Well yes most physical feats depend on strength or mass. Being tall is an advantage in nearly every sport. Smaller kids who are very quick with good technical skills can certainly keep up though.

Swimming (college recruiting) also favors tall and of course long limbs.

My son was tracking to be 6-ft (like his dad) on his growth curve until 2 years ago when he fell down on the curve due to late puberty and thyroid problems. He's played AAU/Travel basketball year-round since 5th grade on very competitive teams, and was always a starter and top scorer until last year. We supported basketball as his primary sport but now regret this decision. As one of the shortest players at most tryouts he's usually set aside, and even though he's still a very good player and scorer, he's become a bench player (on a prior team who took him back). He's discouraged and almost ready to quit basketball. Several short friends left sports entirely to try new hobbies.

Anonymous wrote:Baseball don't care. Especially with modern stats analysis. Alejandro Kirk (Blue Jays catcher) case in point. If you watched the World Series last year, you might remember that the announcers spent the whole series making fun of how fat he is. And only 5'8".

Wrong. Baseball cares a lot.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Baseball don't care. Especially with modern stats analysis. Alejandro Kirk (Blue Jays catcher) case in point. If you watched the World Series last year, you might remember that the announcers spent the whole series making fun of how fat he is. And only 5'8".

This is a pretty broad statement. Generally height is still a big asset in baseball, especially for pitchers.

NP here. That's right! 5'8" is uncommon, which is precisely why the announcers harped on his height.

My son is a pitcher so we pay particular attention to pitchers- we basically have a running joke that whenever I ask him how tall any number of MLB pitchers are, the answer is almost always going to be 6'4".

We've recently been through the baseball recruiting process. College coaches care about size.

A lot of variation in body size for endurance sports and sports with no contact: running (cc and track), biking, Nordic skiing, speed skating, swimming, tennis, golf. These athletes come in all shapes and sizes.

Anonymous wrote:Baseball don't care. Especially with modern stats analysis. Alejandro Kirk (Blue Jays catcher) case in point. If you watched the World Series last year, you might remember that the announcers spent the whole series making fun of how fat he is. And only 5'8".

This is a pretty broad statement. Generally height is still a big asset in baseball, especially for pitchers.

By sport

Just Google the average height of pro athletes by height. That gives you an indication of how coaches even in high school think of players.

track is also an option

Anonymous wrote:Baseball don't care. Especially with modern stats analysis. Alejandro Kirk (Blue Jays catcher) case in point. If you watched the World Series last year, you might remember that the announcers spent the whole series making fun of how fat he is. And only 5'8".

Yet, he is one of only a small handful under 6’0”…so kind of silly to make that statement.

The average MLB player is 6’3”.

I mean, there are some 5’8” NBA players, but nobody thinks that’s the norm and of course you have to be amazing for coaches to overlook your height.

Anonymous wrote:Soccer, lacrosse, hockey, football, basketball, baseball - do they all favor the biggest kids? As long as they have decent mechanics/skill will the edge always go to the larger kid?

Are your kids in the age range of 12-14? Unfortunately, this is when size and timing of puberty can make a particular difference, even in the sports where it generally doesn't matter as much. This can be very frustrating, since it is exactly when kids are sorting based on what they want to make their #1 priority.

You have to be big to play college baseball at most places. Equestrian or ice skating?

Anonymous wrote:Maybe super early on, but once they get older, no. Soccer seems like a weird example to me. Most of the good soccer players I know at the high school level are average size, strong, and agile.

+1 Half the guys on my son’s D1 soccer team were 5’10, 155-165.