Don't know if this post belongs here, but I was wondering who else has trouble with coordination & participating in sports.
When I was young I never rollerskated or participated in competive sports, bcause I was lousy at them & that didn't make me feel to inclined to join in. I have tried to learn to swim proper strokes, ski, posting on horseback & remembering dance routines among other things.
Just wondering if anyone else experiences these frustrations.

Coordination problems often do occur with ADD. I always had trouble with coordination, and dreaded gym class. These days, there are a number of terms they use to describe these coordination problems, like dyspraxia, developmental coordination disorder, etc. Here are some threads that you might be interested in:

http://www.addforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4017
http://www.addforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8286

I was in marching band colorguard/flag line for 6 years (high school and college)....

I'd guess that I musta had some coordination to be able to spin a flag, march, do dance moves...etc....but it would be really calculated for me before I could get it all together.

I suck at sports, dunno if it has anything to do with ADD.

Used to be in marching band, but I was pretty awful at it.

I was gifted with extraordinary eye hand coordination. I'm a watch and clock maker. I juggled about 5 hours a day during my off time at college.

More times than not I catch the soap before it hits the floor. I catch things other people drop. It freaks some people out. My dog loves it and eggs me on. She's very quick, and big!

I also have excellent estimations of volume, as in "will all that go in there?" I haven't really found much of a use for the volume thang. It's a bit of a joke when my youngest brother and I get together though. He has the same ability. He's cultivated his to a fine art. We compete. He wins usually.
ian

lousy coordination?
yes!

along with my "adhd and add with asperger syndrome traits" diagnosis, i was diagnosed with dcd (developmental coordination disorder).

I swam competitively and ran track growing up, but those things don't really require any coordination. Really terrible at dancing and learning any sorts of moves though. And I'm always bumping into walls or knicking myself on corners without meaning to, haha...my husband calls me his little spaz.

I find that I injure myself a lot more if I let myself run out of meds! :rolleyes: I've always had difficulty getting my body to do what I want. Fancy dance moves, sports, etc., were always awkward for me. The one thing I did fairly well in was running, but as pinkie said, that's not too challenging, coordination-wise.

I'm very uncoordinated I fall going upstairs, like krisp before meds i would hurt myself evryday on something. When i play sports i feel unccoordinated and oters tell me i look that way. Forget about dancing the only thing i could do was pogo & slam...which usually resulted in me getting injured.:rolleyes:

Oh come on there has to be someone with some coordination here! I feel so lonely.. < g > Injuries?.. ouch

Well, it isn't me. I sucked at sports, and still do, although a few years ago I noticed that I was marginally better than I was as a kid. My daughter is a total klutz, but my son does OK.

Sorry, Ian, you just might be our token coordinated person! ;)

It sure looks like I'm in the minority for sure!

I had and have awful coordination.

I just made a wobble board because I heard that practicing to balance helps both the coordination and the ADD. Supposedly, it is the same part of the brain for both and using a wobble board has been shown to help kids' attention/concentration.

I am going to have my son practice on the wobble board.

Ok Steve.. need the constuction details.. I've never heard of this thing.
ian

I had and have awful coordination.

I just made a wobble board because I heard that practicing to balance helps both the coordination and the ADD. Supposedly, it is the same part of the brain for both and using a wobble board has been shown to help kids' attention/concentration.

I am going to have my son practice on the wobble board.

it sounds a bit like the whoopee cushion as i call it that the occupational therapist gave to John for school - what its supposed to do is help you find your centre of gravity its really helped him

I got it clawless thanks. Looks like fun. Is a unicycle the graduate course?

Steve what did you use on the underside to rocker on? It would want to be non marking for the floors I suppose and have some grip so I don't end up cracking my head open. What were the dimensions you used for the board and rocker? Or was this a kit?
ian

http://www.pedigest.com/sample/equipment3.html

Just in case anyone wants to make one..

http://www.norlite.co.uk/shop/Kids.htm

just incase anyone is interested

I got it clawless thanks. Looks like fun. Is a unicycle the graduate course?

lol oh how much would i love to see my John on a unicycle :D

i know his co-ordination has really come on since he started to wobble, he even actually entered a school race and won first place, it's the first one he's been confident enough to enter, so i think its worth anybody giving it a go its fun and at the same time it might help you no harm in trying it out.

I used a spare piece of countertop. (3/4" texture laminated)
I made it into an 18" diameter becuase that was the size I saw on a website selling one.
I used a 4x4 post and rounded it off and cut it to about 3" thick for the bottom.

I have to make things out of spare parts to make it a challenge and justify my being a pack rat. lol

22" might be easier to use.


I have noticed that before and after work, it is hard for me to balance, but if I go home and try it during lunch, I do much, much better.

Clawless,

Was there a certain routine your doc had your son doing.
so many minutes, every other day, or such??

