Girls Soccer or Softball

Google "kids sports in Tulsa, OK" and you'll get tons of options.

We're a baseball family. Spring and fall.
Out community is known for its soccer program but my son prefers baseball. (Sorry "boy mom" perspective!)

He does other sports through the year but baseball is his main focus.
Keeps kids active, builds leadership as well as a sense of working together & good sportsmanship.

I'd see what she has the most interest in & start there.
To me,at that age, baseball has more commeraderie.

It all depends on the kid. My daughter loves soccer and is very good at it. She shows no interest after playing tball when she was 4. Any sport is good as long as your child wants to be in it. If she isn't very good at catching a ball I would either work with her or just avoid softball all together. Don't just throw her in a sport where big hard balls are being thrown at her. This has happened several times with my sons baseball teams and when the boys cant even catch its dreadful. If she likes to run and has the stamina to run for a long time soccer is great. My daughter just turned 8 and I have to say that the past year the soccer has become fun to watch. Before it was just a bunch of kids running around but its finally coming together as a team and starting to become "soccer" and the team is really bonding and becoming close friends. Its a great thing to see. You will get this with any sport but like I said, if she can't catch a ball in a glove overhand then I would avoid softball. If she can then ask her which she would prefer.

Not sure how the seasons go there, but here in CO soccer is spring or fall and softball is summer, so you could try both! If that's a possibility, I would do that to see which she likes better. Otherwise, maybe look at some youtube videos to see which looks better to her or see what more of her classmates/friends are doing.

They can both be super competitive. My daughter tried both, but liked softball better, and still plays (she's 14). Not sure how popular soccer is in OK. But I can tell you that we travel to OK to play some tournaments around the time of the college world series, and we always get KILLED by the OK teams- they are awesome. Not sure if soccer is as competitive there, but I can tell you that softball is a big deal there!

I would start with what does your daughter want to do?

It is easy to start out with the Parks and Rec department to try out things she may like. That way, you are not spending the money it takes for an entire season and she hate whatever sport you chose.

We tried a lot of different things with our daughter until she found what SHE wanted to do which ended up being martial arts... who would have thought that!!!! She worked her butt off for 7 years and achieved her black belt.

In school, she took an interest in cheer and she ended up cheering for 5 years on her school teams and ended her cheer career as Varsity Captain her senior year.

Sometimes things fall into place if you just try different things out for your daughter.. We tried, dance, gymnastics, soccer, and nothing "clicked' until she tried martial arts.

Listen to your daughter and let her figure out what she likes.

I would contact the park district and the local YMCA. For us, the YMCA has both. We also have softball through our park district. Their seasons sometimes conflict and sometimes don't, so it is work calling both places.

There are also probably plenty of private clubs who have leagues. You could probably call your daughter's school and ask about it. Even if there are no sports through the school (and that's very common with elementary schools), they people who work in the office usually know who to talk to. They usually know the community very well from getting to know the parents. Also, they very often have kids who go to the school or did when they were younger. So they've been there. They really are an excellent resource.

Our parks and rec department offers many youth sports programs, you should start there. Here their office is located in the community center, and they send out a catalog twice a year. They offer not only sports but cooking, theater, science, art, carpentry, all kinds of things.
My girls loved soccer at that age, lots of fun. My son tried baseball but he was bored out of his mind, too much standing around. He didn't want to play soccer but he did like tennis, and played that several summers in a row.
See what's available in your community and ask your daughter what SHE wants to do!
ETA: you should know that soccer is usually offered in the fall, softball in the spring.

If she doesn't seem to have a preference, I would sign her up for soccer. I'm not sure if I am going to explain this well, but I think softball/baseball requires motor skills that are more advanced than most kids possess at that age. Both my son and daughter played t-ball and my daughter played machine-pitch - I'm not sure which your daughter would play. When my daughter played machine-pitch (I think she was 8 or 9?), you could tell that some kids were just starting to be able to hit the ball and batting skills were being acquired faster than fielding skills. Some kids love it and some kids were bored.

First off, I'd put "Tulsa" in your title so that more people in your area see it! Putting in the body of your post really limits the responses you're going to get.

Secondly, did you check the seasons when the sports are offered? Softball is usually spring and sometimes summer, while soccer is spring and fall. So you could easily do 2 sports over the next few seasons.

