Which sports to drop, keep, or add for a boy who will likely be on smaller side?

[Anonymous]

I am short and puny, DH is bulky but only 5'10", so I assume DS will not be tall. 4th grade DS is always 50% height and 35% weight, high energy and fairly athletic. Loves going after the ball and running into the fray. Baseball is the only sport he hasn't wanted to keep, since it's "too boring." He wants to do EVERYTHING, but I feel like it's time to begun cutting back. How do we know which to keep when he wants to keep them all? Even if we drop football and hockey, he still wants to keep swimming, basketball, soccer, and wants to add lacrosse. I think golf and tennis seem like good adds for lifetime skill/playability and because he can practice on his own time as he gets older. The usual advice seems to be keep everything until you can't, but I don't know how much longer I want to deal with conflicting practice and game schedules, etc.

Over the course of the year he usually does these (either team or clinic):
flag football, ice hockey, swimming, basketball, soccer -- thinking to drop football and hockey bc they will be more dangerous as he gets older and the other boys get bigger.

Alternatives:
? tennis - seems like a great lifelong sport, esp for shorter boy, but he seems more into team sports
? lacrosse - really wants me to sign him up this coming fall, but seems just as dangerous as hockey?
? golf - likes hitting the ball but has never played on a team
? other sports?

I guess I have other parents scaring me because they are saying you need several years of experience in a sport NOW, otherwise they will not be able to every play it. But you can't do that for every single sport that he could possibly be interested in. So we have to choose and hedge our bets. I still feel like this is such a weird thing to have to decide now, before puberty and growth spurts.

[Anonymous]

be a lacrosse bro, he'll never regret it

[Anonymous]

Let him decide. He'll be fine - even if he's not a star in any one sport.

[Anonymous]

4th grade is too early to pick. Let him do what he is interested in and what you are willing to do. He'll figure it out as he gets older.

[Anonymous]

I agree that 4th grade is too early to pick.

Also, my DS was always 50% height in elementary school, and now at 13 he is 60-70% height. I am only 5 feet and my DH is only 5'5" and my DS is about to hit 5'5" in 7th grade so you never know.

[Anonymous]

Not really the same issue, my daughter has figured out her sport, but what we've converged on is just a family gym membership in addition to her main sport, which at the moment isn't intense enough, so she gets a well-rounded workout and some lighter activity.

Does it really matter if it isn't organized? Like most school sports a five day a week thing, so I can see where if you're doing lacrosse or soccer or something when it's only a couple days a week it wouldn't be enough.

[Anonymous]

It’s young to worry about size. Just let him have fun. Plus 50% is fine for soccer as long as he’s not a GK. But even then, if the goal isn’t to play D1, I wouldn’t worry about it. I have a shorter GK who happened to be tall when younger so i wouldn’t have known to dissuade him. He slowly moved toward the mean over time. He was tall for a 6th grader but stopped growing before friends and teammates. Which brings me to my other son. He was always tiny and loved baseball but got the message he was too short. He had a huge growth spurt in 9th grade and is about 6 ft. By then he’d given up. This is why I hate the idea of trying to make decisions based on predicted height.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:be a lacrosse bro, he'll never regret it

Yep

[Anonymous]

4th grade is too early to pick. Hockey will be no contact for 3-4 more years right? So understand if you want to drop for scheduling/cost reasons but size is not a reason to drop now.

Tennis and other racket sports are good from a long-term/social perspective.

If you want to try a fun social team sport you can always try curling, the most low-key Olympic sport out there.

[Anonymous]

Agree with the comments that for now he should just what he finds fun. As he gets older, it may be worth checking out cross country/track, cycling, or rowing (yes, height is a big advantage here, but there are plenty of average size athletes at the high school level and lots that punch above their weight).

[Anonymous]

Allow your DC to do all the sports you can logistically handle at this age. That doesn't mean ALL sports. We've always let our DC choose one travel sport and then do as many rec sports that fit in the schedule. Three same season rec sports don't fit into a schedule.

Too many people specialize at a way to young age in the DMV. Promote your child's athleticism. Hand-eye coordination, footwork, speed, balance, quickness, strength, endurance, etc. are all needed to be a good athlete, but specializing in just one sport does not give you all of these skills. A star soccer player that can't catch a football or swim freestyle is missing out and is not a star athlete.

Don't worry about size at this point you never know. I'm 6'1" and both of my parents were well under the averages for height.

Let your DC choose what to play. Sounds like they are dedicated to many sports and if you pair that with athleticism that's a good recipe for success. Good luck.

[Anonymous]

5'10 isn't bad.

I've stood next to some people who played ball (baseball, football and basketball) in college and professionally. And I think their profiles on their team websites all add three to four inches to their height.

