This fall my son's baseball coach said every kid playing MUST wear a cup. The boys are moving up to kid pitch. As a mom, I was totally daunted by the choices out there for athletic cups, there are a lot! A couple other moms said to go with the short/cup combo and my son picked the Shock Doctor out of a several options I gave him. After the initial excitement wore off (constantly hitting himself in the groin area to test it out :) he pretty much forgets that it's there and says it is very comfortable. The shorts are nice quality and look like the Under Armour compression shorts most of the older boys wear under their gym shorts. As a casual observer, I don't notice that it sticks out or looks funny. My 9 year old is on the tall and slim side (23" waist) and we went with the small. Fit was great!!