Best birth date for softball.

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May 16, 2016
1,024
113
Illinois
Any thoughts on what is the best time of year to be born in regards to playing softball?

1. Born in January making that player the oldest on the travel team.

2. Born in September making the player the oldest in her graduating class.

3. Does not make a difference, if the player is that good she will most likely spend a good amount of her playing career playing up against older competition anyways.
 
Apr 26, 2015
704
43
Not sure what the best answer is...but my DD is a January birthday and so far so good! She CAN move up, but doesn't have to. She is "playing up" this year at 14s. We'll see how it goes.
 

Ken Krause

Administrator
Admin
May 7, 2008
3,911
113
Mundelein, IL
Can't remember if it was in The Talent Code or a different book, but as a general rule it's better to be born right after the cutoff than right before. Those players tend to do better as a group because they're a year older than some of the kids they're playing against, which especially at the younger ages can make a huge difference in strength, speed, size, coordination, etc.

The book mentioned a study of youth hockey players in Canada, where there is a pretty well established system for separating the great players from everyone else and moving them up. The ones born just after the cutoff consistently got moved up to higher levels, which meant they received better coaching, which allowed them to separate themselves from the rest even more and so forth.

Not sure it matters as much in softball where there isn't an established infrastructure for moving through the ranks. But I'll bet it still helps somewhat. And yes, there are always exceptions.
 
Jun 11, 2013
2,619
113
I would say Jan is better as they get to play up through 14U as the oldest kids. By the time they get to HS it's only the OCT-Dec with some Septs that are older, but at that point most are almost full grown. For boys I would think it has more advantage to be a little older in HS.
 
Jun 27, 2011
5,089
0
North Carolina
Great question.

Probably doesn't make a huge difference really, but fascinating question nonetheless.

My DD is a late fall birthday, which makes her young for her age division, but old for her grade.

Early on, probably a disadvantage. If she had been a January birthday, she probably would've stood out more in the rec league, had more fun/confidence, and same would happened in her early days in travel ball. Like Ken and the book were referencing.

But, she survived that, and now as a high schooler and college prospect, she generally has played older competition than most girls in her graduating class. She was playing 14U faster than 80 percent of them just because of her birthday. It's almost like she got to red-shirt.

So in DD's case, I think it was an advantage - but only because she came through a small rec program where she could make a crummy all-star team and crummy travel ball team and get her foot in the door, so to speak.

If she'd come through a bigger, more competitive rec program, her age and her mediocrity might've discouraged her and limited her opportunities.
 
Oct 11, 2010
8,337
113
Chicago, IL
I want to have this conversation with DW. I know we want kids but they need to be born in December, preferable at the end of the month.

The money we save by combining birthday and Xmas can put put towards SB too.

Win/ Win.
 
May 24, 2013
12,461
113
So Cal
My DD is an early-Sept. This means she's younger for a Jan 1 cutoff, and younger in school. Not ideal.

For age-bracket softball, early January is as good as it gets.
 

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