Recommendations for sports documentaries about kids?
September 28, 2016 8:17 AM   Subscribe

I've been enjoying watching sports documentaries about kids and the obscure activities they choose to be good at. Can you recommend any others I should check out? Not limited to sports, just anything kids are good at.

There must be some documentaries about dance, hip hop, chess, etc that I've missed.

I've watched:
Hoop Dreams (basketball)
First Position (ballet)
The Short Game (golf)
Top Spin (ping pong)
Louder than a Bomb (poetry slam)

I'm looking at:
State of Play: Trophy Kids
posted by just.good.enough to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (15 answers total) 10 users marked this as a favorite
 
Spellbound (spelling bees)
posted by cider at 8:19 AM on September 28, 2016 [3 favorites]


Also Mad Hot Ballroom (ballroom dancing) -- though I watched it a while ago and I'm not sure if the kids were really good (i.e., expert level) or beginners who improved over the course of the documentary.
posted by cider at 8:20 AM on September 28, 2016 [3 favorites]


Maidentrip (sailing)
posted by Sassyfras at 8:26 AM on September 28, 2016 [1 favorite]


It's not an obscure activity, but Little Big Men about the Little League World Series was very enjoyable.
posted by lindseyg at 8:28 AM on September 28, 2016 [1 favorite]


Response by poster: All of these are great, thank you.
posted by just.good.enough at 8:50 AM on September 28, 2016


Broadway or Bust is about highschool musical competitions.
posted by brookeb at 8:57 AM on September 28, 2016


Magic Camp (like stage magic) is on Hulu right now! It's about this place.
posted by fiercecupcake at 9:30 AM on September 28, 2016


I liked Sounds Like Teen Spirit, about the Junior Eurovision contest.
posted by cpatterson at 9:46 AM on September 28, 2016


Not a full documentary, but Vice's profile of rock climbing phenom Ashima Shiraishi is inspirational.
posted by bluecore at 10:09 AM on September 28, 2016


Jig - Irish dance

IIRC, it wasn't 100% about kids - follows several participants and at least one was an adult I think. It's been a few years since I watched it. Really entertaining though.
posted by COD at 10:10 AM on September 28, 2016 [2 favorites]


I always have a morbid fascination for things like Jesus Camp.
posted by Melismata at 10:54 AM on September 28, 2016 [1 favorite]


Dragon Girls is excellent (residential Shaolin Kung Fu training). Full documentary on YouTube
posted by alicat at 12:22 PM on September 28, 2016 [1 favorite]


Came in to say Spellbound and Mad Hot ballroom - glad to see them in first positions. I will add the really fun Please Vote For Me (politics is a sport, right?)
posted by Mchelly at 12:50 PM on September 28, 2016


A State of Mind: "A British documentary that follows two young North Korean girls as they prepare for the Mass Games, the world's largest choreographed gymnastics performance."
posted by jrobin276 at 1:12 PM on September 28, 2016 [1 favorite]


Vite Parallele, about italian young gymnasts'. It's a series.
posted by thegirlwiththehat at 11:21 PM on September 28, 2016


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