Anonymous
Post 07/26/2024 20:24     Subject: Strong but small athlete
Anonymous wrote:In baseball, for the good teams, being large won't get you much by 13/14U. You need to also be fast, strong, and have high baseball i.q., as well as obviously being very skilled at hitting and on the field. But yes, size matters. That's why sports are such a good way to learn about life's unfairness. Find a no-cut sport, or find a different outlet. Even for the best athletes, it's hard to make the big high school teams!


And, in this area, have connections. My kids has all of it and he was passed over for kids whose parents are well connected. E.g. the Mom on school board, etc.
Anonymous
Post 07/26/2024 20:23     Subject: Strong but small athlete
Have him do wrestling
Anonymous
Post 07/26/2024 20:15     Subject: Strong but small athlete
In baseball, for the good teams, being large won't get you much by 13/14U. You need to also be fast, strong, and have high baseball i.q., as well as obviously being very skilled at hitting and on the field. But yes, size matters. That's why sports are such a good way to learn about life's unfairness. Find a no-cut sport, or find a different outlet. Even for the best athletes, it's hard to make the big high school teams!
Anonymous
Post 07/26/2024 17:05     Subject: Strong but small athlete
Is there any title IX equivalent for smaller kids. They have to provide opportunities for girls and students with disabilities, but nothing for late bloomers?
Anonymous
Post 07/26/2024 16:59     Subject: Strong but small athlete
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Sports could choose to base teams on weight/height (like wrestling) rather than just age.

Maybe if this was implemented, smaller kids could keep playing with similar sized kids until they grow.

https://www.aucklandrugby.co.nz/COMMUNITY-RUGBY/Junior-1/Junior-AgeGrade-Weight-Chart-1


This is more or less how youth football is run. We have an A team and a B team divided primarily based on size.


Lobby to continue this practice in high school?
Anonymous
Post 07/26/2024 16:53     Subject: Strong but small athlete
Anonymous wrote:Sports could choose to base teams on weight/height (like wrestling) rather than just age.

Maybe if this was implemented, smaller kids could keep playing with similar sized kids until they grow.

https://www.aucklandrugby.co.nz/COMMUNITY-RUGBY/Junior-1/Junior-AgeGrade-Weight-Chart-1


This is more or less how youth football is run. We have an A team and a B team divided primarily based on size.
Anonymous
Post 07/26/2024 16:49     Subject: Strong but small athlete
Sports could choose to base teams on weight/height (like wrestling) rather than just age.

Maybe if this was implemented, smaller kids could keep playing with similar sized kids until they grow.

https://www.aucklandrugby.co.nz/COMMUNITY-RUGBY/Junior-1/Junior-AgeGrade-Weight-Chart-1
Anonymous
Post 07/26/2024 12:57     Subject: Strong but small athlete
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Op here—DS loves sport, will continue to play and train outside of team. As long as he wants to continue playing we will support him. I grew up with sisters and our oldest is a girl so this is really my first experience with the size/strength/growth timing issue with boys so was really just asking how other supported their kids. I fully understand the competition for spots in HS, but I guess I’m just a little surprised to be feeling that so intensely at this age when there is such a range of when boys hit puberty and grow. I wrongly assumed coaches would be more open to fostering strong athletes who have not had their growth spurts yet but many/most seem more interested in big boys only. I’m seeing this with friends’ kids too—baseball, basketball, and lacrosse seem to be the three where I hear about this most.


The truth is- by high school age- coaches want to win. They generally aren’t going to wait around for a kid to grow. They’ll choose kids who have already grown (and assume they will only get physically stronger from there with training).

It does stink- my DS ran into this and ended up quitting his sport altogether.


By high school age yes, but favoring the big kids begins as soon as the first boys start puberty in 12u. My son was going into 6th when he got his first “too small” comment for baseball. At that point, some boys already had sprouted and developed broad shoulders. My son was not close.

However, if you look at the general size of the parents, my son will most likely be bigger than all the early sprouting kids. Three years later he’s begun to catch up to some. But, decisions made by the 12u-14u coaches eliminate these kids from opportunities.


+1 I could have written this myself. DS 13 is on the small end of his baseball team, but DW and I are not small people. We both had late growth spurts and played (lacrosse and field hockey) in college. When we were in MS and HS, coaches seemed less focused on size. I don't know if our experience was different because of inherent differences between the sports we played vs baseball, differences in where we grew up (not DMV), or something that's different about today's world of youth sports.
Anonymous
Post 07/26/2024 12:46     Subject: Strong but small athlete
They quit sports or switch to no cut sports like cross-country or wrestling which has weight classes.

