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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Good Athletes - Like D1 or even pro level athleticism? I'd say around age 7 I can tell. It is hard to describe but you know when you see it.

High School athletes? Middle school or beyond. Most schools you can work hard and make a team and even be a starter. But the high level athletes that play on TV every weekend all have something the rest of us don't have.

You sound like my DH, who was able to project out the maximum potential achievement level of each kid on my son’s U9 soccer team, assuming they put in the time athletically and academically and weren’t derailed by life. I was highly skeptical at the time. A decade+on, he nailed almost every kid, ranging from the one he described as D1/pro potential, the couple D3/borderline D1, the category of “will likely make varsity at a minimum”, the couple of “may make JV/wont make varsity” kids (both of whom made JV for one year), the one he predicted would excel at a different sport, and the others who he said didn’t have the coordination or other baseline athletic traits to play beyond rec.

It’s obviously easier to project out for a sport like soccer, where size is not determinative for most positions, but I still think my DH has an uncanny and unusual ability to recognize which kids are fundamentally athletic and which aren’t at a young age. I don’t think most of us have this ability, including most youth coaches. Therefore, I think it’s a bit of a pointless question. If your kid likes sports, encourage them to keep it up for all the benefits sports offers, and time will take care of letting you know what level they can succeed at.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:At first it's more about who obviously has NO chance.

That's clear by age 6 for many kids.

I agree with this. I have an 11 year old, and watching his rec basketball game this weekend was painful with some kids who are just so bad. It's why many kids go to travel, they have to in order to not play with kids who are absolutely horrible and cause the team to lose.

I’ve seen some of the “bad” kids who end up 6’5 play on the high school team. The glory days for many of the boys who end up short were middle school. Enjoy it while it lasts!

LOL. Middle school is not the time to judge a kid's height or sports trajectory. DH grew over a foot in his junior year of high school and another six inches senior year.

I think that was pp’s point. Some MS super star kids don’t grow enough in HS to compete with the best ones that do.

True. Late bloomers have to be resilient because they certainly experience setbacks when competing against peers with testosterone. Even if they don't have significant height, testosterone makes a huge difference in physical sports.

It can be a problem for early bloomers too. 5’7 6th grade star can turn into 5’7 sophomore cut from JV. Sometimes even when they are very coordinated.

This happens all the time in basketball. The big kid gets labeled a big and taught how to play down low. The get really good in the post, but they never learn how to play small. Come puberty, they aren't big enough to play the post and they have never developed guard skills

IT happens all of the time in soccer. They use the physicality to body kids and beat them down the field--bigger shots. Coaches abuse them by just using them for the 'kick and run' plays or set them as a defender. When a kid is small in the sport--they have to become very quick agile and 'think fast' because they aren't going to beat the big/testosterone kids to the ball. They have to rely solely on their skill and IQ. Then, if these are late bloomers (my sons were) they get to be 18 and are now muscular and 6feet and they have that skill on both feet and touch to back up the physicality.

My kid was a very good athlete early---and then in MS really dropped off as all the others had their growth spurts. Then around 18, he started winning the beep tests and dominating in the physical tests while his skills were light years ahead of the kids that were his size in middle school and stopped growing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Good Athletes - Like D1 or even pro level athleticism? I'd say around age 7 I can tell. It is hard to describe but you know when you see it.

High School athletes? Middle school or beyond. Most schools you can work hard and make a team and even be a starter. But the high level athletes that play on TV every weekend all have something the rest of us don't have.

You sound like my DH, who was able to project out the maximum potential achievement level of each kid on my son’s U9 soccer team, assuming they put in the time athletically and academically and weren’t derailed by life. I was highly skeptical at the time. A decade+on, he nailed almost every kid, ranging from the one he described as D1/pro potential, the couple D3/borderline D1, the category of “will likely make varsity at a minimum”, the couple of “may make JV/wont make varsity” kids (both of whom made JV for one year), the one he predicted would excel at a different sport, and the others who he said didn’t have the coordination or other baseline athletic traits to play beyond rec.

