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Children Active in sports My two girls, aged 10 and 11, are both very active in all types of sports especially volleyball and swimming. At first both were good in their studies, too. After they started representing the district in state games they seemed to lack concentration in their studies. This led to a drop in their results and even a complaint from the school teacher.

Should I restrict them to only two games as I have been told they won't excel in any one sport if they play too many sports. If one of my girls is interested in attending the sports school in Bukit Jalil, should I work towards it? And where should I start?

Kindly advise.

Answer

Answered by Shebby Wow! That is really wonderful. Not one but two daughters who excel in sports. Okay, first, they are too young to pick and specialise in one sport. At the moment they have an interest and passion and you should encourage them but not at the cost of their education. Poor results mean NO sport! This bargaining chip will stand them in good stead.

Second, when the time comes to pick a particular sport to specialise in, please consider the physique factor ie are the girls sufficiently built for volleyball where height is a crucial factor? Also pick a sport in which we as a country excel ie swimming,squash and badminton. This will enable the girls to enjoy and experience a better quality of technical expertise and organisation.

With regards to the Bukit Jalil Sports School, I am personally not in favour of young kids or teenagers being taken away from their parents and home environment and my advice will be to perhaps give this some thought.

As a first step, please get in touch with Puan Zaiton Othman of the NSC (Tel: 03-8992-9990, email: zaiton(AT)nsc.gov.my, tell her Shebby asked you to call her) and seek her expertise to do testing and analysis of their physical capacity before deciding on a sport for serious consideration.

Please do not hesitate to ask more questions.

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Shebby Speaks

  • Shebby Singh

    Shebby Singh

    Shebby Singh is well known in Malaysia as a football analyst and pundit. But there is something else that he has a lot of experience in - parenting.

    Having been a dad for more than 20 years, he joins ParenThots to give his brand of "tough love" advice to parents.

    No side-stepping the issues or treading carefully here, Shebby tells it as it is. If he thinks a child needs a spanking, he'll tell you so. If he thinks you're spoiling your child, you'll know about it.