Softball requires a lot of hand-eye coordination, and there is a lot of sitting around when you're on the bench. Even if you're in a field position, there's a lot of standing around waiting for a bunch of novice players to try to make contact between bat and ball! However, there are more muscle groups involved with running, hitting, catching and throwing. If your child is super coordinated, it might be a good fit. Usually by 7, they aren't doing t-ball so kids are hitting a pitched ball. Take her out in the yard and try to hit a few balls or bat a badminton birdie around to see how frustrated she gets swinging something at a moving object.

Soccer also has kids on the bench but there are more kids on the field running around at one time. There is a lot of controversy about soccer with heading the ball - many leagues have banned it until age 14 or so, due to the risk of concussion. So check to be sure your league is being cautious about that. Otherwise, the running is good exercise. Both sports have a lot of practice & drills, and require teamwork with kids occupying their own positions, so there are similarities.

Both are sports she can practice at home, playing catch with a parent or kicking a ball around between a few sets of orange cones. If someone's really motivated, there are nets you can get for additional practice.

I do think it's a great idea to let kids experiment with different sports at a young age. It's really not about specializing or getting so refined in skills that there's a big athletic scholarship in their future! It's about fun, teamwork, exercise, and doing the practice drills to develop skills (which takes patience and perseverance).

May depend on the season more than anything. Here, soccer is a fall sport and softball is in the spring. Our daughter played soccer for the first time this year and loved it! She wasn't great at it, but it was a positive experience for her. She got motivated to try softball this spring and we go to her first clinic in preparation this weekend.

If you do a Google search for youth leagues for each of those sports in your area, you should find the main group pretty quickly. In our area, at least, there's one main organization running things.

It depends on what your daughter wants to try. My boys both do basketball in the winter, but they also play baseball or football in the spring and fall. They pick - sometimes it's the same sport/team and other times it's different sports all together. It just depends on what each kid wants to do.

Sports is great for my kids. It keeps them active, it keeps them social, it keeps them focused. They learn how to win and lose with grace, they learn to be good sports and cheer everyone on, and they learn to be part of a team.

Honestly with my daughter, being the oldest, she tried the most. She played soccer at 4 (and we all disliked it). She tried t-ball at 6 (with her brother who was 4) and neither of them liked it, my daughter tried gymnastics and didn't overly care for that either. She is a competitive dancer now and has been for 6 years, dancing for 9...and she is 11. Dance is her thing, it's what she loves.

The boys also tried baseball, football, and basketball. Those, unlike dance, are seasons and not year long commitments, so they get to do all 3.

I coach soccer, so I naturally vote soccer! I tell my parents its a good starting point. I can't tell you where to begin locally, but in my state soccer clubs are governed but a state association and part of our training includes the importance of making the sport all inclusive and fun for all kids. I have had several kids who moved on to other sports and it positively impacted their soccer skills. Here soccer is played in the spring and fall (and we have an indoor winter session or futsal to choose from when cold).
None of my kids expressed interest in softball and I think the younger (61/2) would get bored out in the field. If she expressed interest in it I'd do both soccer (spring and fall) and softball (summer). However, our soccer club is relatively low cost. I know some can be pricey.

Check with your local parks and rec center or the YMCA.

My daughter never played either sport. She will hit or catch some balls, but, she has never been on a softball team.

I didn't grow up in sports, but my husband was big on baseball, motor x, and tennis. It seems baseball was the big thing in his family, from his granny all the way down to his little sister.

Our daughter plays competitive hockey, figure skating, and does triathlons. She also plays tennis from time to time, but doesn't take tennis too serious.

In my opinion, the benefit to sports has brought out her personality. She was a very shy and timid kid. She still likes one of us to be close by, but is learning to focus on her sport and have fun with the kids. As well, I think she is more caught up in her sport than having the next best glittery beanie or scarf, she wears a uniform to school, so her wardrobe is uniforms, gym clothes, and a handful of dresses and a pair of jeans for jean day. At 9 years old, I am perfectly happy with her not being caught up in the latest fashion. She can do that later in life, if she chooses. When she grows up, she will be well rounded and will hopefully know how to spend her free time. At nine, she knows the benefits of eating healthy foods and snacks. She is learning to work with a team, as well as, independently. She knows how to push herself to the next level and knows that she can. And finally, balance, she balances her time wisely to include her sports and academics.

I agree, let your daughter explore several sports and then offer to sign her up for more classes if she would like. Maybe a summer camp will help her explore a little of everything, from basketball to cooking.