I was a total clutz at age 7, so bad that my mom wouldn't let me carry the eggs when we unloaded the groceries. At age 9 my mom signed me up for football. As we were not a football-watching family, the only thing I knew about it was that I could get hurt. But I did it anyway, and that was basically the turning point for me and athletics.
Maybe at age 9 it was touch football. But NYT headlines such as
Brain Trauma to Affect One in Three Players, N.F.L. Agrees causes me to doubt that we would allow our sons to play tackle football, not that they have expressed the desire to do so. I'll admit to not knowing if the results for the NFL can be generalized to college and high school football. Soccer with heading may also be disallowed -- there have been studies on that too.
