You think he would be competitive against his agemates? Really? When 95% of kids are bigger and stronger and taller?
My youngest dd, 8 years old, is so tiny she's only occasionally in her life been tall enough to make it into the first percentile on the growth charts for her age. She's not only shorter than 100% of the kids her own age (and in her grade, where her age is right around the middle of the pack)... she's smaller than many of the kindergartners at her school (she's in third grade).
She's also an incredible athlete - strong, agile, great motor coordination, has yet to meet a sport she doesn't love. In 2nd grade her teacher put together a little book for each student on their birthday week, and included a page where each classmate wrote a little something about the student they admired. 9 out of 10 comments on dd's page were "Awesome cartwheeler!" "Best cartwheeler in 2nd grade!". She participates in competitive sports outside of school and is eagerly awaiting middle school when she can start playing competitive sports at school.
I'm not terribly athletically talented, but I played volleyball for fun for years and I did really well at it because I had fun playing it and because I practiced and learned and tried. And I'm about as vertcally challenged as people come
JMO, but it seems to me that *for the majority of sports* success at sports has less to do with size than it has to do with passion and skill and dedication/motivation.
Also, the student who is being discussed here is only one month younger than grade cut-off.... I'm guessing he wouldn't be all that tall among kids one grade lower. And I'm basing that guess based on the 2 out of 3 of my kids who are very short - my dd mentioned above, and my ds who is around 5th-10th percentile for height for his age.
polarbear
