nieces and nephews who would all like to start a sport or sports. They are not particularly tall. The boys are projected to be about 5’11 as adults but are somewhat heavy now (a reason for the question), both girls will be on the short side and are an average healthy weight not tiny.

One of the boys already plays Lax (badly as far as I can tell!) One girl is interested in modern dance but is not in a competitive program and sports like fencing and martial arts are often discussed but have not been tried. One of the girls is considering golf but is just starting so it may be too late as far as I can tell. None of the kids are AMAZING athletes.

What sports would you suggest for these 10 year olds? So far all are excellent students and the parents attended Top 30, Division 3 or Ivy colleges and would like their kids at similar schools. Athletic scholarships are not the goal, physical fitness, learning to play through adversity and general sportsmanship is and recruitment at a Dlll school eventually would be a bonus.

Swimming, basketball and running are out. Girls LAX was already tried and was a disaster. They are located in the northeast in a suburb.

2

For girls, golf scholarships go begging. It is not too late and the bar is not high. Also for girls, field hockey is a sport where there is a lot less competition for schollies. OTH, for boys, competition is intense for schollies across the board.

3

Why is running out? That’s such a wonderful spot, and usually no kids are cut from the team! One year, my oldest son was the fastest runner on the team, and my younger son was the slowest. But everyone cheered on both boys equally. It’s a sport kids can carry into adulthood, too, unless a lot of team sports.

4

What do they like? My son tried baseball, basketball, soccer, and tennis between the ages of 5 and 11-- we also tried musical instruments, etc.-- and it was tennis with which he fell in love. At age 9, he asked to begin playing more often during the week-- and it became his main extracurricular passion from age 9 to date (he is a high school sophomore). Expose your child to many things and watch/ listen to their reactions. They will find their interests.

5

One of my kids loved fencing. No team at school, but there was club fencing not too far away. Club run by a US Olympic fencing team coach, too. But they were super flexible. You paid a quarterly fee and could fence 2-3 times per week. A couple times specific for kids/teens, also at open bouting with all club members. You went when you could/wanted to, did not need to tell them if you weren’t showing up. As long as you worked hard at practice, they didn’t care if you competed. Some kids competed nationally & internationally, some just practiced for exercise and fun.

We did buy equipment after the first six months when she picked a weapon. And competition costs can climb quickly because of the travel involved. My kid started as a sophomore in HS, didn’t want to compete. She decided to do some HS competitions senior year, and medaled at every tournament, including state championships. It is a pretty cerebral sport (“physical chess”), which she liked.

There aren’t tons of college teams, maybe 40 – but some colleges have club teams. My favorite part was the flexibility – family vacation or exams or sick kid – no pressure to attend.

6

Summer is a great time to enroll kids in a short introductory camp for either one sport all week or a camp that will introduce them to 2-4 different sports. I suggest exposure to a number of sports to see what interests each of them. Try things that don’t require a big commitment . Signing up for a whole season of baseball could be a disaster, vs just paying for a week or two of karate or one month of gymnastics.

7

I’d suggest the ones they are currently involved with if they enjoy them.

8

Other ideas include archery, tennis, bowling, fencing. My S really enjoyed archery, it was both individual and a team sport. Very social outlet too. You can choose to compete regionally and nationally. D focused on dance, and it was a great overall activity. Very physical , required discipline and had social interaction. Great community in the dance world. She still dances in college, but not as a dance major.

9

What sport they should start as 10 year olds might depend on what the offerings are in their community. Around here, we have a laid back summer track program that gets kids to run 1.5 miles by the end of it – this is for kids who aren’t big runners to begin with. We also have several organizations offering baseball and softball – one program is pretty intense but the others are more low key and welcome beginners. Although you have posted this in the Athletics Recruit section, I think the more realistic goal is to find activities that are fun and promote good health. Soccer is good to start at age 10, but probably at the community or rec center level and not at the club level at first. Summer camps are a great way to try out different sports for a week or so.

10

if the goal is physical fitness, they’ll want to pick sports with a lot of action. Golf is wonderful, and the better players are in great condition, but they don’t get that way walking around a golf course, they get that way working out to play golf. Yes, better than video games but not the same as running after a tennis or soccer ball.

