Who Is an Athlete?

My daughter is a dancer. Currently, she dances three or four days a week; this summer she spent a month at an intensive dance camp. When we pick her up after her lessons, the dance school smells like a gym and the sweat hangs in the air.

My son is a basketball player. He plays in a league in the winter, one game a week with one practice. Our driveway becomes a basketball court as my son and his friends put in some serious one-on-one or two-on-two games.

Who would you say is the athlete? Would you say both? I would. There are a lot of people who don't agree, saying that to be an athlete, one must play a sport. Cheerleaders, as well as dancers, are held to this scrutiny quite often.

However, as a parent, it is important that we recognize that our children who are involved in non-sport physical activity are athletes -- non-competitive athletes who demand the same kind of support as our competitive athletes.

It is important to remember that, for our children, the major value of an athletic activity is its exercise. We want our children to be healthy, which is why I'd encourage parents who do not enjoy sports -- or have children who don't enjoy competitive sports -- to get involved in a non-competitive athletic activity. (Or a non-traditional sport.) These activities also give our children a good sense of self-worth. One reason my daughter started dance was because of her size. She is extraordinarily small, and dance gave her a confidence in her body that she may not have gained otherwise. She is not athletic in a traditional way, so she depends on the grace and poise she has learned from dance to survive gym class.

Competition, especially among young children, is not the end-all for athletes. Learning to connect with your body through physical activity is an important lesson to share with our children. This goes for dancers, football players, or skateboarders.

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