Why aren’t there 11u divisions/competitions?

[Bernmoll]

I had a kids play in many odd year tournaments at 11u. You just have to have enough teams interested that are true birth year teams.

I’ll have to do more looking.. I haven’t seen much of them here in Florida.

 

[uncdrew]

I don’t disagree with your point. I was just curious about the lack of 11u. At the tournaments, seeing 14u level and up, size and age seem to level out.

Yup, it balances out at 14U.

I have a 11 year old playing 12U ball, and a 13 year old playing 14U ball. So I've seen hundreds of games in both over the last 6 months. And there's simply no denying what we're seeing. At 12U it's just crazy how different teams can be in terms of size and strength.

 

[bmakj]

The growth 'height spurt, is not necessarily control of physical ability. Example noticeably so like a baby giraffe.

The next growth spurt is more weight and muscle. And better mental connection.

It is notable teams chose to either go all one year roster or mix up ages. And still play against 2nd year teams?
What is that reason?

I like your analogy, one of DDs 10u teams actually, had a coouple of girls much more physically advanced than rest of team or most of 10u for that matter, one in particular was a little ackward after a big growth spurt, her nickname became BBG (for BaByGiraffe), someone even got her a small stuffed giraffe to attach to clip to her bag.

 

[bmakj]

I think teams recruit to mostly one birth year so that they can keep the team together as much as possible (laughing as I write this, knowing how much players jump around; although I hope DDs current team, 14u, with a mix 07s and 06s is able to stay together, HC has said his intention is to move them all to 16u in fall)

 

[uncdrew]

I think teams recruit to mostly one birth year so that they can keep the team together as much as possible (laughing as I write this, knowing how much players jump around; although I hope DDs current team, 14u, with a mix 07s and 06s is able to stay together, HC has said his intention is to move them all to 16u in fall)

It all starts out so well, doesn't it?

"We'll keep this whole team 2009 birthdates so we can keep it together for years". Hahahahaha

 

[Eric F]

When you get to 14u, the differences are minimal...

That wasn't our experience. 14U gets a range of girls from 13yos who still look like little girls, to 15yos that are starting to look like women. Dugout conversations can start to get interesting, too. My DD's team had a 6' tall, moderately thick girl, and a 5' tall pretty lean girl. We came across players on other teams who were bigger than our tall one, and smaller than our short one.

 

[Bernmoll]

It all starts out so well, doesn't it?

"We'll keep this whole team 2009 birthdates so we can keep it together for years". Hahahahaha

Yes... I love this fantasy also. Two of older girls we have are due to cuts from the ‘older’ 12u team from our org ... but they both have been great assets as they have developed skills further just because of more play time with our team. I can already see 1-2 of our same year girls suffering from the same fate when tryouts happen later this year.

 

[Orange Socks]

OU shouldn't be playing college teams. They are too big!

BTW, I have never heard of odd year teams and most definitely have not heard of a tournament dividing teams that way either. It's 8U, 10U, 12U, 14U, 16U, 18U. You will forgot about this conversation next year.

Last week DD's college team played a team that I believe has a minimum weight requirement of 180 lbs! One of their players was awarded NFCA D3 player of the week. She killed us! This past weekend the opposing team had players that were 4'11", 5', 5'1". I thought they were the bat girls. Some big girls cannot hit. Some small girls can simply Ball out! Forget about the size and just play.

 

[Nimrod]

imo
softball is about talent level not age.

Correct.

Rather than further divide teams based on age (11U, 12U, 13U, etc.), it's better to further divide teams based on skill level (12U A, 12U B, etc.).

Further dividing by age will make it harder for tournaments to have full draws (only three 11U teams signed up!) and harder for coaches to fill teams (my '10 team can't ever have an '11 player, not even every other year!)

If a first-year 12U team can't compete with these ''great big'' second-year 12U teams, then stick to other first-year 12U teams or ''little bitty'' second-year 12U teams, IMO.

 

[TigerD313]

I mean at 16u there's going to be players that's are 6'2 and players that are 4'8... We're still in 8u and the absolute BEST player I've seen all year was nowhere near the biggest (dad was a pro ballplayer)