It’s obviously easier to project out for a sport like soccer, where size is not determinative for most positions, but I still think my DH has an uncanny and unusual ability to recognize which kids are fundamentally athletic and which aren’t at a young age. I don’t think most of us have this ability, including most youth coaches. Therefore, I think it’s a bit of a pointless question. If your kid likes sports, encourage them to keep it up for all the benefits sports offers, and time will take care of letting you know what level they can succeed at.

Did he keep following them? LOL My kid did not make Varsity and is crushing it on a D1 team now. HS is not indicative of anything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Good Athletes - Like D1 or even pro level athleticism? I'd say around age 7 I can tell. It is hard to describe but you know when you see it.

High School athletes? Middle school or beyond. Most schools you can work hard and make a team and even be a starter. But the high level athletes that play on TV every weekend all have something the rest of us don't have.

You sound like my DH, who was able to project out the maximum potential achievement level of each kid on my son’s U9 soccer team, assuming they put in the time athletically and academically and weren’t derailed by life. I was highly skeptical at the time. A decade+on, he nailed almost every kid, ranging from the one he described as D1/pro potential, the couple D3/borderline D1, the category of “will likely make varsity at a minimum”, the couple of “may make JV/wont make varsity” kids (both of whom made JV for one year), the one he predicted would excel at a different sport, and the others who he said didn’t have the coordination or other baseline athletic traits to play beyond rec.

It’s obviously easier to project out for a sport like soccer, where size is not determinative for most positions, but I still think my DH has an uncanny and unusual ability to recognize which kids are fundamentally athletic and which aren’t at a young age. I don’t think most of us have this ability, including most youth coaches. Therefore, I think it’s a bit of a pointless question. If your kid likes sports, encourage them to keep it up for all the benefits sports offers, and time will take care of letting you know what level they can succeed at.

Did he keep following them? LOL My kid did not make Varsity and is crushing it on a D1 team now. HS is not indicative of anything.

None of the kids on the HS team are playing in college, but several that stayed in Club and only played first 1 or 2 years of HS are playing in college. Most boys nowadays don't play HS. They play MLSnext.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At first it's more about who obviously has NO chance.

That's clear by age 6 for many kids.

I agree with this. I have an 11 year old, and watching his rec basketball game this weekend was painful with some kids who are just so bad. It's why many kids go to travel, they have to in order to not play with kids who are absolutely horrible and cause the team to lose.

I’ve seen some of the “bad” kids who end up 6’5 play on the high school team. The glory days for many of the boys who end up short were middle school. Enjoy it while it lasts!

It has nothing to do with being short. It has everything to do with coordination.

There is more to it than that even. Theoretically, late bloomers may develop better musculature. Unfortunately, this may happen after high school. I was just watching a video about Dennis Rodman. He didn't get drafted until like 25 and grew eight inches after high school. Many consider him the most athletic basketball player ever.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Good Athletes - Like D1 or even pro level athleticism? I'd say around age 7 I can tell. It is hard to describe but you know when you see it.

High School athletes? Middle school or beyond. Most schools you can work hard and make a team and even be a starter. But the high level athletes that play on TV every weekend all have something the rest of us don't have.

You sound like my DH, who was able to project out the maximum potential achievement level of each kid on my son’s U9 soccer team, assuming they put in the time athletically and academically and weren’t derailed by life. I was highly skeptical at the time. A decade+on, he nailed almost every kid, ranging from the one he described as D1/pro potential, the couple D3/borderline D1, the category of “will likely make varsity at a minimum”, the couple of “may make JV/wont make varsity” kids (both of whom made JV for one year), the one he predicted would excel at a different sport, and the others who he said didn’t have the coordination or other baseline athletic traits to play beyond rec.

It’s obviously easier to project out for a sport like soccer, where size is not determinative for most positions, but I still think my DH has an uncanny and unusual ability to recognize which kids are fundamentally athletic and which aren’t at a young age. I don’t think most of us have this ability, including most youth coaches. Therefore, I think it’s a bit of a pointless question. If your kid likes sports, encourage them to keep it up for all the benefits sports offers, and time will take care of letting you know what level they can succeed at.

Did he keep following them? LOL My kid did not make Varsity and is crushing it on a D1 team now. HS is not indicative of anything.

