Development Zone®

   

PCA Resource Center

Helping Motivate Your Undersized Kid

Share This Resource

This resource stems from a question submitted to the Ask PCA blog. Responses come from our experts including PCA Trainers, who lead live group workshops for coaches, parents, administrators and student-athletes.

“My son is an 8th grade youth lacrosse player who has been pretty successful with his club up until this season. The problem is, he's later reaching puberty than almost all his teammates. This year in particular is starting out tough. I look across the field and can see him because he's at least a head shorter than just about everyone out there. It doesn't help that he's always been among the smaller players on his team, but this year in particular the difference is very pronounced. He won't get a lot of playing time right now, and I'm kind of OK with that because he'll get way physically overmatched. But how can I keep him motivated, and keep him from getting discouraged, until he starts to catch up physically?”

PCA Response by David Jacobson, PCA Trainer & Senior Marketing Communications and Content Manager

Because you say your son has always been among the smaller players, perhaps the best way to encourage and support him is to help him cope with the long-term reality of being relatively undersized. If it happens that his size takes off when puberty hits, that will be a bonus. Meanwhile, it is important that he not feel handicapped by not yet having hit puberty, that he not use that fact as a crutch or excuse and that he feel empowered to try his hardest regardless of size...

To read the full response, Download a printable version of this resource, including additional commentary from PCA, by clicking the PDF below. To read more questions and answers like this, or to submit your own question to the Ask PCA blog, click here.

Download the Article

  • Type: PDF Document
  • Size: 165 KB
Download the PDF