The Magic of Individual Sports
Not all sports are created equal. As a result of symptoms like difficulty following directions, kids with ADHD often excel at sports that offer one-on-one coach attention and clear rules. Learn more from these expert recommendations.
3 Comments: The Magic of Individual Sports
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Advertisement
Um, hey…I appreciate the writers of this article and this article does raise good points (fellow ADHDer who’s bad at sports here but), but it ignores the fact that ADHD can ALSO be the reason some kids excel at team sports. I also find it super interesting how the least ADHD friendly sports according to this article are the ones with the highest ratio of ADHD to non-ADHD professional players.
“Some athletes with ADHD naturally excel in baseball and basketball, as these sports involve quick movements and reactive decision-making that could be linked to the athlete’s impulsivity (Parr 2011).”
“Recent statistics put out by Major League Baseball show the incidence of ADHD among their ranks is twice as high as in the general adult population, at about 9 percent versus 4.4 percent in the 14-44 age range (National Institute of Mental Health study, 2006. For the 5-17 age group the incidence is 11%). ”
“researchers found that he rate of participation in contact sports like football, hockey and lacrosse for athletes with ADHD was 142 percent more than in non-contact sports. Athletes with ADHD were twice as likely to compete in team sports.” –quote from study by Dr. James Borscher, director of the division of sports medicine at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center.
I trust ADDitude as a source, but I feel like this article could have acknowledged that ADHD, affects everyone differently and is also the very thing that pushes people to be elite players.” After all, ADHDers do tend to be found at either the highest or the lowest extremes of skill level across different fields, thanks to a little thing called “hyper focus” and “investing a lot of time in a skill to escape reality”–which for me has been sedentary pursuits like art, animation, research-work, writing and coding because I too am very bad at sports, but for my more athletic counterparts… maybe not. So yes. But still, thank you for covering this topic.
Lacrosse has worked out pretty well for our ADHD son. The physical demands are similar to soccer, though there’s typically more substitution (at least at elementary age levels). Coordination requirements are a bit higher (learning to throw and catch with a stick), but manageable, and if your child wants to practice on his own, you can get a rebounder.
I want to recommend one sport that is jumping on trampolines, I have read about this game but this needs a proper attention and could be played under the surveillance of parents. It’s a funny bouncy game with no rule. The best thing I love.