Benefits of playing up?

[sbfan]

I do understand why you would have your DD play up if she started for that team, but what are the benefits of playing in older age bracket when you are sitting the pine and could start for most teams in your age bracket. It seems you will lose alot of experience and when those younger girls all meet up in HS they have a better chance of being more prepared based on experiecne.

I see some girls that might get put in OF but could play infield on younger team but are not getting the reps and will never get a chance to play infield. Dont get me wrong I think OF is very important and if you dont have a Good OF then you will go no where.

In my opinion alot of it is EGO on the parents, that can say my DD is playing up.

[DonnieS]

Regarding playing up, you obviously want to play at the highest level that you can compete at - in some areas, probably the competition is strong enough at your kid's age level. But to our way of looking at this, once your kid is in or about to enter high school, you play 18u. Other than trophy hunting, if you are a freshman, or even an 8th grader, you need to get ready to help your high school team, and that is 18u. We live in Texas and community bonds are pretty strong - support your local football, softball, baseball, whatever team is important here. I know thats not true everywhere but here it is. So we hope to have our girls ready to contribute to the local high school teams success - and having the girls face 18u pitching, hitting, everything else makes it much easier. What I would like to see is that no matter where the girls go in the high school playoffs, they never face a pitcher that they havent seen before, or is better than what they have seen before - I want to see the confidence in these girls faces that says 'hey, seen that before - no big deal'.

In our own family's case, having the younger kid play up simplifies our traveling because we keep the 17 y/o and the 14 y/o on the same team.

[3'sDad]

The DD is a pitcher, currently playing 12U as a 10 (which includes our 12U town travel team)....it was a big discussion for my wife and I as the skill set as an athlete doesn't always match the emotional maturity of the girl, especially at the younger ages. If you are lucky enough to have one or two older girls mentor the younger skilled player through the tough spots, which we did have happen this past Fall, it is great for both players; the older girl gets a younger "sister" that she may actually like more than her biological sister and the younger girl gets an older "sister" and positive role model.

The only way the older girls will buy into this program on their own is to have the younger player show, on the field, that she can play and deserves to be playing at this level. One or two timely hits or catches in the field quickly prove the case...If this happens and the older girls take the younger ones and guide them, the jump will be successful and the younger players skills and confidence grow in leaps and bounds.

This has been our experience to date....Shortly DD will get to mentor some younger players, so we'll see what happens.

[Cannonball]

There are both benefits and drawbacks to playing up. When my DD was 12 but still eligible to play another year of 12 due to her birthday, we were foolishly talked into letting her play up in a 14U tournament. We were then ignorant of what she was getting into. As many of you know, many of the girls were then 15. Long story short, she got drilled in the ribs as a pitcher and I sat there angry at myself for allowing us to get talked into it. Yes, had her skills been more refined, perhaps she could have compteted. They weren't at that point. Having survived that, she really worked harder because she wanted to play for that team. Forward ahead, she is now playing 16U ball but just turned 15 recently. She can play another year of 14U. If some will remember, I made a post in another thread asking as to why freshmen who played varsity ball would then go back to playing 14U. It didn't make sense to me althought many posters on this site pointed out that their level of competition was superior to 16U in most places. My DD's former team is still playing 14U. The hardest part now for us as a family is the travel since this team travels at least twice as much as her old team. DD pitched HS varsity ball very successfully all at the age of 14 and so has now proven she can handle the age difference. Playing up with a just turned 15 year old has other drawbacks unforseen but having to do with older girls. We're blessed in that the girls she is playing for are tremendous young ladies. We have friends that didn't end up in such a good situation.

[Sftbll4ever]

My DD is 13 (14 in 16 days). She is playing 14u this year, but will be moving to 16u in the fall. Her team has played 16u most of this season and done well. She occationally will play up on the 16u team when needed. She actually does better when she is playing for the 16u team. We did not want her up there as she needed the time to pitch and gain her confidence which was destroyed by previous coaches.

Had we of know she was going to flourish so much this year, we would have had her play 16's. But after all is said and done, she is happy for the opportunities she has recevied in 14u and looks forward to August when she starts 16u.

She will also be competing for a spot on the Varsity team, but she knows she may not get to pitch a lot of games up there, but she will play a lot in her other position and hit as well.

Don't always be in such a hurry to move them up. It all depends on where the kid is physically, athletically, and mentally. What you think as a parent is not always right. Take off the glasses and really evaluate the situation.

[3Bsnag]

I think it depends on what ages too. From our experience:

Advantages
Elevates their game, fast
Wants to perform better because of expectations

Disadvantages
Talk from the older girls
Feeling more pressure

What aggravates the snot out of me is that my DD is the poster child for "girls have to feel good to play good". She's a pretty decent player, but we recently joined a well-known team and she severely sucked at her first tournament with them. DH and I are both people who perform better under pressure. She wants team camaraderie first, then play ball. Sometimes I have to remind myself that she's 12 and just let things go. At the beginning of spring, I thought about dropping her down. She pretty much said hell no.

[DonnieS]

>> Don't always be in such a hurry to move them up. <<

Here is what we did, at 6u, she played 2 years of t-ball, at 8u, which here is coach pitch, she played her 7 year, and hated it. Plus she had started pitching lessons that same year and wanted to pitch, so she played 3 years of 10u. When she was 9, she went to a 12u travel team tryout and looked good. When she turned 11, I formed the team I have now and we - by accident - started playing 14u. I also put her on a out of town 12u travel team so she could compete at her own age. She played most of the time at 14u, but played about 5 or 6 12u tournaments. Then we just moved her up the last several years the same way, though she stopped playing with her age group when she was in 8th grade, except for during high school season. Now she will be a freshman, and is doing the 18gold routine. I had a talk with her about a week ago and ask her - what would she rather do, play her age group, or do what we are doing. Her comment was 'no - I want to play 18 - its a lot harder and a heck of a lot more fun. I like that you can't make mistakes at this level. '

Both times we made the major steps, were not planned. We went to a tournament expecting to play at one level and finding after we got there that that level didnt make, and both times we played what was there and both times took 2nd, so not knowing any better, we just kept on doing the same thing.

[sftballjnkie]

I believe that alot of your choice to play up or stay down depends on the kid and what is being accomplished. Our DD has played up since t-ball. We moved into travel ball when she was 8 and her pitching coach took over a 2nd yr 10U team and put her on it. First time in her life she sat the bench. She learned real quick that she had to perform and earn the right to play and stepped up and took a starting position. When that team moved up to 12U this last fall, we decided to keep her down in 10U to give her the chance to be a "hoss" pitcher and gain that mental toughness she needed to be a better pitcher. I worry about her being around older girls and the "social" issues that she does not need to be exposed to, but as we have good communication (parent- child) so far, that has not been an issue. She's in the local HS summer camp again this week and they put her with the 8th -9th graders because she can learn so much more and is hanging right there with the big girls, no problem. She's not intimidated at all and blends right in with them.

[coolstuff]

Lots of good suggestions and sharing here. I have a question.

Who made the decision to play at a higher level? Did you approach DD about playing up? Did she bring the idea to you? Did a coach talk to you about moving DD to a higher level?

In #3 above, what do you think about that? What would you or did you do in that situation?

[3'sDad]

She enoyed softball last season , so we had her play Fall Ball....here Fall Ball is for 10 year olds moving up to 12U so they can get accustomed to pitching from 40', the 12" softball and fatser pitching/better caliber of play......DD blended right in with the older girls and really contributed to the team...that told us she was ready to play up.