Parents When did you know your child was an athlete?

[standsonherhands]

After reading another active thread about child versus athlete, I started thinking about when I first knew my child was also an athlete.

For me I think it was about five months after her first gymnastics class when she was 5. She did a beautiful cast to squat on, feet between her hands, stood-up tall, then crashed with her chest onto the bar. I remember watching her from the parents area, having my first instinct to run to my hurt child, and literally holding the edges of my chair (to keep myself in it) thinking, "First let her coach help her, then she will know that coaches take care of her, then she will know that falls are part of gymnastics, then she won't develop fear because mom looks afraid." Of course coach helped and comforted her, then coach invited me over to do the same and dd was OK.

My thinking surpised me. I had never gone against my parenting instinct before. I had never considered her as doing anything more than taking rec gym for fun. Sitting there holding my chair was the first time I saw her as an athlete.

When did you first see the athlete in your child?

 

[lilgymmie7]

My DD was probably about 6 mos. old when my older DD's coach was playing around with her. Coach lifted her little legs as if she was doing a press handstand. My little 6 mos. old kept her hands down on the ground. It was remarkable.
Then as a 2 yo she got away from me and her brother, climbed up on high beam and ran across the beam! I also went against my instinct to run to her. I was actually going to but the owner grabbed me and told me if she is startled she may fall. She did not fall, but I nearly had a heart attack!!Well, that started her gym career. She is now 6 yo and amazes us all daily.

 

[ek2]

I have never thought my children were not athletes. I grew up in a family that was all about staying active, my parents took me on 3 mile runs each morning before school starting at age 8. My dh played baseball, football and ran track all through school. Therefore my kids have all been in some sort of activity since they were little bitty. I will say my gymnast daughter could not do a cartwheel at 7 yrs old. Had the coach, who put her on pre-team, used her then athletic abilities as a measure of future success she would probably be in a different sport. However, she learned fast, grew strong and is now coming into her own as an optional gymnast. Everyone looking at her now would say wow an athlete. But in my opinion "athlete" is a state of mind not an accomplishment. Whether a child is winning or losing, if they are putting their heart into their sport they are a true athlete! BTW one of my favorite movies is about Rudi who became a football star at Notre Dame. We had our kids watch it this past year... what a story about hard work and determination!

 

[Bella's Mom]

I should have known when she was born. Her first check over by the hospital pediatrician.....

She grabbed his finger and he got a shocked look on his face. Being a new mom, I kinda freaked a bit until he reassured me that she was fine. He told me that he couldn't recall a newborn with such a strong grasp.

She was doing straight legged situps at 6 months. She's always been able to pull herself up onto anything as long as she can get her fingers down to the first joint onto it.

Now that's she's older, that strength is normalizing with her peers. She's usually the last kid down for strength/endurance tasks but not all the time anymore.

 

[Gymdad2]

My dd's experience is much like Ek2's. The summer she was on preteam (6yr old) coach told her (and me) that she could begin competition that Fall at L5 if she would get her kip. The change in her attitude and approach was amazing. She because determined to get that kip and she kept at it until she got it. As I recall her first AA was a 25 something, but that was where she changed from a kid doing gymnastics for fun into an athete. The rest is history.

 

[flipper's fan]

DD was almost 3 years old at a gymnastics birthday party. They were walking through an obstacle course and the kids walked down a balance beam and jumped about 3 feet down onto a mat at the end. When DD was on the beam, the coach/adult got distracted. when DD reached the end of the beam, she looked around once, then did a front flip off the end of the beam and got up and ran away before the coach could get there. the coach was totally embarrassed, I was horrified, and DD was delighted.

 

[MdGymMom01]

Probably the first time I really saw my dd as an athlete was when she was in here first year of cheer at the age of 6. The coach would always refer to the kids as "athletes" in his emails to us parents. I used to chuckle at that thinking that these kids are only 5, 6 and 7 years old--they're still babies!! But after I considered the training that they endure and the pressure of competing that they always seemed to handle so well, it dawned on me that they really were athletes.

A funny sidenote: The first time I considered my dd to have "athletic ability" was when she was a baby (probably around 4 months or so) and her pediatrician was doing the check-up. During the exam, while checking her tummy, she said "Oh my goodness! This baby has abs!!" I thought that was amusing!!

