I wasn’t very athletic as a child.  Yes, I played rec soccer and little league, and I learned to play tennis, but a lot of that was my parents’ insistance that I play some sports.  (I did ski, but there’s a reason I don’t quite hold that in the same class, as will be apparent shortly.)

The irony is that as I’ve gotten older, I have taken up more sports on my own – I’m a curler (if my profile picture hasn’t given that away), I enjoy the occasional volleyball game, and I dabble with golf.  The major difference is that I now mostly participate in sports for the social aspect, and gravitate towards sports that emphasize that – for example, I don’t think I’d enjoy golf as much, especially with my horrible handicap, if it didn’t offer the opportunity for me to chat with the rest of my foursome.

It’s also why I’ve wondered at finding similar activities for the Monster.

Part of the issue has been his ongoing physical and occupational therapy – I’m not sure how he’d handle the coordination necessary for some of the sports.  I can’t imagine, for instance, trying to teach him golf.  He hasn’t gotten down kicking a ball well enough for me to start considering signing him up for soccer.  And curling doesn’t start for children at our club until age 6 for insurance reasons.

Baltimore does have a special needs hockey team – the Baltimore Saints – which takes kids five and up.  My wife heard a presentation from them last night at the Hearing and Speech Agency and they’ve said they’re willing to consider four year olds if they can separate from their parents (the Monster’s not had an issue with that).  We’ll be taking him out for a ‘tryout’ of sorts in a few weeks to see how he does with that on the thought that the activity might do him some good, plus there’s the opportunity for him to work on social skills with teammates who aren’t so far ahead of him developmentally.

I also need to find the webpage for a program at some curling club in the upper Midwest where they do run programs for children and adults on the spectrum with their local ARC.  I would love to start a program at my club, if only with the idea of getting the Monster into curling when he’s a little older….