That they are going to pick a sport to get into a D3 in the northeast is probably not a good plan, even for a nod or help into a top LAC or elite school. Athletes are good, not just okay, and also really good students. I know kids who switched sports at age 12 or so, say from soccer to lacrosse, but they were great soccer players and worked to become good lacrosse players. For some sports, like lacrosse and hockey and baseball, it almost is too lake to start them at 12 and expect to get to college level in 5-6 years (or to be recruited after 4 years) unless the kid is an outstanding athlete. Golf can work, but are the kids going to go out and hit 10 buckets of balls a week, play 4-5 times a week? It’s a hard sport to pick up if the parents don’t play. I went to high school with kids who were from ‘golf families’, belonged to the local CC, and they were still rather average even after the high school golf team. The only one I knew played in college was the golf pro’s son. One other kid was an Evans Scholar (caddie scholarship).

They should play for now, not for the future. What benefits can they get now? What and where do their friends play? What is the time and cost commitment?

11

Thank you for the responses.

No budgetary or time limit constraints, these are only or last children. The boys are not interested in golf, the girl who is interested has family that plays. The parents are terrified of the lottery that top tier schools have become and to the extent they can get their kids active and help them with college, why not. Especially since the kids have not found a sport on their own. Based on genetics all kids will be very strong as adults but not particularly fast on their feet or tall but with good/quick reflexes and decent hand eye coordination.

Kids have tried most team sports and go to a camp that already introduces them to a variety of sports such as tennis, baseball, soccer, basketball, Lax, nothing really stuck except Lax for one of the boys who according to his parents pretty much stands where the ball is not and holds a stick! One of the girls is a decent runner but the boys are REALLY slow. I have seen them run. The girls did not like the rough and tumble of basketball or Lax so I would assume field hockey would be pretty similar. Tennis is too late for them to become competitive and they do not seem interested anyway and there does not seem to be much squash in the area.

None of their friends do too much in terms of sports so that is not a consideration. Most things other than skiing available. One of the boys has asked about fencing or marital arts.

12

Martial arts are great for a kid who is not naturally athletic. DD’16 started karate, then later weapons, at age 5. She worked her way up to junior black belt by age 11. Then she started competitive basketball at age 11.

The body control she learned through martial arts made her able to develop an elite skill set for basketball. At 17, she has no size, has average speed and athleticism, yet will be playing basketball at a competitive D3. She had D1 offers, but D3 was a better fit. I firmly believe the martial arts allowed her to get to this point with basketball.

Even if the martial arts doesn’t lead to physical improvements that can be applied to other sports, it is great for keeping in shape and for teaching discipline and commitment. If one of the boys has already asked about it, the parents should let him give it a try.

13

I would ask the kids what they have any type of interest in and start with that. My son is a college athlete at a D1 school and did not even try the track and field event that he now loves, until the summer before freshman year in HS (he would have been about 13 then). Enjoying the activity makes up a lot for what you see now as possible physical limitations. Boys especially haven’t grown yet and I know many a heavy boy hit adolescence, grow 6”, and have an entirely different build.

I think the best advice is let them try everything they even have a remote interest in. If you will only exposure them to what you perceive they will do well in, they may miss something, also don’t overlook the fact that most kids will not be college athletes so you need to help them find an activity that they enjoy.

I will also put my plug in for track and field. There are more things to do than just run. There are several throwing events that require size to go along with skill and being part of a larger team can be fun. Most areas have summer clubs that kids go to and try out different events. That is what my son did. Even in our local high school, which typically places in the state meet, track is a non-cut sport. My son found his true passion because he did not make his HS soccer team in the fall, tried wrestling in the winter season, (hated touching people in practice) and went out for track in the spring. He ended up doing a jumping event because the coach in the event took everyone who wanted to give it a try. He was only mediocre his first year but liked it enough to stay with it and got significantly better. But had you asked him if he wanted to do what he does now in college when he was 10, he would have had no interest.

14

Okay… this is a TERRIBLE reason to get a kid involved in sports. The kid may not be that talented, may not love the sport but will feel compelled to continue it through HS (and into college – one of my kid was recruited by some D3 schools, but decided against playing in college at all). My plug is that they should do sports because they like the sport, and because it is good for their fitness and overall health. Starting 10 year olds on a sports path in hopes of improving college admissions chances is madness. You could help the parents a lot more by telling them that a top tier school is great if it happens, but is NOT required for success in life. Being '“terrified” that your kid won’t get into a top tier school when the kid is 10 is terrible parenting.

15

I may be wrong, but I don’t really think that excelling at or participating for 4 years in a sport is a requirement for getting into “top tier schools”. There are lots of other areas that a kid can focus on.