 

[MaryA]

I was never atheletic in the least. My girls are twins and, in preschool, Tory was always the one who chose the activities they participated in. She'd say "Let's do dance!" Kathy would say "O.K." and I'd sign them both up for a semester of dance. At the end of it, Tory would say "Let's do ice skating!" Kathy would say, "O.K." and I'd sign them up for a semester if ice skating. Eventually, at the same time they were starting kindgergarten, we came around to "Let's do gymnastics!" When that semester was over, Tory said, "Let's do dance again!" but this time Kathy said, "No, I want to keep doing gymnsatics!" so Tory switched back to dance (and has stuck with it) and Kathy stayed with gymnastics. I never had any inkling that we'd get beyond the Saturday rec classes, but then Kathy got promoted to Gym Stars (pre-team). She told me, "I know why I get to be in Gym Stars!" and slid to the floor in a perfect split. Having never done anything close to a split in my life, I was flabbergasted! Not sure where those genes came from, but she's never looked back!

 

[Midget's Dad]

Midget took ballet for 3 years and there was some tumbling included in that. When we moved to our current house though there was a gym across the street from us so we got her signed up and within a few months she was asked to try out for team, and she made the level 2 team! But the hours between the 2 activities were so high we asked her to make a choice between dance and gym after her recital and she chose gym. That was when it hit me.

 

[ejgymmom]

It's actually been just in the past few months that we're discovering how athletic our daughter is. I was fairly athletic growing up (I was big into snow skiing and tennis) and my husband is super athletic and is one of those guys who is good at everything he tries to do. I think Anna takes after him A LOT. She started gymnastics at about 3 1/2 because she couldn't sit still in ballet. Ironically, she actually sat still at gymnastics and listened and waited her turn. She picked up things pretty quickly I think, and she still is.

Last winter we only made it out skiing two days and on the second day she was skiing down easy green runs by herself...which was actually one of the proudest days in my life.

This summer was pretty eventful. She taught herself to swim and within 10 minutes of figuring out how to keep herself afloat in the water, she could swim 20' across the pool without stopping. She also learned to ride a two-wheeler and in less than a week she was going off of curbs and on easier trails. (My husband is a big downhill mountain biker and is itching to get her out on the trails with him.)

She just seems to pick up things so quickly that we've recently realized that we may have a little athlete on our hands. Now granted she's still 4 (will be 5 in Oct) so we still have a lot of years ahead of us to see where she leads us and whether our suspicions are correct. I'm excited to see which path(s) she takes and will be there to support her in whatever she chooses.

 

[cher062]

She was born into it. Her brother was doing gymnastics at age 3 and she was born when he was 5. Of course as soon as she could walk she wanted to be with big brother so it was off to mommy and me at about 18 mos. By the time she turned 2yo the gym owner wanted her to move to the pre-school class he had set up for "talented" kids after I did warn him that she was still in diaper he still wanted her so I figured why not give it a try. And she has been doing this ever since.

When did I know she was an athelte? I would have to say forever.LOL
At 10 mos she was walking and climbing out of the crib.

 

[Pickle's Mom]

Pickle is 8, and I never really considered her an athlete until this summer when we were at the beach with some of her friends and her friend's mom said "has she always been so athletic?"

She was always the shy, bookish child. In fact, I first put her in gymnastics to get her out of her shell a bit.

She's still bookish. Her goal in life is to be an astrophysicist. But she's also a champion swimmer and a strong competitive gymnast. And when you see her running on the beach, you immediately know she is an athlete.

 

[Bella's Mom]

Her goal in life is to be an astrophysicist.

Absolutely love this!

 

[drivingmom]

LOVE this topic! I knew my dd was really the athlete in the family when she played soccer at 5. She was super fast. She had little foot skills but she was faster than any girl on the field so she could always get the ball and run away with it.

Then she started gymnastics at 6 years old and within 2 weeks was put on team. She is so strong people make comments about her muscles. She is so cut and she is not even super lean.

I love how she can beat most boys running in her class and arm wrestling!

