Getting girls to do sports

I went to a lecture this evening on building self-esteem in girls via
sports. I dragged my 8th grade daughter along (she resisted mightily
being seen in public with me) and while there I dropped a major
bombshell on her: I am going to require that she do a high school team
sport at least one season per year for the next four years.

I'll snip the outrage - she responds with outrage to everything I say
(including "eat your breakfast" and "turn down the TV".) But the gist
of it is that she wants to know what I mean by a sport.

I told her my sports were weight-lifting and running, but I'd let her
pick her own, though I'd prefer she picked a sport that she could do as
an adult. Who plays field hockey when they're 35? But they might play
tennis or run or play softball.

She says she wants to ice skate. I immediately thought of Barbara
Hirsch and said that I would consider it, but I doubt there's a high
school ice skating team. She already does karate, a non-team sport, and
one of my goals is for her to get some of the team dynamic lessons that
high school sports teams teach you.

She also said weight-lifting wasn't a sport. I told her anything that
they did in the olympics counted as a sport. :-) But she did have a
point, that it wasn't team based. It's a lot like her karate.

I believe that the benefits of high school team sports are so important
that I really do intend on insisting she do them. (I'll require the
same of my sons.) But how shall I handle her request to do non-team things?

Dally, who was a three-season varsity athlete in her day

I was in marching band in high school just to avoid sports lol.... anyway,
it was a lot of hard work! I remember meeting during summer break for hours
a day in the 100+ degree summer sun...

"jmk" wrote in

As for the team/non team thing. Sorry, I can't help much there. To be
honest, I probably got as much "team" stuff out of band as sports.

--
jmk in NC

Dally wrote:

I went to a lecture this evening on building self-esteem in girls via
sports. I dragged my 8th grade daughter along (she resisted mightily
being seen in public with me) and while there I dropped a major
bombshell on her: I am going to require that she do a high school team
sport at least one season per year for the next four years.

In a way I was lucky. I went to middle school and started high school
in Iowa. In 8th grade one of the major topics of discussion was "what
sport are you going to go out for?" I did cross country, winter track
and track (and band). By the end I had dropped spring track but I still
managed to keep plenty busy. In college I had a knee injury -- bad
enough to make running really unpleasant but no so bad that anyone else
felt that it required intervention -- and I stopped running.

As for the team/non team thing. Sorry, I can't help much there. To be
honest, I probably got as much "team" stuff out of band as sports.

--
jmk in NC

jmk wrote:


Dally wrote:

I went to a lecture this evening on building self-esteem in girls via
sports. I dragged my 8th grade daughter along (she resisted mightily
being seen in public with me) and while there I dropped a major
bombshell on her: I am going to require that she do a high school
team sport at least one season per year for the next four years.


In a way I was lucky. I went to middle school and started high school
in Iowa. In 8th grade one of the major topics of discussion was "what
sport are you going to go out for?" I did cross country, winter track
and track (and band). By the end I had dropped spring track but I still
managed to keep plenty busy. In college I had a knee injury -- bad
enough to make running really unpleasant but no so bad that anyone else
felt that it required intervention -- and I stopped running.

As for the team/non team thing. Sorry, I can't help much there. To be
honest, I probably got as much "team" stuff out of band as sports.

Your history sounds like my history. Spring of my senior year I did
tennis instead of track and was shocked to find a sport that didn't
HURT! :-) And I was in band, too.

But my kid plays the piano.

Dally

On Tue, 03 Feb 2004 21:35:13 -0500, Dally wrote:

She also said weight-lifting wasn't a sport. I told her anything that
they did in the olympics counted as a sport. :-) But she did have a
point, that it wasn't team based. It's a lot like her karate.

Well, it's team-based in the sense that one often competes as part of
a team, and there are team awards in addition to individual awards.
And of course in international competitions such as the olympics,
there are national teams.


I believe that the benefits of high school team sports are so important
that I really do intend on insisting she do them. (I'll require the
same of my sons.) But how shall I handle her request to do non-team things?

I'm not sure I share your view of the value of team sports. I don't
disagree, but I never did any, and in fact my high school didn't even
have any for girls. (Way before Title 9 !) But anyway, I think the
benefits of sports and benefits of team activities are maybe
separable. Perhaps your daughter could do ice skating as her sport
and something like debate team in school? She'd still get both of
these benefits that way, and while doing things perhaps more of
interest to her.

