Best birth date for softball.

[OlatheDad]

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.

My DD#2 was born on Dec 14. Sorry to break it to you but this does not save you any money. Go for January or February so they are the older player on their team.

 

[JohnnyO]

DD has a Jan 1st birthday here. She is generally bored playing her age group. Has played up at least one level for a couple years now. But is a good help when a younger team needs a good player for a tournament.

 

[Snotbubbles]

My DD is October 2006. She graduates in 2025. She was playing against kids who graduate in 2023 at 10u last year. A January 2005 birthday was 22 months older than she was last year. The difference was noticeable, not only physically, but mentally as well. For travel ball, January is a great birthday because you will be the oldest and at the younger levels the extra growth time makes a difference. By the time you get older it tends to balance itself out because the physical growth levels off. I love that my daughter is competing against kids who are 2 grades higher than she is. When she gets recruited (hopefully) her graduation year will become important.

 

[Vertigo]

My dd is a November baby. Old for school ball (and made a big difference last year when she could play in MS); but young for travel ball in her age bracket.

 

[CLM265]

My 10YO DD's B'Day is Dec 20th and she is just 1 of 2 on her team with a late B"Day. Really noticeable difference the last few years but it's slowly going away. In the end it will help her out, just have to be patient.

 

[Perfect Circle]

Have a Happy Memorial Day Weekend for a Valentines Day baby... Worked good for us

 

[WARRIORMIKE]

UMMMMM Hard to say. My dd was born on Friday the 13th? SOOOOOOO yea

 

[Rocketech1]

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.

Malcolm Gladwell's "Outliers". Right or wrong, it's also one of the reasons why some parents hold their kids back a grade in school when they are younger as they are a little more mature, both physically and mentally for their "new" grade.

To the OP, January is best. For baseball, my DS, born in March, was at a disadvantage for baseball as the cutoff was April 1st and it did make a huge difference in skill of players.

 

[chinamigarden]

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.

This is funny when you pair it with the large number of "my dd is playing up this year, is 14u too big of a jump for my second year 10u dd?" Posts that we see here.

 

[junkball]

Malcolm Gladwell's "Outliers". Right or wrong, it's also one of the reasons why some parents hold their kids back a grade in school when they are younger as they are a little more mature, both physically and mentally for their "new" grade.

To the OP, January is best. For baseball, my DS, born in March, was at a disadvantage for baseball as the cutoff was April 1st and it did make a huge difference in skill of players.

Yep - "Outliers." He spent some time researching hockey, and how the elite teams in Canada had a disproportionate number of players born in early months, as they grouped the kids by birth year, like softball.

Also, I believe it was ESPN who did an "Outside the Lines" episode on high school "red shirting" where families had their kid sit out a year between 8th and 9th grade in the hopes they would be bigger, faster, stronger.