Thanks Steve. That helps

Clawless,

Was there a certain routine your doc had your son doing.
so many minutes, every other day, or such??

here are some exercises to try out for yourself and your son

Wobble Board Exercises
(starting easy and getting harder)

1. Whilst sitting down place the wobble board under the feet and slowly rotate it a number of times in each direction.

2. Stand on the wobble board, feet shoulder width apart. Hold on to a chair for support if needed and rock the board forwards and backwards, then side to side. Do this for 2 to 3 minutes.

3. Stand on the wobble board, feet shoulder width apart. Rotate the wobble board round so that the edge of the board is in contact with the floor at all times. Again try this for 2 to 3 minutes.

4. Stand on the wobble balance board, again feet shoulder width apart - no chair allowed! Rock the board front to back for 1 minute then side to side for one minute.

5. Balance on the wobble board for as long as you can without the edges touching the floor. Aim for over 2 minutes without touching the floor.

6. Rotate the wobble board in a circle but do not allow the edge of the board to touch the floor. Aim for 2 minutes.

7. Stand on the wobble board with one leg. Rock the board from front to back for 1 minute and then side to side for 1 minute.

8. Again stand on the wobble board with one leg only. Rotate the board in a circular motion in one direction for 1 minute then repeat in the other direction.

9. Try to balance on the wobble board with one leg only! How long can you go for?

10. When you have mastered all of the above you should have strong stable ankles and be an expert. Now try it all with your eyes closed!!

this is only a rough guide, do as much as you feel comfy with, as you can always build the amount of tme up.

John sits on the wobble cushion while in the class room so that can be about 4 to 5 hrs a day

another good one to try is the big gym balls that you can roll about on trying to balance

Im really suprised how many people have coordination problems. I asked my pyscht. that and he looked at me like that's an interesting question & told me to ask my mom about her experiences, bcause my Dad played sports & was on teams when I was young.
But my mom seemed to have no interest & I have no memory of her whatsoever even wanting to ride our horses that we owned when I was growing up.

It really does suck, bcause sports look so fun & I've been trying to learn tennis. I suck at it, bcause I don't have the coordination to connect ball & racket as well as I need to. But I do have the physical strength & think it's a fun way to exercise. Maybe I just need to have our own private court built so I don't feel to intimidated;).

Clawless that's a very good start to get my wobble board used, thanks. I wonder how the kids will react to it. My youngest has excellent skills in this regard but my eldest needs some more confidence.

sthrnchik I've played tennis and it's a tough game to learn to do well. I never did learn well enough. Be patient. If you enjoy it just play lots and forget about your ranking. If it's fun and you enjoy it I'm sure that's more important than anything else that might be going on.

For so many years I've not done the things that make me happy because somehow it didn't quite measure up to my expectations or I didn't measure up to what I thought should be my part in something that I stopped doing many many things.

Over the years I've developed a bit of a thicker skin and am finding that even though I might not be the best at what I am doing, it does make me happy to do it. I'm not the best at anything I do so it was all an easy downhill run from there!
< g >

Have you tried racket ball?
ian

For so many years I've not done the things that make me happy because somehow it didn't quite measure up to my expectations or I didn't measure up to what I thought should be my part in something that I stopped doing many many things.

Over the years I've developed a bit of a thicker skin and am finding that even though I might not be the best at what I am doing, it does make me happy to do it. I'm not the best at anything I do so it was all an easy downhill run from there!
< g >
i used to be like that, too, but nowadays i just do/try the things i think look like great fun, and i don't care about what other people might think about my (mostly) clumsy attempts at for example bowling (i'm actually on a team which i started with my friends! we call ourselves "even a blind chicken", because that's how bad we were in the beginning - most of the times the bowling balls ended up in the gutter - but we've improved *dramatically*, and last year we actually *won* the series, and so i got my first ever sports medal!!! *smiling proudly*;-)
:D
i go to the local hospital for physical therapy twice a week, and there they have wobble boards. i'm going to ask my physical therapist where they get them, and if i can't buy one from them, i'll try to make my own!
:)

Oh I was hopelessly uncoordinated! Couldn't catch, couldn't throw, had no rhythm (dancing)...I was a basket case.

I use to do ALOT of karate like the hyper focus for 8 hours a day kind of alot. Before that when i was 13ish i was a clumsy baboon. seriously walked into all kinds of stuff, walls, people, lamp posts on the street, lol it was funny.

Now i am slightly more coordinated then normal, BUT after I take my adderall my reaction time DROPS immensley!! Stuff will fall 4 feet behind me and I will turn and grab it before it drops a half foot. I grab all kinds of crap falling, if someone at dinner spills a drink i grab it before anything spills, all kinds of crap like that! and I can dance or coordinate myself a million to one better.