Well, yes. There are no Nostradamuses involved, so no one can predict where any elementary aged kid will actually end up. There are far too many variables. My DH’s predictions were made on the assumption that the kids in question who weren’t DA bound would be playing at the local HS which had then, and still has, a coach who knows his stuff. The fact that your kid’s HS coach didn’t see he had D1 potential supports my point that there are not a lot of great talent evaluators out there, so no one should be worried about this at this age.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a parent of multiple kids who love and benefit from sports, I find it depressing that conversations start with a definition of “good” or “an athlete” that is “can make their high school team” and then inevitably switches to “can play D1” or “will make the pros”.

How discouraging is it that we are judging 99% of kids as “not good” or “not athletes”?

It’s just such a small percentage! agree

Agree. Also there are so many sports out there that don’t necessarily have every kids start at age 4 or 5. If a kid that has some athletic ability finds a sport they love later in life they have the potential to do really well. Golf, volleyball, rowing,etc. are all options.

[Anonymous]

What lots of the smug posters in this thread don’t realize is the people who don’t do this for a living have no idea what a kid’s potential is.

In elementary, my kid was one of the terrible rec players that PPs are so scornful of. By HS, other parents constantly told me how lucky I was to have a genetically gifted kid who is tall, fast, super bouncy, and a great shooter. I had to laugh. He didn’t start out genetically gifted, but many, many hours of lifting, plyometrics and skill training sure helped improve his genetic makeup.

As for speed, sure - the capacity for true speed is genetically limited. But so many kids run slow because they never learned or tried to run fast and relaxed. My kid got a LOT faster in about a month when his coach benched him and said “you get playing time when you show me some speed.” He ran very slow in drills because AAU and JV coaches let him. When the varsity coach benched him, suddenly he was one of the fastest kids on the team within a couple of weeks. It always made me wonder how many other kids were fast and skilled but coaches just never saw it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Good Athletes - Like D1 or even pro level athleticism? I'd say around age 7 I can tell. It is hard to describe but you know when you see it.

High School athletes? Middle school or beyond. Most schools you can work hard and make a team and even be a starter. But the high level athletes that play on TV every weekend all have something the rest of us don't have.

You sound like my DH, who was able to project out the maximum potential achievement level of each kid on my son’s U9 soccer team, assuming they put in the time athletically and academically and weren’t derailed by life. I was highly skeptical at the time. A decade+on, he nailed almost every kid, ranging from the one he described as D1/pro potential, the couple D3/borderline D1, the category of “will likely make varsity at a minimum”, the couple of “may make JV/wont make varsity” kids (both of whom made JV for one year), the one he predicted would excel at a different sport, and the others who he said didn’t have the coordination or other baseline athletic traits to play beyond rec.

It’s obviously easier to project out for a sport like soccer, where size is not determinative for most positions, but I still think my DH has an uncanny and unusual ability to recognize which kids are fundamentally athletic and which aren’t at a young age. I don’t think most of us have this ability, including most youth coaches. Therefore, I think it’s a bit of a pointless question. If your kid likes sports, encourage them to keep it up for all the benefits sports offers, and time will take care of letting you know what level they can succeed at.

The notion that coordination is an innate, fixed quality seems very silly to me. The reality is that coordination is developed, and — at least for basketball players — the uncoordinated MS kids are often going to be good in HS. They are uncoordinated because they are growing at an incredible rate, and once they stop growing they are fine.

I was uncoordinated as hell until I took up MMA in my 20s and spent untold hours specifically working on hand eye coordination. I actually discovered in the same weekend at a work retreat that I could hit a golf ball and a softball (after telling all my coworkers that I couldn’t) despite not having tried either in years and years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Good Athletes - Like D1 or even pro level athleticism? I'd say around age 7 I can tell. It is hard to describe but you know when you see it.

High School athletes? Middle school or beyond. Most schools you can work hard and make a team and even be a starter. But the high level athletes that play on TV every weekend all have something the rest of us don't have.

You sound like my DH, who was able to project out the maximum potential achievement level of each kid on my son’s U9 soccer team, assuming they put in the time athletically and academically and weren’t derailed by life. I was highly skeptical at the time. A decade+on, he nailed almost every kid, ranging from the one he described as D1/pro potential, the couple D3/borderline D1, the category of “will likely make varsity at a minimum”, the couple of “may make JV/wont make varsity” kids (both of whom made JV for one year), the one he predicted would excel at a different sport, and the others who he said didn’t have the coordination or other baseline athletic traits to play beyond rec.

