How Early Do Superior Athletic Skills Show?

[Bullaholic]

How early do superior athletic skills stand out? Are most good athletes always good at an early age, or are some "late bloomers"? How much of these skills are natural and how much are learned in good athletes by high school and college?

[caleb_mccaig]

How early do superior athletic skills stand out? Are most good athletes always good at an early age, or are some "late bloomers"? How much of these skills are natural and how much are learned in good athletes by high school and college?

I've noticed you can see someone really blossom around middle school.

One of my best friends Mike Hicks, former China Spring player and Baylor safety, made other teams look like they were standing still in middle school when ran the ball, which was about every play. Obviously, the competition will somewhat catch-up but most of the elite players at that age IMO will are always the playmakers or big time OL/DL in high school as well.

[refereedoc]

I've noticed you can see someone really blossom around middle school.

One of my best friends Mike Hicks, former China Spring player and Baylor safety, made other teams look like they were standing still in middle school when ran the ball, which was about every play. Obviously, the competition will somewhat catch-up but most of the elite players at that age IMO will are always the playmakers or big time OL/DL in high school as well.

Stidham was virtually unstoppable in JH. I guess your IMO are correct in a lot of instances. In my observations from the Ville, lineman are usually the late bloomers.

[caleb_mccaig]

Stidham was virtually unstoppable in JH. I guess your IMO are correct in a lot of instances. In my observations from the Ville, lineman are usually the late bloomers.

Yeah, lineman can sometimes be hit or miss, the OL/DL I played with really only showed their gap in the weight room in middle school. But the two best ones were both the tallest kids in Jr. High and in high school. Just depends I guess!

[Bullaholic]

Got the idea for this thread from this article:

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1981917-birth-of-the-baby-footballer-at-what-age-can-you-spot-true-sporting-talent?utm_source=cnn.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=editorial&hpt=hp_t2

[Ernest T Bass]

In football, it comes down to two things; athletic ability and instincts. Athletic ability you can see as early as elementary school. Most of the time, the faster and more coordinated kids are easy to spot. Some will stop developing, but rarely does one "bloom late" into a skill position(keep in mind, we're talking about elite athletes, not the leading WR on a 2a area champion team). Case in point, I once dated a woman who taught Johnathan Gray in 3rd grade. According to her, he was the best athlete in the entire school by far, and the school went through the 5th grade.
Instincts are both natural and develop over time. The best players just see things develop. They understand body position, leverage, body control, timing, other players' reactions, etc...Some of that is natural and you can see it from an early age, but if you take a kid like that and he never puts on a helmet before 9th grade, he'll never be what he could have been.

[Rabid Cougar]

I've noticed you can see someone really blossom around middle school.

One of my best friends Mike Hicks, former China Spring player and Baylor safety, made other teams look like they were standing still in middle school when ran the ball, which was about every play. Obviously, the competition will somewhat catch-up but most of the elite players at that age IMO will are always the playmakers or big time OL/DL in high school as well.

I think that elite athletes show up at even a younger age than Jr. High. Mike Hicks was a stud at 7 or 8 in soccer, baseball and peewee football. I coached him in both baseball and peewee football. Same thing with Dustin Eskew, China Spring QB in 07 and pitched for McLennan Community College. He was a big time stud in T-ball.

Linemen are a different animals. Very few are developed and mature even as seniors in high school.

[FB-fanatic]

To me, one of the benchmarks has always been 5th and 6th grade basketball for general athletic ability. Typically, out of the 30 or 40 players in the school league, a small all-star team is chosen from the group - 2 or 3 5th and 2 or 3 6th. To me, it differentiates itself more here than in baseball or football at that time. The 2 or 3 kids chosen each year have overwhelmingly gone on to be your top varsity athletes in all the sports.

[Rabid Cougar]

You also have those athletes that are new to a sport late in life. It is most apparent in Football because of natural talent translates easier. You see it basketball too but not as often. You rarely see it in baseball or golf.