I dont think it is from the "amp" either - i think it is because i am more relaxed through all my muscles. I wish i would have had my ADD meds when I did karate four years ago. I would have WON state not made it to it.

good coordination drills (for anyone who is interested):

Just walk on your toes! (don't believe me, try it!) Get up, sit down, dance, walk backward/forward, side to side - a good starter one.

Start try to "side step" or "dodge" while walking like this.

The aforementioned board with a ball in the center of it method.

Same concept: stand on those big workout balls.

I had some really hard sole shoes that i duck taped a big rock to the bottom of each one to walk on (oww, look out with out hard sole shoes this hurts!).

Just stand on one foot, then do it dancing around, side stepping, then do it all again with your eyes closed. Then when you think your good try a ballet lesson or two - this is when you get humble.

Get some balls and learn to juggle. Can't juggle? start with one, then toss two back and forth. Then...

Throw a ball at a wall and catch it, over and over and over and over and...

Too easy? Have a friend throw a ball at you and catch it for a few minutes, then see if you can dodge it! (switching over is sooooo hard!)

Get the 4"x4" square jean cloth sandbags and "gently!" throw them at your friends. This works good if you try to dodge them, great for agility and lightening your feet - this was a personal favorite game of mine(that I only did with a cup on after about the 2nd week of this game).

Paper Chase: Have a friend drop small torn squares of paper. Try and catch them as soon as you see them drop. Or, have a partner try to pull them away from you when you go to grab them out of his/hers hands

And, besides those, just taking some form of "stand up" fighting classes this is really good for curing you of a problem with agility and just general eye-hand coordination skills. It also can give you a very creepy sorta "I feel that someone is watching me" hair crawling up on the back of your neck feel - that is almost always correct!!! and a really good sense of where your body space is in relation to the rest of the space around you.

Ground fighting is good too, though. It gives a very close physical "6th" sense of the person whom your next to, what they are doing, where they are moving, force and speed, intent too!, and general anxiety/agression/calmness levels.

Hey, im sure i'll remember more things later that improve agility/eye-hand-coordination later. but nothing off the top of my head. later,

Tony.

thanks for all the great ideas, mistaben!!!
:cool:
i'll print out your post, and try them all (before i write the next word, let me just say that i *KNOW*, okay!!!;-) later!!!
:D

Sometimes its not only about coordination, but your ability to concentrate, follow the rules, etc. My daughter was hopeless at gymnastics, but loves competitive swimming, which takes a lot less finesse, balancing and the like. She also avoids team sports, mostly because of all the rules and different roles to learn, but she loves made up sports games where there are no rules, or the rules are flexible. Calvin and Hobbes fans, remember "Calvinball"?

My daughter who is eight has add and she enjoys playing Tennis.

Lets see:

I played football (wide receiver), ran track and cross country, pole vault, gymnastics, can hit almost anything over the plate, catch, throw that hard off-balance strike from third to first, and like that.

I’m not a very good basketball player, don’t skate much or so well (but both my boys played organized Ice hockey), had one par round of golf and couldn’t bear to waste the focus after that. And like that.

Kay can juggle. I didn’t find that out until a few years ago. For a while she was convinced she couldn’t ride a bicycle. (How the heck do those two go together?) She can dance like an angel, and she was head cheerleader in school.

Both of our boys are good athletes. Bryan decided he was going to be the quarterback before his second year of peewee football (8 years old), and he did it. The first play from scrimmage of the first game, against the perennial division champions, he took the ball around end on a little QB fake and broke it for about 60 yards and a touchdown.

We all went nuts. When he came back to the sidelines, he pulled off his helmet and said, “Now I’ve done everything I ever wanted,” and I thought, uhoh…

And he was right. He never could bother getting himself excited about playing the same way, although he played for years and was a great defensive end. But his curiosity was satisfied, I guess, and he just couldn’t pretend it was as important to him after that.

We believe this really is related to ADD, too. We’ve got some hard core theoretical ideas about how.

We talk about ‘being in thirteen space’ or ‘being in four space’ to describe when we’re using our brains like ADDers or normals, respectively. In thirteen space, you are effectively one or two processing layers closer to the sensory input and motor control, and it shows.

When I coached kids football, I taught my linemen to get off the ball by imagining they were all coiled up ready to strike, like a compressed spring. Then I told them to concentrate and look for the slightest movement of the ball.

So they mentally prepared themselves to feel the surge when they fire off, and focused on seeing the trigger. This wasn’t my idea, BTW. I got it from a pro coach, at a seminar. He talked about the different processing delays for various ways of thinking about a task.

If you focus on reacting as quickly as possible, rather than the action you want to take, you can beat the other side by 0.6 seconds or more. If you do the opposite, thinking about what you’re going to do, the action has to be processed through your conscious mind first.

It always worked, but it also was too weird for the head coach. So every year I coached, I taught the line to fire off, and every year he grabbed me around the second or third week and told me to cut it out.

