Reply to How much did size (height/strength) impact kids athletic chances in middle school?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Middle school sports can be extremely difficult for smaller or late-developing kids, especially for boys.

The impact of size/strength and height depends on the specific sport. In addition, a kid's stage of development and height are two separate issues. For example, people mention soccer as being a sport where height doesn't matter as much as a sport like basketball, and that is true to some extent. However, when you are talking about middle school years, just being short may not be as much of a disadvantage as being late to puberty. My son had the challenging combination of being a skilled soccer player, not even on the growth chart small (height and weight), and a late developer. There were always other shorter kids, but many of them had mustaches by 7th grade, so they had a level of physicality that a less developed kid did not. It was absolutely heartbreaking to watch my son struggle during the middle school years. He wound up quitting basketball, which he once loved because he couldn't hang. He stuck with soccer and things got much better once he went through puberty around sophomore year. [/quote]

Height is not really the issue, other than in a few sports (basketball for one).

Puberty/late development is the main concern at this age. It can be very challenging for the later bloomers to keep up/ some sports being more difficult than others. There is a big difference physically between one boy who is 5’5” 95lbs & hasn’t hit puberty yet VS another who is 5’5” 140lbs with man muscles and a deep voice. The latter kid is generally going to be more successful at sports than the former- at this age. [/quote]

But it’s not a sprint boo. We don’t care about the best in early middle school [/quote]

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