You choose this child's sport.

[NT!]

i think punter / kicker is the clear winner. hell you could probably start training the kid at 10 and he'd still be good.

[cognito20]

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Really? I think soccer would easily be the best sport for a child. Given that I've only played that sport couple of times in my life, I don't know much about playing it. But from what I've seen, the highest paid athletes in the world are auto racers and soccer players. Soccer is not height-dependent, either.

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If the kid has to stay in an American pro league for his career, obviously soccer is not the way to go. But there's a lot more money in soccer throughout the world than all of our sports combined.

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If you can somehow 1) get the kid (male) EU citizenship so he can play in the world's best leagues without a work permit, or 2) if he turns out to be good enough to be a regular for the US national team and can -get- said work permit that way, soccer would be the way to go. Even if he wasn't good enough to play at the elite levels, he could have a very good career playing at the lower professional levels in Europe. If he has to play in the US, I wouldn't bother.

If I had an athletically talented son, I would encourage him to take up golf. The best pros are multimillionaires, and as someone else mentioned the lifestyle is very nice. Tennis would be #2, as it would be easier to get a college scholarship for that sport. Both of those sports could also be enjoyed throughout his entire life.

For a girl, tennis, no-brainer. Anyone with a female child who wants their child to become a pro athlete and who chooses any other sport but tennis (if they show the slightest talent whatsoever) is a moron, if making a living is what they want to do.


One other sport that hasn't come up yet that would be good, but only if your child trains to be a world-class performer at it: track and field - running, to be specific. World-class sprinters, distance runners, road racers and marathoners pull in a -lot- more money than you would think, and especially in the case of distance running, it's a sport they can enjoy for their entire life. Once again, though, they've got to end up being world class, the next level down doesn't make squat.

--Scott

[cognito20]

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Saying basketball is ridiculous. That is probably the hardest sport to make the show.

If it was just about a scholarship, I'd say rowing/soccer. I've had friends of both genders get full rides to schools in rowing/soccer. Going pro, I'd say golf/tennis.

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If it was college scholarship only you were worried about, crew and soccer are both -very- good choices, as is fencing if the kid goes to a school that offers it. It is an official NCAA-sanctioned sport for both men and women, Division I schools offer scholarships for it, and any kid who starts training at the age of 5 and sticks with it could probably get one of those scholarships.

As an aside, fencing would probably also be the sport that a random 5-year-old, starting out on a sport, would have the highest chance in of eventually competing in the Olympics, if that was their goal.

--Scott

[kyleb]

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football kicker or punter. How many kids do you think start practicing young for that? I think that if you started a 5 year old with good lessons from an instructor and he liked it and practiced often, he'd have a very good shot at making the pros.

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Yea, but how much crap r you going to get from your teammates/friends about being the kicker? Seems like they always get the ugliest cheerleader too [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img].

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You usually get crap from your teammates if you also play soccer, which most of the kickers do (in high school, at least).

[nyc999]

I'd also go with golf. If your kid ends up being short or overweight, he/she still has an good chance of being a pro.

If the kid's good, the endorsement potential is sick. SI just released a list of the highest-paid athletes, Michelle Wie made 20 million in endorsements last year and Phil Mickelson ~47 million.

[Ralph Wiggum]

Yeah, I think for a young girl who has a hot mom, you want to go golf & hope the girl is semi-decent & also has the hotness gene. An attractive female golfer should make decent money.

[polkaface]

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Without knowing whether the kid is going to have a pro-type athletic body -- 6' 3", 200, muscular -- I'd train him to be the best NFL kicker and/or punter ever. It matters even for baseball players; next time you go to a ballgame, keep track of how many players of average height come to the plate.

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Baseball players aren't THAT tall. Looking at 5 teams in MLB the batters are between 5-9 and 6-5. The average baseball non-pitcher seems to be 6-0 or 6-1 (according to this sample of 5 teams).