My son was always in the 95th percentile until about age ten. Then he proceeded to be a late bloomer like his sister and their mother. He started 8th grade baseball at 5'4". He would see a tall geek and mumble, "What a waste of height." By junior year he was 6'1". He's now 6'2". Being one of the smaller kids from 11-14 made him fundamentally sound and scrappy as hell to compete. It made the game easier when he grew.
He got thrown around like a rag doll in 8th grade football game matched up against a much bigger kid. I asked him why he didn't bite the kid in the ankles. I received an eye rolling, "very funny."