As someone who played high school baseball, basketball and football at 5’7” and 150 pounds, I always appreciated athletes who were considered undersized.

Today, these underdogs may also be labeled as “vertically challenged” given the fact that many team sports tend to favor taller individuals.

This is especially true in basketball and volleyball, where regulation net heights are 10 feet and 7 feet, 11 ? inches, respectively; while there are instances of shorter players excelling in these sports, they are rare.

For example, if we look at the National Basketball Association (NBA), it’s only once every decade or so that we see pro basketball players the likes of Spud Webb (5’7’’), Muggsy Bogues (5’3”), and Isaiah Thomas (5’9”).

Meanwhile, Calvin Murphy (5’9”) is the shortest player inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

 

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A post shared by Muggsy Bogues (@therealmuggsy)

In basketball, it is fairly easy to determine what position to play if you are undersized: guard.

The NBA players above are similar: highly skilled on offense as scorers and/or they set up teammates for scoring opportunities.

In volleyball, players who are undersized will typically play libero or defensive specialist. The role of these positions differs from basketball as they are less about direct scoring opportunities and more about set up and defense.

It would make sense that vertically gifted athletes dominate sports where the goal is elevated. However, are there team sports and positions where the vertically challenged are able to compete and in some instances, thrive?

Absolutely!

Of course what denotes tall, short or undersized is all relative. As we review major sports leagues in North America, let’s use the average height of adult males in the United States, 5’10” (178 cm), as the benchmark.