Anonymous wrote:Just an FYI things aren’t always better on the other side. DS had his growth spurt early- 5-6th grade. He was so terribly in coordinated at the time. Many here are mentioning basketball, DS was always told to stand under the basket and the shorter, faster, more coordinated kids got much more ‘ball time’ in ES and MS.

Now in HS, he is just over the average height. But, he was abnormally tall in MS and it impacted him in negative ways as well.

Anonymous wrote:Just an FYI things aren’t always better on the other side. DS had his growth spurt early- 5-6th grade. He was so terribly in coordinated at the time. Many here are mentioning basketball, DS was always told to stand under the basket and the shorter, faster, more coordinated kids got much more ‘ball time’ in ES and MS.

Now in HS, he is just over the average height. But, he was abnormally tall in MS and it impacted him in negative ways as well.

Anonymous wrote:OP, I also understand how you feel. One of my boys is a great athlete and loved sports from a young age. He is also barely on the growth charts. Before most boys hit puberty, his natural athleticism, hard work, and competitive mindset kept him competitive in multiple sports. However, starting in sixth grade, things went downhill. Because he loves sports so much, these years were brutal. He lost his confidence and became depressed, which impacted all areas of his life. I remember one day in middle school, he was playing basketball and could not get a shot off that wasn't blocked. After the game, he got in the car, curled up in a ball, and sobbed for about 30 minutes, repeating, "I just can't anymore." It was heartbreaking. He quit basketball shortly after that.

He also plays soccer, which had its ups and downs. After his freshman high school season, he wanted to be done with club soccer because he felt like his hard work wasn't getting him anywhere with his current club, where he was getting little playing time. He told his coach why he was leaving and found another, much less competitive team where he could play the entire game. The team was terrible, but at least he was playing.

Before I talk about his size, I should mention that DS goes to a small private high school, so he had more opportunities to play than he might have at a larger school. Still, despite his extremely small size and late puberty, he is a good player. He was good enough to make the varsity team his freshman year and to earn significant playing time off the bench. Unlike some of the stories about NBA athletes or how their 5'4 inch son is now a six-footer playing a D1 sport, my son's story is probably a more realistic inspiration. When I say he was small when he started high school, I'm talking small. As a freshman, my son was 4'9 and around 80 pounds. He hit so many roadblocks in multiple sports during the middle school years through freshman year that he was ready to give up sports altogether. He did try an individual sport for a few year, but he was late to start and didn't excel.

Fast forward to junior and senior years of high school - after quitting high-level club soccer and playing on a middling team, my son grew and finally started to hit puberty. He was a starter on his high school team junior year, playing every minute of every game. His senior year, he hit what is probably his full height (only about 5'6) and he still weighs 120 pounds. However, he has gotten strong enough now that his exceptional skill yields greater results on the field. He was a captain and was selected as the team MVP. Once he started feeling more powerful as he grew into his adult body, he became a more effective and confident player. A tiny player with a huge heart giving maximum effort might not always be recognized by awards, but he can boost his teammates and earn respect from coaches, teammates, and opponents, even with limited playing time. Over the years, I've watched the best and often biggest players on opposing teams (and coaches) come over to talk to my son and compliment his play. He learned to play bigger than his body, but it was a struggle. He had so many reasons to give up, starting with coaches who never gave him a chance, despite his good work ethic. With his personality, I think that keeping him in his old club team would have provided better training but would have led to him quitting the sport entirely.

If your small, late bloomer loves a sport, try to find a place they can play without becoming too discouraged. Exploring an individual sport is also a good idea. Encourage your son to be the absolute best player he can be in the body he has regardless of whether anyone else believes in him. That persistence will serve him better in life than any sports accolades. Good luck.

Anonymous wrote:OP, I also understand how you feel. One of my boys is a great athlete and loved sports from a young age. He is also barely on the growth charts. Before most boys hit puberty, his natural athleticism, hard work, and competitive mindset kept him competitive in multiple sports. However, starting in sixth grade, things went downhill. Because he loves sports so much, these years were brutal. He lost his confidence and became depressed, which impacted all areas of his life. I remember one day in middle school, he was playing basketball and could not get a shot off that wasn't blocked. After the game, he got in the car, curled up in a ball, and sobbed for about 30 minutes, repeating, "I just can't anymore." It was heartbreaking. He quit basketball shortly after that.

He also plays soccer, which had its ups and downs. After his freshman high school season, he wanted to be done with club soccer because he felt like his hard work wasn't getting him anywhere with his current club, where he was getting little playing time. He told his coach why he was leaving and found another, much less competitive team where he could play the entire game. The team was terrible, but at least he was playing.

