At what age do you think you can tell whether a kid has potential to be an athlete?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have a house in Telluride and I rarely if ever see 4 year olds on double blacks.

So do we

Which runs? I really do not see any 4 year olds on double blacks in Telluride.

I'm the PP on the ski topic, and I live in a ski town different from Telluride; though we love skiing Telluride. One of my kids is nationally competitive as a skier.
Skiing a double black diamond at four was not hard for him, and we skied the same run with his friends around the same age and their parents. These kids have grown up on skis, mountain bikes, skateboards, ice skating on the ponds, surfing and water skiing in the lake. Among our friend group, no one thinks it's noteworthy that he did that; if anything, skiing in big moguls that slowed him down was a good break from the terrain park or crowded runs where he was more likely to get hurt. And freestyle skiing is a sport where you know if your kid will be great by 8-10 years old. We watched Walker Woodring ski when he was 8, and I told my spouse that, barring an injury, that kid is going to the Olympics. Videos of him at 11 and 12 are amazing.

My brother is an internationally ranked surfer and you don't see a lot of 4 year older surfers either. I think you're getting carried away.

[Anonymous]

Nationally ranked skier. Lol. What’s the barrier to entry for the

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Nationally ranked skier. Lol. What’s the barrier to entry for the

LOL, fair. You have to be wealthy, live in a mountain town, and have "super negligent parents" who support it. You also have to be athletic and fearless, and those are differentiators that you can spot at a young age. True of other acrobatic sports.

[Anonymous]

I have 2 kids. Knew one was unathletic at 2 and that the other was athletic at 2. My athletic kid could dribble a basketball at that age. His PE teacher in nursery school told us that he was the most coordinated kid he’d ever taught. He’s not a super fast runner, but he’s never met a sport he can’t play. He’s left footed and plays every stick sport with his left hand. He’s now playing a D1 sport in college that he didn’t really start until sophomore year of HS.

We never had him specialize in one sport until junior year of HS when he started getting offers for college- he was a 3 sport athlete until then.

We also never pushed for him to play a sport in college- it was all him. We supported him, but let him drive everything else.

[Anonymous]

Regarding growth spurt thing: I know it’s weird to think that 18 inches in two years is unusual, but I am watching my kid grow an inch per 3 weeks this year and it’s really alarming. Like…. How much more food can this kid eat?

And as for athleticism: both of my kids were athletic from the get go even though we as parents are not that athletic. I will say that genetics does play into this and I know parents who will pick out D1 kids by parental height alone. Maternal and paternal. And then gossip about it.

The problem with this whole thread though is that even with all of that identified potential, life can still happen. I hope every parent remembers this. Financial distress or losing a job or no longer having remote work to take our kids to stuff after school is going to affect the kid’s progress. Physical injury- especially during puberty- can really hurt a kids progress. Mental illness- depression in particular- can shut it all down.

We can wax romantic about player stats and potential but the reality is that the kids are still human and prone to human foibles and fallacies. Life happens. Be kind to the kids.

[Anonymous]

I know my kids are athletic. They play sports and I can see it.

However our family values do not place athletics above education. So we make decisions with education at the top, athletics are extra.

Many top athletes will mostly waste time and money trying to crawl to the top. We are not doing that. We play sports for fun and activity and challenge. Not for some payout or for a job.

[Anonymous]

It’s a complicated answer. For soccer, the European countries start selecting at 4-5 to send kids to basically professional academies (though some get kicked out and then replaced up until like 12).

In the DR, the MLB academies accept kids at 10-12 and have some signing MLB contracts at 15. Juan Soto signed at 15.

Outside the US it’s fairly commonplace to train athletes in their own academies and they start kids quite early.

[Anonymous]

Sick