 

[kamgymmom]

I guess I probably didn't officially think of her as an athlete until she actually started competing. I knew early on that she was very athletic, though. She's always been very coordinated and picked up skills easily. Before committing to gym, she played soccer and softball and did very well with both of them. It's funny thinking back to her playing soccer..every time she scored a goal (which was at least once or twice a game) she ran across the field and launched herself into a round-off! It was very cute!

 

[Shelovesthebars]

I guess when my brother made the comment about how irrestibly cute my little girl is. He went on to say that too bad that all the little boys will want to play with her but she will just beat them up because she is so strong. His words, not mine.

 

[Kiwi]

I never thought of my DDs as athletes before, but younger DD is a born performer. She loves to sing and dance, at 4 she asked to learn ballet, so she has been doig ballet classes since then. She was doing pre-school rec gym at three and a half (older DD was also doing rec gym). It was so funny, she would get impatient with the other kids being too slow and run right past them to get to the front!

Then at 6 she went in a novice competition and did quite well, in her second novice competition she hurt herself doing a bridge in warm-up. She came over in tears with the coach and it sounded like she maybe wasn't going to compete. I said, why not go with the coach and see how you feel, and give it a go if you feel up to it. So off she went and performed quite well. Soon after that we got a letter inviting her into the pre-comp class.

 

[Galadriel]

I think there is a difference between 'athlete' and 'athletic' (in my mind anyway)
My eldest has always been athletic as have my 3rd and 4th children. My second eldest has always been 'arty' and pretty non athletic!
The eldest learnt to ride a bike very early, got picked for team in her rec gym class - they were 'oohing and aahing' about how they were amazed she could do chin ups at 4 - I didnt realise it was any big deal - she had been doing the monkey bars at the playground all that summer and pulling herself up on the bar into her bunk bed for ages!
She did well at a rec athletics club and they were like - she's got very broad shoulders - man shoulders!
She was picked for all the school teams.
For me it was just 'kids sports' - yes she was sporty - great - its healthy, shes getting self confidence etc
I only really considered her an 'athlete' when something seemed to change in her attitude and her focus.
Achieving success somehow became amazingly important to her. Its hard to describe the change, because she always worked hard in her club, she did the home conditioning, was known to be a dedicated easy to coach type kid, but somehow it all upped a gear. She worked even harder, consistently, asked me to buy her healthy food, worked out at home more, examined you tube, others at competitions, asked to go on judging and coaching courses to find out how to improve more. I would say i see her as an athlete now since age 15 - 16.
But she has always been 'athletic'

 

[Tuduri]

First Signs

There have been good athletes on both my wife's and my side of the family. In addition, my two nieces(my identical twin brother's kids)were level ten and elite gymnasts. (They're quite older than my daughter). So I anticipated my daughter would be athletic. I just didn't know what sport she would take up.

At the age of four my daughter ran a mile non-stop with me. Not fast, mind you, but it was her first time and she wasn't even tired. I had visions of her being an elite runner at the time. Then when she was six, Jamy, my daughter, accompanied me to a kick-boxing gym I trained at. The owner introduced her to one of his female boxers(literally, a 'knock-out', Lol)and the two began to train together. I had visions of Jamy becoming a black belt in some martial art. Ten years later we still have Jamy's little leather boxing gloves amongst all her gymnastics medals and trophies she has accumulated.

Jamy learned how to jump rope(and throw mean punches) just like the pro boxers at our gym. Later, when she started gymnastics at the age of eight, she was doing all kinds of crazy jump roping from the very beginning at her gym, and doing so on the beam no less!

Jamy was on the recreational side of the gym for about six months before they told her she was invited to join the level five team. She competed for the first time about 6 months later. Jamy was selected to train for TOPs early on. Now she is 14 and about to do level ten.

It must of been that first mile she ran with me.

 

[Mariainlv]

Im not sure I do. J is athletic, to be sure. Her father and I have commented many times that physically, she just "gets" things. I have never though, thought of her as an athlete. In my minds eye, an athlete conjures up something different than my little 7 year old.

My eldest is more of a thinker but I dont classify her as an intellectual, so it would be weird for me to classify J as an athlete, if that makes sense?

I guess for me, all 3 of my kids have different strengths and I never stopped to think about it.