Can you turn your kid into an elite professional athlete if you start early enough?

[Goat Milk]

Only sports where height matters is NBA

The best athletes in soccer are short.

Tennis, if you're 6'0 you're fine.

Baseball, height doesn't matter.

You should already be athletic yourself if you plan to have a kid that's athletic. I always wished my parents put me in sports when I was younger. I picked up a basketball at 13, played 1 year senior year in high school, was decent not great, a couple years after that, i played religiously, and was far better than anyone on my hs team, even those that went on to get bball scholarships.

I coulda been somebody. I coulda been a contender.

[Goat Milk]

and if you can do things like jump high, have good agility, run fast, good quickness, good hand eye coordination and anticipation, you can pretty much play any sport. when i started playing sports i played every sport from golf to soccer to bball to football to ice hockey. it was mostly the skills from sports like football soccer and bball that easily transferred to every other sport.

develop your kids natural athletic ability, then put him in a bunch of sports and see what he excels. if he is good at everything, pick something practical.

there's a better chance of getting drafted to the mlb, nfl, or nhl than the nba. i have the stats to prove it.

[jjgold]

No most of it is natural God-given talent

You could make your kid to a decent player but if he's not black forget it

[Ra77er]

No most of it is natural God-given talent

You could make your kid to a decent player but if he's not black forget it

even if it's a QB

[Chi_archie]

easiest way to get college scholarship is pole vaulting. Hardly any competition.

litterally everyone and their brother plays baseball

track doesn't really give too many full scholarships

they split 12.6 for men's cross country and track teams

so they might split 2-3 scholarships up among 20+ incoming freshmen each academic year

[Goat Milk]

No most of it is natural God-given talent

You could make your kid to a decent player but if he's not black forget it

you don't know what you're talking about.

[manny24]

as already mentioned Genes are by far the biggest part.

but I still think there is a niche for NFL specialities of Kicker, Punter, Longsnapper (if you got bigger boned/framed genes) that could train any reasonably athletic kid to become

not too many under 6'0 white kids got a shot at NBA

Archer nailed tyhis one

but if your kid can consistently catch up to the slurve not a MLB scout out there wouldn't want to have hime in the order

[Iwinyourmoney]

No

My dad tried that with me. When I was young I was an all star baseball and basketball player. As I reached high school I stopped giving a fuk.
I won multiple punt pass and kick competitions, was the mvp in baseball ages 10-14, the list goes on

[NardVa]

Early sports development helps but you can't teach god given abilities. Example Lebron James or Dwight Howard. Their genetics are insane. In highschool they both were men among little boys. On the flipside take Tebow. He's probably been Mr Football his whole life at every level. He gets to the NFL and he is below average. I'm pretty sure he worked hard at being an NFL QB, but he's not fast like Vick or he doesn't have a cannon arm like Luck. Some things you can't teach.

[briedward]

while the odds are still low for them to be a pro, training your kids gives them a huge advantage.

http://www.amazon.com/Outliers-Story-Success-Malcolm-Gladwell/dp/0316017930

[Ra77er]

I routinely wreck bowling leagues across all states but this only occurs when I'm about 2 pitchers deep in Miller Lite. I can only hope my kid gets the same genes.

[Ra77er]

Iwin got munson'd? What happened here?

[briedward]

The best odds to give your kids to succeed is to train them in sports that poor kids can't easily afford - less competition equals better chance at success. Golf, tennis, hockey are great examples. Stay away from sports that poor kids participate - baseball, soccer, basketball, football.