Gretchen Ronnevik@garonnevik
Many of these points are the reason why we conciously chose cross country skiing as our kids sport. Granted, we had a season of Tae Kwon Do. It was only twice a week, it was cheap, and it taught self control.
But skiing was always the thing. Full disclosure: there was a season when one of our kids turned 16 when travel became an argument in our family, as he started racing on the national stage. But he's grown up now, and manages his own travel for his national races so we don't argue about it anymore.
BUT the reason we picked it as our family's sport might be helpful when considering the standards and goals we have for ALL sports we put our kids in.
1) XC skiing is a lifelong sport. My husband has skiied in the Birkie race in Wisconsin for 15+ years. It's basically a XC ski marathon race with thousands of skiers--the biggest yearly race in America. He's done this for ages, and not only does it keep him active and healthy, it gets him outside in the winter, which is vital for mental health. Not to mention, old people beat him on this race every year. You'll see people at this race who are old, and in shape, and it's due to skiing for decades.
So many sports in America that are presented to kids are "for a season" sports. You don't see 80 year old football players. You don't say "he's so in shape because he kept with wrestling for decades." So many sports that we choose are blast and burnout. Go hard, then do nothing. We wanted a sport our kids could do their whole lives and would be a lifelong healthy habit to instill. In America we talk about sports as something for the youth, not something for the human.
2) XC skiing is a family sport. We can go skiing as a family, in our range of ages. Our kids grew up on the trail, not because we wanted them to be awesome skiers, but because that's what we were doing, and they came along. We saw so many families split up, and never sitting home and eating together because this kid was in this sport, with this schedule, and this kid is in this sport with that schedule. We wanted to be together, and give our kids that stability.
3) XC skiing is one of the most amazing community sports. Everyone is rooting for everyone. Everyone is trying to beat their personal best. The competition is almost always against yourself, and if you just want to go slow and enjoy the woods, that's encouraged too. You'll see skiers from different teams follow each other, root for each other. You'll see coaches just coach the kid closest to them. A move forward for one athlete is a move forward for the whole sport. Our kids have tried out other sports and the parents there were intense, and I just couldn't handle it. They were consumed with these 4 precious years their son or daughter would be doing this, and they had to make the most of every second, and ramp up everything to 150%. Not so in skiing. You don't age out, and we're all on this journey.
4) We have let our kids stop racing if they want, but skiing is still something our family does. Our oldest wanted to dedicate more time to music and theater, so she dropped off of ski team halfway through high school. If you decide not to compete, you're still hitting the trails with us when our family does. You don't ever have to go cold turkey, or make agonizing decisions that effect how to spend all your waking moments. It's never all or nothing.
The Norwegians are good at this, because it's woven into their culture. Our culture is to push hard and burn out our kids. Most XC skiers peak about age 30 on the racing scene. It's a long game. It's a lifelong thing to be active.
So the question we might want to ask with kids in sports (since not everyone lives by snow) is, "how will this help them be a healthier adult," and "how will this help develop a culture supportive of healthy family activity, for kids, middle aged parents, and the elderly?"
