re: Dance for young boys to help with sports

what does the kid want to do?

Does that even enter the equation?

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HuskyPanda
Penn State Fan
Prairieville
Member since Feb 2018
1215 posts

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I applaud you for looking for outside suggestions because of your team’s…. you know….history?

What could go wrong?

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My son is 8

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No 8 year old has great control over his body.

Just put him in another sport. Do *not* put him in dance. 70s parents though this was a good idea, but you know what also helps with footwork? different kinds of practice. Lacrosse (My son played 3 positions in one game today, and his footwork was pretty good), soccer, flag football, (baseball is largely bullshite in terms of skills development at that age), etc. shite, put him in a ninja camp that teaches parkour.

You will never hear 80% of the crap he hears from other boys his age making fun of him if you enroll him in dance. Sorry, I must correct, the girls will torture him, talk about it in class, and then the boys will go after him. Do not do.

As many have already said….He’s only 8 dude. Just sign him up every year for whatever sport HE wants to play thru your local Y or city rec league. Work with him at home on fundamentals if he is interested and just let him develop naturally. By the time he is in 7th or 8th grade you will know for sure if he has the natural athleticism to stand apart from the average kids his age. If he does AND HE has interest in it, look for more specialized training then.

I signed each of my kids up once for every sport as they were old enough to play and made them play one full season. After that it was up to them. I would let them know when it was time to sign up and they would let me know if they wanted to play. My only rule was once you signed up you had to play entire season.

My son was very athletic and it showed very early. Superb hand eye coordination, great agility and always the 2nd or third fasted kid in his grade every year thru his senior year. He was also ultra competitive. Only problem was he very undersized. Usually one of the smaller kid on any team he was on. Played soccer for awhile then quit even though it was by far his best sport. Hated baseball. Of all sports he stuck with football and basketball. Really stood out in middle school because of his athleticism but quit by his junior year due to his size. Was still proud of him. He was still on his high school basketball team his sophomore year and getting playing time. He was 5’7” 125lbs white boy. But he was left handed point guard with a nasty crossover, good passing skills, and would pick your pocket in a heartbeat.

Just let your kid be a kid and play. You will know by high school if he has IT or not. Even if he does, he may decide sports aren’t for by then. Some kids would prefer to hunt and fish and chase tail on Saturday night. Who knows. But right now you are over thinking it. Just let him be a kid and have fun playing.

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and if he’s straight - he will absolutely CLEAN UP when it comes time to start dating girl

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There are a couple of qualifications there.

1) Even if you can't dance, but you try, if a chick wants you, she's going to take it.

2) If you want your kid to get hit on by divorcees (I wouldn't mind it now), this works. How many 19 year old girls know what a Foxtrot, Salsa or Paso Doble is? They just want dudes that will try to dance with them. They sure AF don't know what they are doing either.

3) The boy needs to understand rhythm, but listening to the what happens in my nine year old daughters dance class, it's about moves and timing. That's great if your son is dancing to a song he's heard 35 times. Not good a a club.

If they can do a two step, they're more advanced than 70% of boys. According to "normal" music. They may not be break dancing, but they'll know how to put hands on a woman's hip and create contact, badda bing.

My cousin and I took dance classes as kids to be better at sports and we pretty much dominated football and basketball. I can’t say for sure it worked, because we were naturally athletically gifted and may have dominated regardless. Did get one of my first girlfriends through that class, so that was something.

Lateral movement work, cone drills, box jumps, and sprints are gonna help 1000 times more than dance will.

Not saying dance isn’t graceful but what you are wanting is for him to be better athletically with his footwork and if so then work athletic footwork drills