We were realistic as short parents we knew our son wasn’t going to be tall. He had fun playing travel soccer from age 6 and was on all star teams in little league baseball but by 12 we saw the writing on the wall. We had moved to California when he was 5 and the competition to make most sports teams in high school is intense. He now surfs and is on swim team. He is too small for water polo.
Anonymous
Post 07/26/2024 12:31     Subject: Strong but small athlete
Try wrestling. Both my boys were small but strong kids and had fantastically successful high school wrestling careers (placed at states). With that came confidence, discipline, and very supportive, fun team experiences. The “little guys” often put up points that win meets for the entire team and are the heroes of the day. Neither had to cut weight dramatically or sustained any serious injuries. They didn’t want to wrestle in college, but could have in a smaller program.
Anonymous
Post 07/26/2024 12:30     Subject: Strong but small athlete
The small kids on our team are speedy and agile, and they can move through traffic better than some of the bigger kids (mine just went through a growth sport, and at the moment, he looks like a baby giraffe learning to run). If you're undersized, you can't try to play an enforcer role in a physical game. You have to figure out your role and perfect it.
Anonymous
Post 07/26/2024 12:14     Subject: Strong but small athlete
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Has this always been the way with youth sports? If not when did it start? I was a kid in the 1980s and played a lot of sports (soccer competitively, other sports were considered “rec”), but I don’t remember size being a big issue one way or another. Maybe I was oblivious as a kid?


I think it's a problem in high school sports because they don't have a lot of teams in US high schools - is it just varsity and JV, and you're cut if you don't make those?

I was on my high school's 5th ranked volleyball team with the other kids doing it for fun rather than glory, and we played other schools' 5th ranked teams.


Yes. Some sports will also have a freshman team. And many high schools are very large. For example I think our school had like 70 girls try out for freshman volleyball, and at least that many try out for freshman boys basketball. Both very popular sports. Only 10-12 make the roster. For sports that are less popular or that have larger teams it is a bit easier- but often those do not have a freshman team, just JV.

Plenty of skilled kids who have played travel/club sports for years don’t make our school teams.


Why is it designed so average kids can't do sports yet we go on and on about them not getting enough exercise?


To be fair there were decades before organized sports became as big as they are where kids got plenty of exercise. Running around sandlot style is still exercise. Working a manual labor summer job is exercise. We could find ways to bring back other forms of exercise. Not everything has to play into the youth sports industrial complex.


You make good points. When my kids were at high school, they wouldn't even let them outside the front door to walk or kick a ball at lunchtime. When I was a kid, that's when I did my sports clubs or played informal sports/games with other kids.

We either need to stop the youth sports to college admissions link, or give the active kids credit for being active without being competitive.
Anonymous
Post 07/26/2024 11:48     Subject: Strong but small athlete
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Op here—DS loves sport, will continue to play and train outside of team. As long as he wants to continue playing we will support him. I grew up with sisters and our oldest is a girl so this is really my first experience with the size/strength/growth timing issue with boys so was really just asking how other supported their kids. I fully understand the competition for spots in HS, but I guess I’m just a little surprised to be feeling that so intensely at this age when there is such a range of when boys hit puberty and grow. I wrongly assumed coaches would be more open to fostering strong athletes who have not had their growth spurts yet but many/most seem more interested in big boys only. I’m seeing this with friends’ kids too—baseball, basketball, and lacrosse seem to be the three where I hear about this most.


The truth is- by high school age- coaches want to win. They generally aren’t going to wait around for a kid to grow. They’ll choose kids who have already grown (and assume they will only get physically stronger from there with training).

It does stink- my DS ran into this and ended up quitting his sport altogether.


By high school age yes, but favoring the big kids begins as soon as the first boys start puberty in 12u. My son was going into 6th when he got his first “too small” comment for baseball. At that point, some boys already had sprouted and developed broad shoulders. My son was not close.

However, if you look at the general size of the parents, my son will most likely be bigger than all the early sprouting kids. Three years later he’s begun to catch up to some. But, decisions made by the 12u-14u coaches eliminate these kids from opportunities.
Anonymous
Post 07/26/2024 10:56     Subject: Strong but small athlete
DS was a small-sized, late bloomer that started on varsity baseball at a large public high school.

He made the all star and travel teams because he was strong. As a youth, he did martial arts that really developed his strength. Towards high school, he was playing almost year round and had private lessons. He was 5’4”, 120bs.

Once in high school, DS was lifting year round. He’ll never be big, but he was strong. His junior year he grew to 5’10” 160lbs.

Undersized players really need to work hard to develop strength. Many larger boys just rely on their size.
Anonymous
Post 07/26/2024 10:29     Subject: Strong but small athlete
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Has this always been the way with youth sports? If not when did it start? I was a kid in the 1980s and played a lot of sports (soccer competitively, other sports were considered “rec”), but I don’t remember size being a big issue one way or another. Maybe I was oblivious as a kid?


I think it's a problem in high school sports because they don't have a lot of teams in US high schools - is it just varsity and JV, and you're cut if you don't make those?

I was on my high school's 5th ranked volleyball team with the other kids doing it for fun rather than glory, and we played other schools' 5th ranked teams.


Yes. Some sports will also have a freshman team. And many high schools are very large. For example I think our school had like 70 girls try out for freshman volleyball, and at least that many try out for freshman boys basketball. Both very popular sports. Only 10-12 make the roster. For sports that are less popular or that have larger teams it is a bit easier- but often those do not have a freshman team, just JV.

Plenty of skilled kids who have played travel/club sports for years don’t make our school teams.


Why is it designed so average kids can't do sports yet we go on and on about them not getting enough exercise?


To be fair there were decades before organized sports became as big as they are where kids got plenty of exercise. Running around sandlot style is still exercise. Working a manual labor summer job is exercise. We could find ways to bring back other forms of exercise. Not everything has to play into the youth sports industrial complex.