What if a child simply hasn't met their sport yet?

Children start forming an idea of themselves as athletes surprisingly early. But that picture is built from the sports and forms of movement they have actually experienced. One unexpected encounter at school can add something new to that story.

There is an American football sitting in the school gym. For some children, it is the first one they have ever held. The shape feels strange. Throwing it works differently. The rules are unfamiliar. Basketball presents another problem again: the target is above you, space works differently and cooperation develops a different rhythm.

For one child, it is simply another PE lesson. For another, something unfamiliar turns out to fit surprisingly well. TNS coach Rakran Mateen has seen schools respond positively to that kind of variety during basketball and flag-football programmes. Staff at several schools told him that children in their local environment had long been exposed predominantly to football and welcomed the introduction of something different.

In another school gym, that first unfamiliar encounter could just as easily be climbing, dance, badminton, judo, athletics or another form of play. The specific sport is not the central point. What matters is what can happen when a child meets a way of moving they have never used to judge themselves before.

Many young people still don't know which sport suits them

Choosing a sport sounds straightforward. For many young people, it isn't. Research commissioned by NOC*NSF in 2025 among more than 3,800 Dutch teenagers aged 13 to 18 found that more than 65 per cent had doubts about choosing a sport. The research also identified periods in which young people appear particularly open to discovering something new: ages 5–10 and again 13–15.

Sporting preference is not fixed early for everyone. That fits the philosophy behind Dutch physical education. SLO, the Dutch curriculum-development organisation, describes primary PE as an opportunity to build a broad movement repertoire. Children encounter different forms of movement and games and can use those experiences to orient themselves towards the wider world of sport and movement outside school.

The value of variety therefore reaches beyond motor learning. Children are also collecting experiences that help answer a much more personal question: what do I actually enjoy doing?

Variety can reveal something

A US study using a national survey of high-school students found that young people who participated in a greater number of different physical activities also tended to report greater enjoyment of physical activity and higher participation. The analysis of the number of activities used data from 7,842 adolescents.

Because the study was observational, it cannot show that variety automatically causes greater enjoyment. The researchers did, however, point to a practically important possibility: experiencing different activities gives adolescents more opportunities to identify forms of movement they genuinely enjoy.

A 2023 systematic review found a similar pattern across 28 studies. Variety was related to outcomes including motivation, interest, enjoyment, engagement and participation, while the authors also called for more experimental research to clarify exactly how those relationships work. Enjoyment, though, appears to be only part of the story. Equally interesting is the feeling: I can do this.

When 'I'm not good at sport' becomes less certain

Children constantly compare themselves with previous experiences, classmates and teammates. Gradually a sporting self-image forms: I'm fast, I'm good with a ball, PE isn't for me, sport suits me — or it doesn't.

Research into perceived physical competence suggests that this self-perception matters. A Finnish longitudinal study followed 333 young people for six years. How physically competent they believed themselves to be at around age 12 predicted the amount of moderate and vigorous physical activity they reported six years later.

Another longitudinal study involving 1,364 children examined enjoyment and sport self-concept. Greater enjoyment of physical activity in Grade 5 was associated one year later with a more positive sport self-concept, greater reported physical activity and continued enjoyment. Interestingly, the amount of moderate-to-vigorous activity completed during PE itself did not predict those later outcomes.

There is an important distinction in that. A lesson can get a child moving. An experience can also change what a child thinks about their own capabilities. A child who has mainly judged themselves through football, running or familiar PE activities meets a different set of problems in basketball, flag football, climbing, dance, badminton or judo. Different skills matter. Different rules apply. A previous conclusion about being 'good at sport' does not necessarily transfer unchanged.

A new sport is not an automatic reset

There is an important limit to this idea. If almost nobody in a class knows a particular sport, existing differences do not suddenly disappear. Motor experience from other activities can transfer. Confidence travels with the child. And the quality of instruction still matters. There is no robust evidence that an unfamiliar sport automatically erases existing social or sporting hierarchies within a class. It is an appealing idea, but too strong a claim.

The broader evidence is firmer. Varied, inclusive and developmentally appropriate movement environments give children different contexts in which to experience skill, confidence and enjoyment. UNESCO explicitly identifies variety and inclusion as characteristics of quality physical education and connects quality PE with physical competence, confidence and sustained engagement in physical activity.

An introduction therefore does not need to function as a magic solution. A child does not have to join a basketball club after one lesson for the encounter to matter. It can already be valuable if the experience expands an assumption they had made about sport — or about themselves.

School also reaches the child who belongs to no club

That is where school occupies an unusual position. Almost every child is there, including the child who is not already finding their way into organised sport elsewhere. A Flemish study involving 1,049 children across 30 primary schools examined voluntary extracurricular sports organised through school. Among children who did not participate in organised community sport, 65 per cent nevertheless took part in sport offered through their school.

The cross-sectional study cannot tell us whether those children then remained active for years. It does show that the school environment can bring sporting opportunities to children who are not already participating outside school. This does not require schools to become sports clubs. Physical education has a much broader educational purpose. That is precisely why school can do something a club finds harder: let a child encounter an activity without first requiring them to know which sport they want to choose.

A school does not need to predict which child will eventually become a basketball player, footballer, dancer, climber, judoka or runner. It can open enough different doors for children to discover that sport is larger than the experiences they have had so far. 'I'm not sporty' sounds like a conclusion. Sometimes it is mainly a conclusion drawn from a still-small set of experiences.

Add another ball, another game or another way of moving, and the question can change. Not: am I sporty? But: which sport fits me?

Sources

The following sources were used for the factual and scientific basis of this article.

• SLO (2023). Karakteristiek – bewegingsonderwijs. Link — https://www.slo.nl/thema/meer/tule/bewegingsonderwijs/karakteristiek/

• NOC*NSF (2025). Sportbehoeften jongeren 13–18 jaar. Link — https://www.nocnsf.nl/sportbonden/breedtesport/sportbehoeften-jongeren-13-18-jaar

• Michael, S. L., Coffield, E., Lee, S. M. & Fulton, J. E. (2016). Variety, Enjoyment, and Physical Activity Participation Among High School Students. Journal of Physical Activity and Health, 13(2), 223–230. Link — https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26107142/

• Eather, N., McLachlan, E., Sylvester, B., Beauchamp, M., Sanctuary, C. & Lubans, D. (2023). The Provision and Experience of Variety in Physical Activity Settings: A Systematic Review of Quantitative and Qualitative Studies. Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology, 45(3), 148–165. Link — https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37169353/

• Jaakkola, T., Yli-Piipari, S., Watt, A. & Liukkonen, J. (2016). Perceived physical competence towards physical activity, and motivation and enjoyment in physical education as longitudinal predictors of adolescents’ self-reported physical activity. Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport, 19(9), 750–754. Link — https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26671711/

• Ramer, J. D., Houser, N. E., Duncan, R. J. & Bustamante, E. E. (2021). Enjoyment of Physical Activity—Not MVPA during Physical Education—Predicts Future MVPA Participation and Sport Self-Concept. Sports, 9(9), 128. Link — https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34564333/

• De Meester, A., Aelterman, N., Cardon, G., De Bourdeaudhuij, I. & Haerens, L. (2014). Extracurricular school-based sports as a motivating vehicle for sports participation in youth: a cross-sectional study. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 11, 48. Link — https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24708585/

• UNESCO (2015). Quality Physical Education (QPE): Guidelines for Policy-Makers. Link — https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000231101