Chris (who was captain of her high school math team :-) )

Hey I never said I was born here, but I got her as fast as I could!

Actually, I was born in Brooklyn and have been in Texas since I was 14.
Between 10-14, I lived in Florida and Mass. My dad moved us with his
different jobs. The heat was shocking to me when I first got here. Now, I
tolerate it because the weather here is great (for the most part) 9 mos of
the year.

"Dally" wrote in message

Ah, that's what you get for being born in Texas. :-)

Dally, much cleverer in choosing her parents

I think team sports can boomerang. I had unpleasant experiences in junior
high school by being forced to play team sports. In fact, the whole thing
turned me off completely to the notion of team sports.

Having said that, though, maybe she could try something team-oriented and if
that doesn't work out, she could be given the option to select something
else and get the team stuff from a different venue (like debate, etc. which
others have suggested).

Best to you in your efforts,
Cat

"Dally" wrote in message
...
I went to a lecture this evening on building self-esteem in girls via
sports. I dragged my 8th grade daughter along (she resisted mightily
being seen in public with me) and while there I dropped a major
bombshell on her: I am going to require that she do a high school team
sport at least one season per year for the next four years.

I'll snip the outrage - she responds with outrage to everything I say
(including "eat your breakfast" and "turn down the TV".) But the gist
of it is that she wants to know what I mean by a sport.

I told her my sports were weight-lifting and running, but I'd let her
pick her own, though I'd prefer she picked a sport that she could do as
an adult. Who plays field hockey when they're 35? But they might play
tennis or run or play softball.

She says she wants to ice skate. I immediately thought of Barbara
Hirsch and said that I would consider it, but I doubt there's a high
school ice skating team. She already does karate, a non-team sport, and
one of my goals is for her to get some of the team dynamic lessons that
high school sports teams teach you.

She also said weight-lifting wasn't a sport. I told her anything that
they did in the olympics counted as a sport. :-) But she did have a
point, that it wasn't team based. It's a lot like her karate.

I believe that the benefits of high school team sports are so important
that I really do intend on insisting she do them. (I'll require the
same of my sons.) But how shall I handle her request to do non-team
things?

Dally, who was a three-season varsity athlete in her day

Chris (who was captain of her high school math team :-) )

Way to go, Chris! I was captain of the high school math phobia team.

Cat (who overcame her phobia and likes math quite a lot)

Perple Gyrl wrote:

I was in marching band in high school just to avoid sports lol.... anyway,
it was a lot of hard work! I remember meeting during summer break for hours
a day in the 100+ degree summer sun...

Ah, that's what you get for being born in Texas. :-)

Dally, much cleverer in choosing her parents

On Tue, 03 Feb 2004 21:35:13 -0500, Dally wrote:


I believe that the benefits of high school team sports are so important
that I really do intend on insisting she do them. (I'll require the
same of my sons.) But how shall I handle her request to do non-team things?


I hated sports. The only team I was even interested in was soccer. My
parents wanted to boost my chances of making the team, so they sent me
to a 3 day soccer a clinic a month before the tryouts. I realized then
how little I knew and how out of shape I was. It was a wakeup, and I
was so disappointed that I never even tried out.

Granted, at that time, I did not know that I had asthma. I had my
first actual asthma attack at the age of 17, and was officially
diagnosed at age 19. thinking back, I know I had some mild attacks at
the age of 12. I didn't know what they were, and they went away fairly
quickly. I didn't tell my parents about them until after I was
diagnosed with asthma.

As far as I know, the only team sports offered at my school we

fotball
soccer
basketball
baseball/softball
volleyball
wrestling
track


Some schools had swimming and tennis.

None of those appealed to me. But then, the only sport ever liked
playing was soccer, and that was back when I was 8 or 9 years old.

Now, in order to play on a high school team, you have to be good. You
have to try out for the team and be good enough to make it.

As long as she is being physcially active, I wouldn't push a
requirement. I didn't do any sports, but I did get a paper route my
freshman year. I was walking 4 miles a day after school.

We moved that summer, so I had to give up the route. I don't think I
did that much sophomore year. Junior year, I got a job, so I was
physically active that way. I was a little overweight during high
school, but not very much. It wasn't until after college that I
started creeping up on the weight. I was walking less and hadn't cut
my eating or replaced the missing exercise.



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