re: How do you know when your kid has "it" in sports?

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Spinoff from the Baseball thread:

Would love to hear from parents who have kids that went on to play sports at the collegiate or professional level. Not just baseball, and not just boys, but all sports-boys and girls. The thread implies that some kids just have "it" and it's easy to see early on, others say it's all about reps. How young do you guys know when your child is gifted? I'm guessing by 12 or 13?

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I played two sports almost exclusively growing up (basketball and golf):

Played with and against a fairly famous NBA player who is an NBA title winner and multiple All-Star from when I was little all the way through high school. We all knew that he was special by about age 12. There were other guys who could bully him and push him around a bit, but his skill level was like an alien had dropped him out of the sky and plopped him down among a bunch of uncoordinated middle schoolers.

A guy on my HS golf team was the #1 ranked player in the country coming out of high school. You could tell he was special just by hearing how the sound of how the ball came off his club. He had a scholarship to a prominent SEC program and promptly drank and pilled his way out of the top level. Also had another guy play at my high school who was quite a bit younger than me who is currently tearing it up on the Tour, and everyone knew he was different by about age 12. He was beating some of the best juniors and seniors in the state when he was in 7th grade.