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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Mom of a short athletic boy now on growth hormone therapy. My son was a soccer player and grew to hate it, because his size and late onset of puberty made it difficult to compete at the level appropriate for his skills. He worked his butt off, but felt like he was constantly getting less playing time when the club picked up kids from outside. To give you perspective, when he started high school, he wasn't on an academy team, but was on a higher level team in the state. He weighed 80 pounds. He has since grown, but unfortunately,  he lost his love for the game.

Based on that experience, I would say that if you are going to steer your shorter boy toward a sport, I would pick an individual sport like gymnastics, wrestling martial arts, tennis, or golf. At least that way they can develop their skills outside of the framework of a club/team lens that regularly passes over smaller players and doesn't give them a chance.

By the way, none of this is to say that smaller soccer or other sports players can't be stellar, because obviously they can. But in US soccer culture, it takes a rare talent or incredible determination and commitment for a small player with late onset of puberty to keep playing in a developmentally appropriate environment. [/quote]

OP here.  I appreciate you sharing.  I will definitely keep it in mind.  So far my son loves team sports much more than individual as he likes working together with others and not have all eyes on him during meets/competition.  But we’ll see if that changes.[/quote]

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