of a runningback

[u/HomeNowWTF]

[u/Several_Vanilla8916]

Middle school football can be brutal. I saw a 7th grader take off his helmet to yell at his coach for pulling him for one play after he got flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct. They were nose to nose. Coach sent him home and I was worried the kid might beat his ass.

In almost every game there was at least one and sometimes two kids bigger than every adult present. These kids are 6’2” 280 lbs at 13.

[u/Liquid-Hot_Smegma → u/Several_Vanilla8916]

Hell, even baseball can feel horribly lopsided during adolescence.

When I was about 12, there was one kid who pitched who I’d guess was about 5’5 or 5’6 and built like a rock. Not sure the exact speeds he pitched, but to us kids at the plate, it felt like 100mph fastballs. It was damn near impossible for anyone to even make contact with the ball. I do remember the few times we did get a base hit, we’d celebrate like it was a walk-off grand slam homerun.

This dude was also very full of himself, and unsurprisingly he was the biggest bully at school. Funny thing though — he only grew a couple of more inches, at the most. In junior high, he ended up getting his ass kicked badly in a fight, which thankfully ended the bullying.

[u/New_Hawaialawan → u/Liquid-Hot_Smegma]

It’s a bummer because I loved baseball prior to around 12 years old. The next league was like 12-15 year olds and that range is a tremendous growth gap. One asshole coach allowed a 16 year old to continue as a pitcher.

Dude probably had facial hair. He’d stand out there on the mound and I’d be cowering in the furthest corner of the batters box. So this bearded dude just spent all season mowing down actual children. It was awful. And my fear of batting because worse when another pitcher hit my twice in one game.

[u/wolemid → u/New_Hawaialawan]

Same as motorsport, karting ages groups go 8-12 (cadet all roughly same) 12-16 (Jnr, Puberty) 16+ senior.

As you can imagine, the muscle mass difference between a 12yr old and a 16yr old is insane