It’s obviously easier to project out for a sport like soccer, where size is not determinative for most positions, but I still think my DH has an uncanny and unusual ability to recognize which kids are fundamentally athletic and which aren’t at a young age. I don’t think most of us have this ability, including most youth coaches. Therefore, I think it’s a bit of a pointless question. If your kid likes sports, encourage them to keep it up for all the benefits sports offers, and time will take care of letting you know what level they can succeed at.

Wow, what a weird thing to do. I hope no one is upsizing my own kids.
Did HE actually play as an athlete or just living vicariously through the kids?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What lots of the smug posters in this thread don’t realize is the people who don’t do this for a living have no idea what a kid’s potential is.

In elementary, my kid was one of the terrible rec players that PPs are so scornful of. By HS, other parents constantly told me how lucky I was to have a genetically gifted kid who is tall, fast, super bouncy, and a great shooter. I had to laugh. He didn’t start out genetically gifted, but many, many hours of lifting, plyometrics and skill training sure helped improve his genetic makeup.

As for speed, sure - the capacity for true speed is genetically limited. But so many kids run slow because they never learned or tried to run fast and relaxed. My kid got a LOT faster in about a month when his coach benched him and said “you get playing time when you show me some speed.” He ran very slow in drills because AAU and JV coaches let him. When the varsity coach benched him, suddenly he was one of the fastest kids on the team within a couple of weeks. It always made me wonder how many other kids were fast and skilled but coaches just never saw it.

Agree with this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Good Athletes - Like D1 or even pro level athleticism? I'd say around age 7 I can tell. It is hard to describe but you know when you see it.

High School athletes? Middle school or beyond. Most schools you can work hard and make a team and even be a starter. But the high level athletes that play on TV every weekend all have something the rest of us don't have.

You sound like my DH, who was able to project out the maximum potential achievement level of each kid on my son’s U9 soccer team, assuming they put in the time athletically and academically and weren’t derailed by life. I was highly skeptical at the time. A decade+on, he nailed almost every kid, ranging from the one he described as D1/pro potential, the couple D3/borderline D1, the category of “will likely make varsity at a minimum”, the couple of “may make JV/wont make varsity” kids (both of whom made JV for one year), the one he predicted would excel at a different sport, and the others who he said didn’t have the coordination or other baseline athletic traits to play beyond rec.

It’s obviously easier to project out for a sport like soccer, where size is not determinative for most positions, but I still think my DH has an uncanny and unusual ability to recognize which kids are fundamentally athletic and which aren’t at a young age. I don’t think most of us have this ability, including most youth coaches. Therefore, I think it’s a bit of a pointless question. If your kid likes sports, encourage them to keep it up for all the benefits sports offers, and time will take care of letting you know what level they can succeed at.

Wow, what a weird thing to do. I hope no one is upsizing my own kids.
Did HE actually play as an athlete or just living vicariously through the kids?

Of course he’s a fat slob who never played anything

[Anonymous]

The English soccer academies recruit kids as early as 8 years old to hopefully go on to become pros one day.

There was a story that basically said they don’t come close identifying pro talent that early and have a weak track record when it comes to young players.

[Anonymous]

My kid definitely wasn’t athletic in early elementary school. Was painful to watch in second grade. By 5th grade, he was okay. By high school he definitely identified as an athlete - varsity starter in one sport, made the team in another which he had never played before, and apparently had other sport teams trying to recruit him. He isn’t amazing but is definitely athletic. Pretty sure he could play D3 in college is he wanted (he doesn’t).

Heck, I was totally unathletic as a kid and didn’t come into my own til my 30s!

That said, the best athlete I know clearly was talented as a 4 year old.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The English soccer academies recruit kids as early as 8 years old to hopefully go on to become pros one day.

There was a story that basically said they don’t come close identifying pro talent that early and have a weak track record when it comes to young players.

Yep. Notoriously bad. Almost none of them make it.