Any small guys here who excelled at a sport?

[sickler]

i don't know if a lot of you guys would laugh a lot, but i was a chess-player. Ranked 2nd in Montana Grand Prix for Championship in 2003-2004. 2122 was my highest rating back then, which qualifies as a Candidate for Master of Sport(according to this rating system http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unified...em_of_the_USSR).
In the States in Montana I was the second best player of the State, cause only the champion Novak could beat me more than once. But in Ukraine, I was only 7th on youth tournaments - sincerely i didn't have to overcome that - i grew up and chess just weren't a moneymaker for me, though i love my Dad even more for his coaching - cause that develops thinking a GREAT DEAL. Teach your kids chess.

Impressive but are small chess players at a disadvantage to bigger chess players?

[Deuce]

[Cobra Kai]

Shari, thanks for the points.

One thing you should watch out for is to not allow your son to play American Football as it is a sport out of control. Almost all the people I grew up with who played have messed up knees, concussions, etc to the point where they must modify their lives when they get older. The coaches have always trained these kids to injure each other. Soccer headers can be a real issue, too.

Thankfully I have none of these issues, but I basically played non-impact sports.

Haha, worried about heading a soccer ball. Thats gold!

[bozeman]

Impressive but are small chess players at a disadvantage to bigger chess players?

Well truly you see the board better if you are taller, but that gives you a zero advantage, convenience only. I thought he meant small like small-time sportsmen.

[orlikowski]

I excelled in two sports back in high school and I didn't grow past 5'5" till graduation. Won conference in wrestling and was all conference in soccer. Soccer is a sport smaller people can excel and like landon donovan, theo walcott, aaron lennon. Should have played in college. Had a few scholarship offers mostly d2 but also d1. Decided to focus on school

[sickler]

Yeah St Louis is a super talent. Not many his size will ever make it to the pros.

First pic is with Chara, he's a fukkin' giant!

[Bill Dozer]

I was able to excell at soccer despite being five four . I'm 32, love the game ,and still play for an adult league here in Tallahassee, Fl..If your looking for athletics for your child to play i would suggest soccer or wrestling.

Agree with thekid on soccer. IMO kids when they are little don't have any idea what sports they like for the most part. If they like soccer at 3 its because they like to kick it far or basketball, because they want to "throw it in". Anyone who played sports young will probably say what they liked about it as kiddies was gone or different by the time they actually were competing. I think a kid will like any sport they are good at or can play with some confidence so parents should pick whatever they think is best for them that can keep their attention. If you are 4'10 soccer might be a better fit than say football... and if they like football enough to switch, they'll have fun.

[Glitch]

maybe stop participating in midget gangbangs.

[jpot34]

Shari, I played Division III hardball. Can I get a kiss from you for that?

[King Mayan]

JJ gold always fukking up shari's threads....

[Wrecktangle]

i don't know if a lot of you guys would laugh a lot, but i was a chess-player. Ranked 2nd in Montana Grand Prix for Championship in 2003-2004. 2122 was my highest rating back then, which qualifies as a Candidate for Master of Sport(according to this rating system http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unified...em_of_the_USSR).
In the States in Montana I was the second best player of the State, cause only the champion Novak could beat me more than once. But in Ukraine, I was only 7th on youth tournaments - sincerely i didn't have to overcome that - i grew up and chess just weren't a moneymaker for me, though i love my Dad even more for his coaching - cause that develops thinking a GREAT DEAL. Teach your kids chess.

Boze, I peaked at ~2100 USCF, ~2000 ELO European; had several tournament performance ratings in the 2200-2300 USCF range though. Haven't played OTB in over 15 years so I'm probably a solid 1500 player now

I spent a bit of time reading Shakhmaty with the help of a Russian-English Chess dictionary.

[CollegeOverUnder]

Asian American Here this was before i started working out and putting a lot of muscle on back in high school though

5'7 through high school ran track at varsity level all the way through


If there was one thing I always loved it was beating Black Kids got great enjoyment out of it
400m dash was my specialty-- ALWAYS first ones off the Blocks was the only way I could ever win a race- extremely short sprint steps on toes entire way through

800m dash- I had extremely long long strides with a huge hop in my step
along with being on the 4X4 relay team


Ran Cross Country from 6th grade to 8th grade wasnt amazing at it but not bad at it just an above average runner


Soccer entire life and Varsity soccer all through high school

[Vol_Bengal]

Just finished watching Rudy for the 10th time and was crying my eyes out from the first 5 minutes. Finally clicked in that I was crying so much because he was a runty underdog - and most likely my son will be the same if he decides to play a sport(s).

I know there are a lot of guys here who were/are great athletes to whatever level in their sport. Were any of you considered small for your sport? If so, I'd love to hear about it - what you accomplished and how you overcame the 'runt' factor. I think that's more amazing than a genetic freak succeeding at a sport they were basically built for.

Thanks.

I truly don't intend on ruining the movie for you... or the spirit of "Rudy"... but my best friend all through grade school and high school's uncle played for Notre Dame at that time. If you watch the movie one of the times when he pans his hand down the dress list you'll see a S. Niehaus... that is my friends uncle. Went on to play for the Seattle Seahawks. Talked to him quite a bit as I hung around him a lot (hey, I was a kid raised through 12 years of Catholic school, this was a big dude, played at Notre Dame, played NFL this guy was a "god" to me at the time). Enough background information... long story short, Rudy was an arrogant asshole in real life. Nobody liked the kid because he was just an egotistical cocksucker. He had a short mans complex and it wasn't something that in truth any perseverance inspired you...

The movie rendition, entirely different story. In truth, dude was a cock bag.

[Wrecktangle]

I don't know Rudy, or this movie, but I'm always struck by how someone's "ratbag" is another's socially backward, struggling, ambitious or inept person.

I'm also struck by how many folks hang out at SBR who like to reveal some "truth" which seems to be solely aimed at destroying another's view of the world.