The supplement question every baseball and softball parent eventually gets asked, answered the way I answer it at the field: honestly, safety first, and without selling you anything.
The short answer: most teenage athletes do not need creatine, they need sleep, real meals, and water, and at 13 to 15 those basics will out-develop any tub by a mile. If your player is around 16 or older, physically mature, training consistently, and already handling the basics, creatine becomes a legitimate conversation to have with your pediatrician. If the family decides yes: plain creatine monohydrate only, NSF Certified for Sport on the label, no loading phases, no blends.
| Before any supplement | Walk away from |
|---|---|
| 8 to 10 hours of sleep, most nights | "Proprietary blends" on the label |
| Breakfast every day, protein at every meal | Pre-workouts marketed to teenagers |
| Real hydration, before thirst shows up | Anything promising velocity or exit velo |
| A pediatrician who knows your athlete | Advice from whoever is selling the tub |
Every summer it comes up. A dad at the cage asks quietly, like he is asking about something illegal. A softball mom forwards a TikTok. A 15-year-old tells me his older teammate takes it and wants to know if he should too. The question is always the same: should my kid be on creatine?
After 35 years in baseball as a coach, a trainer, a dad, and a mentor, here is the answer I give at the field, written down.
First, what creatine actually is
Creatine is not a steroid. It is not a hormone. It is a compound your player's body already makes, and one they already eat every time they have a burger or a piece of salmon. Muscles store it and use it to recycle energy for short, explosive efforts: a swing, a sprint to first, a throw from the hole, one more heavy set in the weight room.
Supplementing raises the amount stored in the muscle, which can let an athlete squeeze out a little more work in those short bursts, and a little more work over months adds up to a little more strength. That is the whole mechanism. It is not magic, and anyone describing it like magic is selling something.
What the research actually says
In adults, creatine monohydrate is probably the most studied sports supplement in existence, with decades of research showing modest, real benefits for repeated short-burst efforts and a strong safety record in healthy people at normal doses.
Here is the part the supplement aisle will not tell you: the research in teenagers is much thinner. Growing bodies are not small adult bodies, and the long-term studies that would settle the question for 14-year-olds simply have not been done at the same depth. That is why the major pediatric organizations do not recommend performance supplements for minors, and it is why my answer starts with the pediatrician and not the checkout cart.
The part nobody wants to hear: the basics beat the tub
A teenager who sleeps 8 to 10 hours, eats breakfast, gets protein at every meal, and drinks water like it is part of practice is already taking the most powerful growth stack ever assembled. It is called being 15 with a good routine. The natural development happening in those years, stacked on consistent training, dwarfs the margin any supplement offers.
I have watched a lot of players over 35 years chase the shortcut in the tub while skipping breakfast and staying up until 1am. The tub never won. The boring routine always did. If your player wants what creatine promises, the honest sequence is: fix sleep, fix meals, fix water, train consistently for a year, and then have the conversation.
If your family decides yes, here is the safe way
For an older high school athlete, around 16 or up, physically mature, with the basics genuinely locked in, creatine can be a reasonable conversation. Have it in this order.
- Start with the pediatrician. Not a teammate, not a trainer at the gym, not the employee at the supplement store. Your player's doctor knows their body and their history and will set amounts if they agree it makes sense.
- Creatine monohydrate only. The plain one. It is the version all the research is built on, and it is also the cheapest, which tells you something about everything else on that shelf.
- Look for NSF Certified for Sport on the label. Supplements are barely regulated, and contamination is a real problem. Third-party testing is the only assurance that what is in the tub matches the label.
- Skip the loading phase. Loading is unnecessary. It just gets to the same place faster while upsetting more stomachs.
- Keep expectations honest. A small edge in repeated short efforts, over months of consistent training. Not velocity in a scoop.
A word for softball families
The science does not care whether your player is a boy or a girl, and neither does the checklist above. What is different is the marketing. Girls get pitched supplements wrapped in "toning" and "lean" language that is somehow even less honest than what the boys get. A softball player putting in real work in the weight room deserves the same straight answer: basics first, pediatrician second, plain monohydrate with real testing if the family ever gets there at all.
The red flags, so you can spot them from the parking lot
- "Proprietary blend" on the ingredients panel. That phrase means "we will not tell you what is in here." Walk away.
- Pre-workouts in a teenager's bag. Massive caffeine doses aimed at developing hearts, and a social media trend of dry scooping on top of it. Hard no, at any age that ends in teen.
- Anything that promises measurables. Velocity, exit velo, "add 4 inches to your vertical." Real training earns those. Powders do not.
- Anyone recommending a product they also sell. Including coaches. Especially coaches.
Is it even allowed?
Creatine is not a banned substance in high school sports, and it is permitted at the college and professional levels. But most high school federations discourage school personnel from recommending or dispensing supplements, which should tell you where the responsibility actually lives: with the family and the doctor. If your player is on a school or travel roster, it never hurts to know the program's policy before anything goes in the bag.
How to know if the basics are actually handled
Here is the trap with "the basics come first": every family believes their basics are fine, and memory is a terrible witness. Ask your player when they went to bed the last two weeks or what they ate before Saturday's doubleheader, and you get a shrug.
This is a place a training journal quietly earns its keep. When your player logs their sessions in MyGrind and notes how they felt, the pattern stops hiding. The flat Tuesday practices that follow the 1am nights. The strong weekends that follow real breakfasts. Before this family spends a dollar in the supplement aisle, open the journal and look at the last month together. If the routine is not on the record, the routine is not real yet, and that is the honest place to start.
The bottom line
Creatine is the most legitimate supplement in the store, and even so, most teenage athletes do not need it. Sleep, meals, water, and consistent work are the real stack, and they are free. If your player is older, mature, and already living the routine, take the question to your pediatrician and do it the careful way: plain monohydrate, tested product, honest expectations.
And if anyone ever tells your 14-year-old that the shortcut is in a tub, you have my permission to keep walking.