Finding and staying with a sport has been a challenge for Connor.
We did baseball for several seasons when he was younger and he seemed to enjoy it. Coach pitch league was by far his favorite, and he stayed for nearly three years. As soon as he moved up to kid pitch, his love quickly disappeared. He was a catcher in coach pitch, and did the job well. But in kid pitch, kids are throwing, or more accurately, learning to throw. And you can steal bases on wild pitches. So his love ended really quick during a short fall ball season while being expected to catch a lot of uneven and unexpected throws and being able to hold base runners at the same time.
We offered basketball or soccer, and he passed on those. A lot of running, he said.
We did several years of martial arts, both mixed martial arts (MMA) training and Krav Maga (defense). He liked the MMA for a while, until a favorite coach left and the new one didn't have a great style for his age group. He liked Krav Maga with certain coaches, but the two who generally led the class favored a yell and lecture style that was not his favorite (or mine either, to be honest).
We offered lacrosse or archery, thinking those would be good options with middle school teams he might join for friendship and fitting in at a new school (we moved districts last school year, and he's going to school with kids he didn't go to elementary school with). He tried lacrosse. Two seasons (spring and summer) and $700 worth of gear later, he decided it wasn't his thing. It was fun in the youth group (spring), but got considerably more difficult as he aged up into the middle school league (summer). As a new player, it was hard to compete at that level. Plus, that whole lot of running thing again.
He tried out for archery, but because it's so popular, didn't make the cut. He also tends to display a lack of interest in just about everything he does, so I'm sure that didn't help with the selection process among tons of other kids eager to participate and learn. He wasn't very bummed about it, but we're firm believers that you need to do SOMETHING, anything really, to have a group of core friends and learn some since of discipline and accomplishment in life.
He does enjoy flag football, and continues to play that today. He's approaching his fourth season this spring and can play until age 14, so two more years. What he likes, of course, is that it's only one day a week - practice first, then game. And then it's over.
All of the other sports, were multi-day sports and his interest level just wasn't that high. Baseball was five to six days a week during the main season, and three to four during the fall season. Martial arts was either two or three days per week. Lacrosse was three to four days a week.
With team sports out, at least for the moment, we've given him another option for the time being. Going to the YMCA gym with Mom. We try to make it twice a week, depending on when the twins' CLS workers are available to take them on the same days. We do a lot of cycling, some running on the elliptical, and some simply weight machines (arms, rowing, etc.). At least one of the days can be in the indoor pool, with the catch that he has to swim laps for part of the time we're there. Mostly, he chooses the gym. There are screens to watch on many of the machines, which makes him happy. He also has the option of bringing an iPod with music (the phone quickly got banned, as he spent more time watching YouTube and hardly doing anything else).
So far, the flexible schedule and choosing the gym or the pool have worked. We have flag football starting soon, so he's relatively active for the moment. Eating out after the gym also helps, as it turns into fun Mom and Big Boy date nights.