My kid played volleyball as a freshman but didn’t make the team as a sophomore. We still think he has a chance at some top tier schools (he’s a junior now), because he is a STEM kid and “pointy” rather than well-rounded. Giving up an afterschool sport gave him back the time that has allowed him to do research in a university lab since late sophomore year. He bikes and runs on his own for transportation and exercise, though he could probably do more along those lines if he had time.

16

I think the idea is that the kid will get good enough to be recruited. Even at a D3 school, being an academic recruit can result in an admissions recruiting tip when the kid might not have gotten in otherwise.

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@MaineLonghorn First, the whole everyone gets cheered on does not create athletes for college. That is not what this section is about lol. I played tennis with kids who have parents like that and their skills are next to useless for getting into schools that are worthwhile. Plus low d3 runners are running 25 minute 8k. Running is more about natural ability than work ethic.

To answer op, lacrosse for girls is absolutely the best way to go. I got my friend into lacrosse this year, she is 5’6 and is now talking to williams and amherst as a top recruit. Girls lacrosse has to be the most underutilized path to getting into top schools.

For the boy, DO NOT PICK TENNIS, tennis is getting cut like crazy and is usually the first sport to go when schools are in financial trouble. It is also very expensive, to compete it costs about 30k a year for me to play. Without coaching, I would put it at about 10k.

Put him in a sport that he can excel at. Lacrosse is very under utilized, but he must practice if he wants to use it as an in.

Otherwise I would suggest baseball.

I reccomend going full steam ahead and not scoffing at any price for lacrosse or baseball. Get them the good shoes, pay for the lessons and buy high quality gear. It will make them more excited about it and create a good atmosphere.

Baseball is cheap to compete at high levels, it requires club baseball to travel and 1-2 300$ bats a year. I would price it at about 2-5k a year depending on the club and tournament fees.

Girls lacrosse is similar.

Being an athlete who was recruited heavily by almost every d3 tennis program. Take the path and get them fully invested. It will pay off.

PM me if you would like more help. I have helped write emails for a friend and they had williams responding within 12 hours. Not an assistant either, the head coach.

18

Well, my son was a runner and got recruited by Amherst, Rice, and Washington University (among others), so I think “parents like that” do all right.

19

As a parent of 2 Ivy athletes and a just turned 11 year old, I’ll take a stab at this.

There was no way that we would have had the slightest inkling that our boys would have ended up as recruited athletes based on who they were at 10. They tried out all of the usual sports for that age–soccer, baseball, track events, skiing, a little football. They biked around a lot and went to a lot of road races with their dad because that was what he loved to do. They were okay athletes, pretty awful at some sports and quite good, though never the best on the team, at others. They stayed active, and in high school, grew into their current sport (rowing). But gotta say: as parents, we didn’t even think about crew-- other coaches/peers noticed their size and strengths and recommended that they try it. When they said they wanted to try it, we did the little we needed to do to make it happen, and that was that.

My younger son has a friend who he has grown up with since they were babies who did all of the same sports that he did (okay, not rowing). His final growth spurt is coming late, and athletics weren’t the road to success for him. However, with his parent’s help finding online classes and summer camps, he pursued his other talents and interests–math and computer science, did some solid community service side by side with his dad, and ended up with admits from some of the best D3 schools in the country.

My current 11 yo is trying a lot of stuff out, and not particularly shining at anything. We’re thinking about rowing down the road naturally, but also noting her interest in playing minecraft and that math comes easily to her and that she’s very social and likes to be around a lot of people a lot of the time. But we’re not doing anything in particular about any of that. Ten is the age for exploration.

There is no golden ticket to a great school. I think the best thing we can do as adults is give the kids we love lots of opportunities to have fun and try out different stuff; not take any of it too seriously or push them too hard; spend a lot of time quietly observing them as they grow; and embrace the way their bodies and interests change over the years

Then, as they move into their teen years, listen to what teachers and various coaches notice about the kids’ strenghths, and encourage them them jump into one or two things that they really like and seem to have a knack for. I get why athletics seems like the easy road into a selective college, but 90 percent of high school seniors get in to those schools in other ways.

20

@classicalmama, excellent post. It was similar for my son - at 10, he enjoyed baseball and soccer, but definitely did not stand out. It was in 8th grade that we realized he might have potential when he RAN all 20 miles of a Habitat for Humanity “walk.” He was always small for his age, but around that time he got really fast. And he loved running so much! It was what he was meant to do. One of the heartbreaks of his mental illness is that he doesn’t enjoy running any longer. :frowning: