adurso
Contributor
I have to speak as a parent right now. I saw a lot of benefit in my kids doing team-related sports when they were youngsters. Teamwork, leadership, sportsmanship, and learning how to win or lose were all good lessons from sports. At age 7, any boy can get on the soccer team, but if he starts the sport at age 17, it may be difficult. And most boys have more fun playing "king of the hill" on a big pile of dirt than anything else.
Tree house fun is special to a youngster, but you may not regularly visit one yourself. BB guns? Stickball? That's fun for kids.
Diving can be fun and enjoyable at any age. Kids can have fun at it too, but parents should leave plenty of room for those fun parts of childhood that a kid will outgrow.
All children are not as yours. There are any number of children who have zero interest in soccer, stickball, or dirt climbing.
Denying a child an opportunity to experience something they want to experience (safely and securely with other parameters met) because it may take time away from "team sports" is not fair to the child.
As an aside, you may live in an alternate dimension of Florida if children are "learning to lose" where you are....rec sports generally give everyone trophies and do not start keeping score until they are older.....the lesson the children come away with is "everyone is a winner"....which creates problems later on in life