Last updated on November 4, 2020
Question:
Hello,
I’m 14 and 2 months, my Tanner stage according to the test on the website is 3.2, I’m 5 feet 5 inches (46 kg), and my wingspan is 5 feet 7 inches. My dad is 6 feet so is my older brother and my mom is 5 feet 4. I have multiple questions:
- Do you still grow after your voice cracks? I grew 3.5 inches before my voice cracked. I reached 5 feet 5 inches. I have read multiple sources saying you get a voice crack after your main growth spurt. I tried a height velocity calculator (I know it’s not accurate) and that says that I’ll have my main growth spurt when I’m 14 and 6 months meaning February.
- Is my growth pattern supposed to be the same as my brothers? I was 5’1″ when I was 13 and currently I’m 5’5″ (at 14) and he was 5’6″ when he was 13, and when he was 14 he hit his spurt and became 5’9″, He is currently 16 years old and 6 feet 0.5 inches. Do different growth patterns have an effect on your final height?
- Does having a larger wingspan mean that I will grow more?
- How accurate are height velocity calculators?
Thank you for clearing my doubts and worries.
Answer:
For most boys, your voice begins to crack after you reached your peak growth rate. It is not an absolute rule. There are numerous systems that mature in a particular order, but events between the systems are only loosely connected. The calculator asks about a number of those systems and tries to create a weighted average between the various systems. It is possible for one system to be ahead or behind other systems. But what you need to understand is that even after you have reached your peak growth rate, you still have about 2.5 of growth before your growth in height completely stops. You just don’t grow as fast.
Since you’ve grown 3.5 inches in under a year, you are definitely in stage 3. You’ll be in this stage for about two years. It doesn’t mean you’ll grow rapidly constantly while in this stage. There will be pauses in growth as the body works on other systems to match your new size. There is not enough energy to sustain the growth of everything at the same time. Even after you reach stage 4, you’ll grow another 1 to 3 inches as your body slows down.
Since you started at a shorter height than your brother, it is most likely that your final height will also be less than his. Based on your parents’ heights, the minimum height for boys in your family is 5’8″.
The height velocity calculator that I know about uses several measurements to try to figure out when you will reach your peak growth rate. It states that the accuracy is only as good as the measurements and that its best accuracy is when it is used within 2 years of your peak growth rate. This information is then used by an adult height prediction that is accurate to within 2 inches 95% of the time.