Before I talk about his size, I should mention that DS goes to a small private high school, so he had more opportunities to play than he might have at a larger school. Still, despite his extremely small size and late puberty, he is a good player. He was good enough to make the varsity team his freshman year and to earn significant playing time off the bench. Unlike some of the stories about NBA athletes or how their 5'4 inch son is now a six-footer playing a D1 sport, my son's story is probably a more realistic inspiration. When I say he was small when he started high school, I'm talking small. As a freshman, my son was 4'9 and around 80 pounds. He hit so many roadblocks in multiple sports during the middle school years through freshman year that he was ready to give up sports altogether. He did try an individual sport for a few year, but he was late to start and didn't excel.

Fast forward to junior and senior years of high school - after quitting high-level club soccer and playing on a middling team, my son grew and finally started to hit puberty. He was a starter on his high school team junior year, playing every minute of every game. His senior year, he hit what is probably his full height (only about 5'6) and he still weighs 120 pounds. However, he has gotten strong enough now that his exceptional skill yields greater results on the field. He was a captain and was selected as the team MVP. Once he started feeling more powerful as he grew into his adult body, he became a more effective and confident player. A tiny player with a huge heart giving maximum effort might not always be recognized by awards, but he can boost his teammates and earn respect from coaches, teammates, and opponents, even with limited playing time. Over the years, I've watched the best and often biggest players on opposing teams (and coaches) come over to talk to my son and compliment his play. He learned to play bigger than his body, but it was a struggle. He had so many reasons to give up, starting with coaches who never gave him a chance, despite his good work ethic. With his personality, I think that keeping him in his old club team would have provided better training but would have led to him quitting the sport entirely.

If your small, late bloomer loves a sport, try to find a place they can play without becoming too discouraged. Exploring an individual sport is also a good idea. Encourage your son to be the absolute best player he can be in the body he has regardless of whether anyone else believes in him. That persistence will serve him better in life than any sports accolades. Good luck.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wrestling. You compete against your own size and a great college team needs all the weight classes.

Cutting weight is so unhealthy. I love wrestling as a sport, and would be happy for my kid to do it if they could compete at their actual weight, but at least back in the day, that wouldn't be allowed.

I wrestled in HS and had to cut weight. I'm sure it still happens at the varsity level, but at the youth/MS level there is no cutting weight.

Heck, the kids end up wresting kids plus/minus 10-15 pounds of your kids weight just because its all about getting as many matches in on meet day as possible.

It's absolutely not a risk for a middle school kid. And for a freshman or sophomore, content to just be on JV, they won't have to worry about cutting weight either

The coaches say one thing to parents and a different thing to the wrestlers. You are fooling yourself if you think cutting weight isn’t encouraged in youth wrestling. No, they don’t have to make a certain weight class to wrestle but if they drop x pounds before weigh in they are told they will have an advantage. There can be some real eating disorders for these boys. By son had issues for years. I was glad when he stopped wrestling. It all depends on the coaches and the mentality of your kid. I never thought mine would be susceptible to that.

Anonymous wrote:I posted above about my tiny son, but for those who have struggling kids, especially soccer players, this video about USMNT player Brenden Aaronson is a must see if your kid hasn't watched it already:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7CRsRcpnIQ

Anonymous wrote:OP, I also understand how you feel. One of my boys is a great athlete and loved sports from a young age. He is also barely on the growth charts. Before most boys hit puberty, his natural athleticism, hard work, and competitive mindset kept him competitive in multiple sports. However, starting in sixth grade, things went downhill. Because he loves sports so much, these years were brutal. He lost his confidence and became depressed, which impacted all areas of his life. I remember one day in middle school, he was playing basketball and could not get a shot off that wasn't blocked. After the game, he got in the car, curled up in a ball, and sobbed for about 30 minutes, repeating, "I just can't anymore." It was heartbreaking. He quit basketball shortly after that.

He also plays soccer, which had its ups and downs. After his freshman high school season, he wanted to be done with club soccer because he felt like his hard work wasn't getting him anywhere with his current club, where he was getting little playing time. He told his coach why he was leaving and found another, much less competitive team where he could play the entire game. The team was terrible, but at least he was playing.

Before I talk about his size, I should mention that DS goes to a small private high school, so he had more opportunities to play than he might have at a larger school. Still, despite his extremely small size and late puberty, he is a good player. He was good enough to make the varsity team his freshman year and to earn significant playing time off the bench. Unlike some of the stories about NBA athletes or how their 5'4 inch son is now a six-footer playing a D1 sport, my son's story is probably a more realistic inspiration. When I say he was small when he started high school, I'm talking small. As a freshman, my son was 4'9 and around 80 pounds. He hit so many roadblocks in multiple sports during the middle school years through freshman year that he was ready to give up sports altogether. He did try an individual sport for a few year, but he was late to start and didn't excel.