BTW, who ever said that running didn’t take coordination? Just standing up is extremely difficult, from an information processing perspective.

your friend Bryan sounds alot like me, when i could finally slam dunk i stopped playing basketball for years, i had done what i had wanted to do since i was 13. Even today i rarely go out and play. Doesn't interest me anymore.

I was the most uncoordinated person in every one of my gym classes, I think, second to the girl from the "special class". I also couldn't skate, and it took me forever to get the hang of a somersault. However, I remember a lot of it being due to the fact that I didn't want to work at it because they boys (back in elementary school when gym's co-ed) would always start cracking up at me, and just that I found most of the sports just boring. I remember hiding in the change rooms just to daydream or make faces or anything other than trying to learn how to play the stupid sport.

What also might've contributed is that I was also always the tallest in the class, and was constantly growing. I think I started getting a little better, even without meds, sometime in Grade 9 once I'd stopped growing. Sports I had actually enjoyed before but wasn't very good at--tennis, badminton, bowling--I was finally succeeding at.

BUT my coordination in other regards was great. I've played piano since I was 7 and was always good at playing the fast pieces that required a lot of coordination in the fingers. I wasn't so great at video games, though, but music's always been something I've loved and been able to concentrate on for long periods of time, like how a lot of ADD kids are with the video games.

I notice now that since I've been taking medication, when people thrown things at me out of the blue, more often than not I catch it. But still, after all the years of embaressing moments in gym class, I still don't want to try any organized sport.

kinda just wanted to note my own experience :-D

When I lived in Brazil and Canada, I was a major swimmer than hockey player, After I moved to the US, my "sports" abilities somewhat declined. By the fifth grade, I was put in the "special gym class" due to my growing weight and my lack of sports practice. It was horrible and even though I got straight As in all my other classes, my proudest grade was the time I earned an A in gym class hehe. After I moved from the US, the opposite happened. I started getting really into sports, and as I can still hardly figure out soccer, I was on the varsity teams for both basketball and volleyball. I even got to play on my school's international team, where I won MVP once and was captain of the team the other time, and had the chance to visit Holland and Belgium in international tournaments. Now, today, the only sport I can play is basketball and other sports, such as tennis, volleyball, etc.. I'm only average. Sucks considering I went from worst to best to average. I guess life does that to you :-)

My coordination and depth perception are definitely off - sometimes way off. One of my childhood disappointments was that I could never perform a cartwheel. My somersaults were crooked. And, I couldn't run. It's hard to explain, but I really was not able to run. I hated Pres. Kennedy's fitness tests. I still remember my humiliation in fourth grade as I tried to run the 100 yd dash. I was the last one finished by a considerable length of time and everyone was watching me as I neared the finish line.

I couldn't catch a ball to save my life. I was the last one picked (after the special ed girl) and if the ball came to me in the outfield, I put my hands in the air in a defensive manner. Even now, especially at night, when I 'm driving, I have a terrible time with depth perception.

My mom insisted on ballet lessons for almost ten years. It improved my posture, but not my coordination (or maybe it did improve my coordination, but I shudder to think that I could be any less coordinated).

I bump into things. I drop things. I trip a lot. My sense of balance is poor. My childhood nickname was "Handy Andy." Hey, at least I know why now. I am amazed that my children are all such good athletes. Susan

I run and throw like a girl.:( I love playing sports for fun, not competition. I don't like myself very much when I am competitive. I can be seen swigging off a bottle of Mylanta at my girls' soccer and basketball games when the score gets close.;) Their ADHDad is really the athelete in the family.

I was just wondering how all of you who tried it have been getting along with your wobbel boards and if you have found it any help????????

Shamefully I've not begun, but the wall board is taped & mudded in the new addition.. does that count? :)
ian

I was the Largest klutz you could ever find when I was a kid.On top of just plain lack of coordination I have severly messedup eyesight.My left eye is as near sighted as it can be without deforming the eyeball and the right eye is the same but farsighted.That has left me with almost no depth perception!:eek: I fell down every flight of stairs in every building I spent any time in growing up.The worst damage I did to myself was when some friends And I invented a game where you throw a ball down 3 flights of stairs and race it down to the bottom.Well, I met the ball coming up as I went down and I steped on the ball.

I got a all expense paid trip to the local emergency room with a class 2 concussion, broken shoulder and broken ankle.The paramedics laughed on the way to the hospital because my mom was so used to me being injured that she was more angry with them for having to cut my shirt off.But I have always been very good at sports despite this.I was always one of the first ones picked for soccer(Center Fullback) and hockey(Goaltender).My friends stuck me in net for hockey because I was a bit of a "free swinger" with my stick so they put me where I could do the least damage.Apparently they didnt think that thrugh carefully considering I now have a much bigger stick than they do.:D