How did your child's performance change when they hit puberty/ had a growth spurt?
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Anonymous
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I have a 13 year old daughter who is a competitive tennis player and also runs track for her school. Tennis is almost year round and track is only in the Spring. She has always been one of those kids who were naturally very agile and fast. She also trains 10-12 hours a week, has a healthy diet, is internally motivated and really tries her best. We've never had to push her to train.
Over the last year, she grew almost 4 inches. I am not sure if it's only because of that, but she definitely looks less coordinated and agile. Her performance isn't the way it used to be either, both on the court and on the track. Girls that she used to easily beat are now beating her. She has great coaches who have other students who are steadily improving, so I don't think it's the coaching. It's really hard to see your daughter train for long hours and try her best, but yet still not able to keep up with the competition. If it's a growth spurt/ puberty related issue, she is competing with girls who are around her same age and going through the same changes. Has anyone experienced this with their child? |
Anonymous
| I recently saw a softball pitching coach post that it's really hard for girls who are shooting up to be coordinated at first. I also have a 13 year old who grew several inches at 12 and she looked like a baby giraffe for a while there. The lack of coordination is slowly improving as her growth slows and she continues to faithfully put in the work. |
Anonymous
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Yes. Very common among girls. The important thing is to keep the nutrition and calories flowing and ride it out. My DD is a gymnast and I can think of some brilliant juniors and seniors at her gym who you would have assumed would have quit based on how their 7th and 8th grade years went.
Not everyone goes through puberty at the same pace, so comparing her to girls of the same age isn’t fair to her. The other thing to consider is that 4” is a lot in one year, so if her nutrition is good now, it might have been behind in the past and so she had a lot of catching up to do. You might discuss labs with her doctor- if she’s sluggish and uncoordinated, she could have an iron deficiency or she could have other deficits that are making it hard for her to absorb iron. I would be worried about vitamin D, too. |
Anonymous
| Girls going through puberty slow down on track but they will come back. One thing to watch for is over training and not menstruating. I know too many teens who favor sports over healthy bodies. It's alarming. |
Anonymous
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DD is 11, grew 4" last year...she became shockingly uncoordinated for soccer. Ironically, she is not growing now and has become more coordinated in the last 2 months.
As an aside, we have a girl who is about 10" taller than the other girls...she moves, slower than all the other girls by far and is gaining weight rapidly. I am not sure she will ever become fast again. |
Anonymous
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This is really common, and it can take such a psychological toll. She's not just getting taller, but her hips are changing angles and her center of gravity is also changing. Watch out for knee injuries, overtraining, and eating disorders.
As someone else said, it happens at different ages and rates with different girls. It's normal and you just kind of have to wait it out. https://www.uncg.edu/faculty-staff/how-puberty-can-impact-teens-knees/ https://al.milesplit.com/articles/318612/the-effects-of-puberty-on-female-distance-runners |
Anonymous
| Is this less common in boys? |
Anonymous
Not really. Depends how they grow IME. Some boys (most?) seem to have a growth spurt that lasts a couple of years and maybe grow 3-4in/year. My younger DS was like this and didn’t really have any major issues. But there are other boys that grow at an incredibly fast rate and become super awkward. My older DS was this way (grew 9in in about 18 months). This was 1.5-2 years ago and he is just now smoothing out a bit. He was all limbs, super skinny and could barely even run straight for awhile (looked like he was running in quicksand or something). Just incredibly awkward. |
Anonymous
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I had a very big growth spurt/went through puberty late and it absolutely impacted my coordination (in a negative way). Unfortunately there’s not much you can do, just continue to train in a safe way and ride it out. Once her body stops growing/slows down, she will likely return to her usual agile and coordinated self although as PP noted it may impact her speed with track.
DS just went through a big growth spurt, but I did not notice a change in coordination. Obviously puberty impacts boys and girls differently, but not sure if the coordination piece is specific to girls. |
Anonymous
My son who was pretty average and a bit chubby suddenly got really fast |
Anonymous
| I experienced this myself, and my growth spurt also came with an onset of scoliosis significant enough to require bracing. I switched sports, from gymnastics to diving. |
Anonymous
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My DD who does soccer and running (cross country /track) did a 5k in 25 minutes shortly after turning 10 her second time running one. Then she grew like a million inches and went from one of the shorter ones to one of the tallest and now 1.5 years later she's slower, closer to 27 minutes.
I didn't realize girls sometimes had this decline but it's not a big deal. She is still playing soccer, we are not uber competitive anyways, she is having fun. She will probably start speeding up again when she gets used to her taller body, or maybe not. It's a thing, but not anything to be concerned about. It's part of life and God made all of us different anyways. |
Anonymous
When girls go through puberty, they gain less lean muscle mass and increase their body fat percentage. This increases into late adolescence. Boys gain much more lean muscle mass in puberty and their strength to mass ratio goes on a continuous upswing into their 20’s. In most girls, their strength to body mass ratio decreases through puberty. They not only have to get used to their extra height, wider hips and different proportions, but they have to do it with a lower percentage of lean muscle mass than before. Hopefully their coaches understand this and do not fall into the trap of overtraining them, putting them at risk for injury. |
Anonymous
| My DD plays softball. She gained significant speed in her pitching and regular overhand throw and became more of a power hitter. Pitching accuracy went down a bit briefly but rebounded pretty quickly. |
Anonymous
| If your daughter is losing at 13 and peaked when she was 10 she’s basically cooked |