Let him try whatever. Many kids hit late growth spirts.

Anonymous wrote:You shouldn't be steering him towards anything at FIVE. He should be trying whatever he wants to. Get a grip.

Let me know how that works out for you when you tell your kid they can no longer play football after doing flag for several years because of the concussion risks. We are steering a bit. There are a lot of choices for extracurricular outside of a few sports that you really do need to be big and tall.

Lots of tiny kids on my son's travel hockey team - they are fast and do just as well as the bigger kids! I can see size becoming a problem when they start to check at age 13/14.

Baseball!

As a young kid? Anything!

As he gets older, anything but basketball, really.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Train him to be a catcher in baseball. Good ones are hard to find and there's an advantage to being short (and stocky) as long as he can hit too.

Nah you have to be big to be a catcher.

Wrong.

My athletic, small kid is 8. Great at soccer, flag football, even basketball. Struggling in baseball - just too small to hit it out of the infield regularly, plus tiny strike zone means he walks all the time (just started kid pitch).

He can play attack in lacrosse.

Having observed a good deal of youth lacrosse, I would say it is not a disadvantage to be short in lacrosse before 8th grade, as long as you are fast and have good stick skills.

I have seen plenty of tall youth lacrosse players who aren't very useful because they are slow and no good with the stick.

Swimming too

Another vote for wrestling

Track if he’s a fast runner, but it’s easier with long legs.

Anonymous wrote:Train him to be a catcher in baseball. Good ones are hard to find and there's an advantage to being short (and stocky) as long as he can hit too.

Nah you have to be big to be a catcher.

Soccer, wrestling, gymnastics.

I totally get it. One child loved gymnastics but was off the charts in height-- I steered DC away from that one. Another child is a short basketball player. It's not easy, but DC could not be convinced otherwise. If your ball handling skills and shooting are good enough you can be a decent PG up to a point.

You shouldn't be steering him towards anything at FIVE. He should be trying whatever he wants to. Get a grip.

Thanks! Some wonderful ideas. We certainly don’t expect him to be an elite athlete but to be honest I would prefer to “steer” him, for lack of better word, into a sport where size isn’t one of the biggest factors of success and necessary, unless you’re some standout star, to make the team.