Moving up to 10u a little early.

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May 29, 2015
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I'm hoping manufacturers are making NOCSAE chest protectors for females, but as far as I can find the requirement is a NFHS and NCAA Baseball rule, but not softball as far as I can find.


As far as fielding masks ...
They don't prevent concussions, they prevent broken noses, eye sockets, and teeth.

I forgot that the NOCSAE chest protector cert was only for baseball. Wonder why they aren't testing them with softballs. Possibly because it would create two different manufacturing standards?

To the original question though, CPs are standardized and certified now, but they weren't a few years back.

Thank you for making that last point!
 
Dec 30, 2011
47
18
My DD wants to pitch, been taking lessons about 6 months. So she (we) after a lot of discussion including her PC decided to not play her last year of 8u and move up to 10u. We finished up this year last week at one of the tournaments on the gulf coast, and tried out for a brand new 10u team with a decent organization in our area, and she made the team. From the looks of tryouts they will probably be a middle of the road first year 10u team. Pretty confident she will get to pitch plenty. If not for the pitching aspect of this we would have probably stayed in 8u. Wish us luck on this transition, and me plenty of patience.
From experience....stay in your age group. never risk taking the fun out of the game for her.
 

radness

Possibilities & Opportunities!
Dec 13, 2019
7,270
113
Myself have never found that FUN was exclusive to an age bracket.
Have noticed FUN is a lot of things and not always the same for everybody.

In high school and College age of players includes a lot more years.
For that matter, in travel ball that can happen also.


Again i comment,
Softball is not age brackets,
it is Talent levels.
 
Jun 8, 2016
16,118
113
From experience....stay in your age group. never risk taking the fun out of the game for her.
I agree with the last sentence.

My kid has played up her whole TB career. She also picked up with a team in her age group a few weeks ago. She had fun in both circumstances..
 
Jul 14, 2018
982
93
I am generally against playing up, unless you’ve got a kid who is dominating her age group. Skill and talent should dictate that, but I’ve seen plenty of parents who move their kid to the next age group just so they can brag about playing up.

That said, if she wants to pitch and 8U is still machine or coach pitch in your area, that’s a good reason to play up. She needs to face batters and have an umpire calling balls and strikes.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
May 13, 2021
643
93
Just an update on this thread.

We are in the middle of our fall season and DD is getting better every tournament. She has as much or more speed as other pitchers we have faced, just lacking a little in the accuracy department. But that is steadily improving each game, hopefully by spring that will not be an issue. She is getting to pitch plenty probably more than I really expected. More of a product of her being on a team that is mediocre than her being something special. When she doesn’t pitch she mostly plays 3rd, and is doing great there. She is still having fun loving softball and wants to pitch now more than ever. We watched some of her old teammates playing 8u last weekend and I am glad we moved up. She is learning so much more and is competing just fine with the older girls. Would she have won more in 8u yes would she have stood out more yes, but she wouldn’t have learned anything new.
 
Oct 4, 2018
4,611
113
The next issue you probably face (perhaps not, who knows?) is a few years from now it'll be time to consider joining a top team.

Pay attention now to who is winning your tournaments, and the 10U teams in your area playing in the top tournaments (that you might not even been playing in). Start thinking about where you might want to be a few years from now. Perhaps as this current team moves to 12U y'all stay down and join a top 10U team.

Personally, we've enjoyed being on better and better teams in our age bracket than going up in age to find better competition.
 
May 13, 2021
643
93
The next issue you probably face (perhaps not, who knows?) is a few years from now it'll be time to consider joining a top team.

Pay attention now to who is winning your tournaments, and the 10U teams in your area playing in the top tournaments (that you might not even been playing in). Start thinking about where you might want to be a few years from now. Perhaps as this current team moves to 12U y'all stay down and join a top 10U team.

Personally, we've enjoyed being on better and better teams in our age bracket than going up in age to find better competition.
I guess we will cross that bridge when we get there after next spring.
 

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