At fourth grade, I'd still let him explore and just change sports season by season. Or you can try committing to one primary yearround sport and add another more lowkey next to it, although I usually see families struggle with juggling the two. You'd have to choose which one to prioritize.

I've seen the advantages that kids have that specialize early and focus on a sport yearround. So can't say it's necessarily a bad thing.

But I've also seen kids who only play a sport one season per year and do better then the kids who play yearround.

Eventually, let your child know that they'll need to pick because it's not realistic to be able to do well playing multiple sports at the same time and hard on cost and finances.

For my own kids, there have been sports I've ruled out due to culture/schedule and cost even though my kids expressed interest in them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:5'10 isn't bad.

I've stood next to some people who played ball (baseball, football and basketball) in college and professionally. And I think their profiles on their team websites all add three to four inches to their height.

At fourth grade, I'd still let him explore and just change sports season by season. Or you can try committing to one primary yearround sport and add another more lowkey next to it, although I usually see families struggle with juggling the two. You'd have to choose which one to prioritize.

I've seen the advantages that kids have that specialize early and focus on a sport yearround. So can't say it's necessarily a bad thing.

But I've also seen kids who only play a sport one season per year and do better then the kids who play yearround.

Eventually, let your child know that they'll need to pick because it's not realistic to be able to do well playing multiple sports at the same time and hard on cost and finances.

For my own kids, there have been sports I've ruled out due to culture/schedule and costeven though my kids expressed interest in them.

Which ones, what does this mean

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:5'10 isn't bad.

I've stood next to some people who played ball (baseball, football and basketball) in college and professionally. And I think their profiles on their team websites all add three to four inches to their height.

At fourth grade, I'd still let him explore and just change sports season by season. Or you can try committing to one primary yearround sport and add another more lowkey next to it, although I usually see families struggle with juggling the two. You'd have to choose which one to prioritize.

I've seen the advantages that kids have that specialize early and focus on a sport yearround. So can't say it's necessarily a bad thing.

But I've also seen kids who only play a sport one season per year and do better then the kids who play yearround.

Eventually, let your child know that they'll need to pick because it's not realistic to be able to do well playing multiple sports at the same time and hard on cost and finances.

For my own kids, there have been sports I've ruled out due to culture/schedule and costeven though my kids expressed interest in them.

Which ones, what does this mean

I think there are some sports that I call niche sports that have a higher cost of entry and ends up excluding a good amount of people due to the cost.

This is all just personal point of view, so take it for what it's worth but examples are:

The previous poster mentioned "lacrosse bro" I know more people are playing it now but when I was growing up boys lacrosse was associated with frat boy culture. The kids that played it in high school liked to go to frat parties on the weekends and couldn't wait to join a frat when they went to college. In the Fresh Prince reboot, Carlton was on the lacrosse team. So that's what I mean in the culture of the sport.

Then for hockey, you have the equipment costs and since we don't have many rinks in our area, limiting flexibility on locations and schedule.

Then there are other smaller sports that my kids expressed interest in that are like $3000 for the fall to spring season and you have travel out of the area for tournaments (not just two or three hours but actually up and down the east coast for tournaments). That's pretty much a no for me too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:5'10 isn't bad.

I've stood next to some people who played ball (baseball, football and basketball) in college and professionally. And I think their profiles on their team websites all add three to four inches to their height.

At fourth grade, I'd still let him explore and just change sports season by season. Or you can try committing to one primary yearround sport and add another more lowkey next to it, although I usually see families struggle with juggling the two. You'd have to choose which one to prioritize.

I've seen the advantages that kids have that specialize early and focus on a sport yearround. So can't say it's necessarily a bad thing.

But I've also seen kids who only play a sport one season per year and do better then the kids who play yearround.

Eventually, let your child know that they'll need to pick because it's not realistic to be able to do well playing multiple sports at the same time and hard on cost and finances.

For my own kids, there have been sports I've ruled out due to culture/schedule and costeven though my kids expressed interest in them.

Which ones, what does this mean

I think there are some sports that I call niche sports that have a higher cost of entry and ends up excluding a good amount of people due to the cost.

This is all just personal point of view, so take it for what it's worth but examples are:

The previous poster mentioned "lacrosse bro" I know more people are playing it now but when I was growing up boys lacrosse was associated with frat boy culture. The kids that played it in high school liked to go to frat parties on the weekends and couldn't wait to join a frat when they went to college. In the Fresh Prince reboot, Carlton was on the lacrosse team. So that's what I mean in the culture of the sport.

Then for hockey, you have the equipment costs and since we don't have many rinks in our area, limiting flexibility on locations and schedule.

Then there are other smaller sports that my kids expressed interest in that are like $3000 for the fall to spring season and you have travel out of the area for tournaments (not just two or three hours but actually up and down the east coast for tournaments). That's pretty much a no for me too.

you so cheap