Fast forward to junior and senior years of high school - after quitting high-level club soccer and playing on a middling team, my son grew and finally started to hit puberty. He was a starter on his high school team junior year, playing every minute of every game. His senior year, he hit what is probably his full height (only about 5'6) and he still weighs 120 pounds. However, he has gotten strong enough now that his exceptional skill yields greater results on the field. He was a captain and was selected as the team MVP. Once he started feeling more powerful as he grew into his adult body, he became a more effective and confident player. A tiny player with a huge heart giving maximum effort might not always be recognized by awards, but he can boost his teammates and earn respect from coaches, teammates, and opponents, even with limited playing time. Over the years, I've watched the best and often biggest players on opposing teams (and coaches) come over to talk to my son and compliment his play. He learned to play bigger than his body, but it was a struggle. He had so many reasons to give up, starting with coaches who never gave him a chance, despite his good work ethic. With his personality, I think that keeping him in his old club team would have provided better training but would have led to him quitting the sport entirely.

If your small, late bloomer loves a sport, try to find a place they can play without becoming too discouraged. Exploring an individual sport is also a good idea. Encourage your son to be the absolute best player he can be in the body he has regardless of whether anyone else believes in him. That persistence will serve him better in life than any sports accolades. Good luck.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just want to provide a different perspective and maybe one that brings hope?

I have a 12 year old son who plays travel baseball with a mix of 7th and 8th graders. All but 2 kids are 13 already. My son is the 3rd tallest kid at 5’5” and the tallest kid is probably 5’7”. We have several kids who are 4’8” and most are probably 5’1” or 5’2”. Our team is good! You don’t have to be enormous to play. Our smaller size belies our fielding strength and our defense is what wins games.

My kid is going to open gyms for a team that will be 13u. There are multiple athletic 6 footers. Your kid sounds like that are just at the cusp of the age where enough boys have growth spurts for height to really matter

PP here. My kid is already on 13u and while I agree there are some teams for whom the height is clearly a major factor/“requirement,” I wouldn’t say we played any teams that had multiple 6 footers, including tournaments both local and out of town. But our team is AAA, not Metro-level so maybe that makes the difference. My point is, there are teams that field a more average sized roster so to make it sound like an average-sized kid won’t find a team isn’t accurate, in my opinion.

Just to be clear, I’m talking baseball, not basketball.

Open gyms are for basketball, not baseball.

The smaller, late growing kids can hang a year or two longer in baseball/soccer then basketball.

Anonymous wrote:OP, I also understand how you feel. One of my boys is a great athlete and loved sports from a young age. He is also barely on the growth charts. Before most boys hit puberty, his natural athleticism, hard work, and competitive mindset kept him competitive in multiple sports. However, starting in sixth grade, things went downhill. Because he loves sports so much, these years were brutal. He lost his confidence and became depressed, which impacted all areas of his life. I remember one day in middle school, he was playing basketball and could not get a shot off that wasn't blocked. After the game, he got in the car, curled up in a ball, and sobbed for about 30 minutes, repeating, "I just can't anymore." It was heartbreaking. He quit basketball shortly after that.

He also plays soccer, which had its ups and downs. After his freshman high school season, he wanted to be done with club soccer because he felt like his hard work wasn't getting him anywhere with his current club, where he was getting little playing time. He told his coach why he was leaving and found another, much less competitive team where he could play the entire game. The team was terrible, but at least he was playing.

Before I talk about his size, I should mention that DS goes to a small private high school, so he had more opportunities to play than he might have at a larger school. Still, despite his extremely small size and late puberty, he is a good player. He was good enough to make the varsity team his freshman year and to earn significant playing time off the bench. Unlike some of the stories about NBA athletes or how their 5'4 inch son is now a six-footer playing a D1 sport, my son's story is probably a more realistic inspiration. When I say he was small when he started high school, I'm talking small. As a freshman, my son was 4'9 and around 80 pounds. He hit so many roadblocks in multiple sports during the middle school years through freshman year that he was ready to give up sports altogether. He did try an individual sport for a few year, but he was late to start and didn't excel.

Fast forward to junior and senior years of high school - after quitting high-level club soccer and playing on a middling team, my son grew and finally started to hit puberty. He was a starter on his high school team junior year, playing every minute of every game. His senior year, he hit what is probably his full height (only about 5'6) and he still weighs 120 pounds. However, he has gotten strong enough now that his exceptional skill yields greater results on the field. He was a captain and was selected as the team MVP. Once he started feeling more powerful as he grew into his adult body, he became a more effective and confident player. A tiny player with a huge heart giving maximum effort might not always be recognized by awards, but he can boost his teammates and earn respect from coaches, teammates, and opponents, even with limited playing time. Over the years, I've watched the best and often biggest players on opposing teams (and coaches) come over to talk to my son and compliment his play. He learned to play bigger than his body, but it was a struggle. He had so many reasons to give up, starting with coaches who never gave him a chance, despite his good work ethic. With his personality, I think that keeping him in his old club team would have provided better training but would have led to him quitting the sport entirely.

If your small, late bloomer loves a sport, try to find a place they can play without becoming too discouraged. Exploring an individual sport is also a good idea. Encourage your son to be the absolute best player he can be in the body he has regardless of whether anyone else believes in him. That persistence will serve him better in life than any sports accolades. Good luck.