How did your child's performance change when they hit puberty/ had a growth spurt?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If your daughter is losing at 13 and peaked when she was 10 she’s basically cooked

Not necessarily. Maybe she will start improving again and some of the girls that are now on top will start stalling. Maybe she hit puberty earlier and is through most of the physical changes now and some girls are going to hit it later and deal with the same thing just later.

There are other changes later that impact things as well. For some reason a lot of high school female runners peak in 9-10 grade and don't drop any time, or even increase, while others drop time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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?

Happens all the time which is why starting early is no5 always a good ting

Face it now your kid is average find other th8ngs fir them to excel in

[Anonymous]

It’s not a big deal. Literally everyone goes through puberty and experienced youth coaches are all aware of the changes. For everyone the big question is how do they come out at the end? Girls often slow down and that obviously affects their play in several sports.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is this less common in boys?

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.

This is very interesting. I guess strength training and lots of mobility / injury prevention exercises are key during that phase. Sadly, not too many 12/13 year olds have the patience and discipline for those as they may just want to get on court/ field and play their sport. Maybe that’s what makes the difference between girls who can “ ride out “ the puberty plateau in sports and those who do not.

[Anonymous]

This happened to my boys at 14 when they started to grow too. It's not just girls. My son, who was beautiful on the soccer field, very graceful and quick, all of a sudden started tripping over his own feet and literally missing the ball when he went to kick. My other son started missing the baseball and mistiming his swing. But they both settled back into it and became coordinated again after a year. Having an extra 4-6 inches all of a sudden throws off timing and pace. Now is the time to lean into practice, so they can get used to their new bodies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This happened to my boys at 14 when they started to grow too. It's not just girls. My son, who was beautiful on the soccer field, very graceful and quick, all of a sudden started tripping over his own feet and literally missing the ball when he went to kick. My other son started missing the baseball and mistiming his swing. But they both settled back into it and became coordinated again after a year. Having an extra 4-6 inches all of a sudden throws off timing and pace. Now is the time to lean into practice, so they can get used to their new bodies.

+1

Happened to both of my sons too. My DD didn’t really have any issues but she seemed to grow very gradually rather than in a big spurt.

OP have you considered something like strength/agility training or similar? We sent both of our boys to a supervised gym after their growth spurt where they did light agility training and light supervised strength training. It wasn’t too expensive and they both really enjoyed it (and I think it helped setup good habits as well). It also helped smooth out the physical awkwardness a bit faster IMO.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This happened to my boys at 14 when they started to grow too. It's not just girls. My son, who was beautiful on the soccer field, very graceful and quick, all of a sudden started tripping over his own feet and literally missing the ball when he went to kick. My other son started missing the baseball and mistiming his swing. But they both settled back into it and became coordinated again after a year. Having an extra 4-6 inches all of a sudden throws off timing and pace. Now is the time to lean into practice, so they can get used to their new bodies.

+1 Last year he grew 5 inches basically had a hitless season. You wouldn't know it watching him this year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If your daughter is losing at 13 and peaked when she was 10 she’s basically cooked

Not necessarily. Maybe she will start improving again and some of the girls that are now on top will start stalling. Maybe she hit puberty earlier and is through most of the physical changes now and some girls are going to hit it later and deal with the same thing just later.

There are other changes later that impact things as well. For some reason a lot of high school female runners peak in 9-10 grade and don't drop any time, or even increase, while others drop time.

Not in tennis. You will know around and 13 whether your daughter is going to be really good 99 percent of the time. Not the case for boys when it matters more around 16