Playing 10u and 12u teams at the same time?

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Oct 23, 2019
62
8
DD is a second year 10u (turning 11 this year) on a travel team as a pitcher/3rd base. Skills are probably average relative to other second year girls on her team. She also wants to play on her local little league team starting up this spring. Not trying to overstate her skills, but I feel like she was one of the top players on the team last spring and competition wasn't challenging. In fairness, the formal season was cancelled, games consisted of informal scrimmages, and they may have had trouble finding suitable teams to play due to parents wary of covid.

For the local league starting this spring, I was thinking of having her do 12u. I doubt she'd pitch, and she may just end up on the bench, but I was thinking practicing/playing with older kids would help push and challenge her, and would facilitate the transition to a 12" ball for 12u travel in the fall. Also, she happens to want to go to the 12u team. With that I was set to have her try out for 12u when I mentioned this to her pitching instructor. She felt that creating a mindset of having the ability to dominate other teams (as a 10u player) outweighed the benefits of being challenged in 12u play.

Curious if you've been in the same position and/or what everyone's thoughts are?
 
Nov 20, 2020
995
93
SW Missouri
My DD finished her one year of 10u (as an 11yo - April birthday) filling in on her clubs 12u team for Fall rec league. It let her play with the larger ball and experience the different rules. The 12u team was mostly first year girls so there wasn’t a huge size difference. She did get to experience some better pitching which was an eye opener.

She was similar in that she was one of the better players on her 10u team. Transitioning to the 12” ball wasn’t too bad for fielding. It took a couple games to get used to the timing for hitting. It was a good confidence builder for her.

I’m all for challenging my DD. If she’s dominating and not developing then she’s not achieving growth. I’d rather her be in a situation that she can grow in through work and challenge.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Apr 20, 2015
961
93
Pitching both at the same time would be hard. Playing both otherwise not a problem. A 2nd yr 10u travel player shouldn't sit the bench in 12u rec league unless you've got an amazing rec level of rec league. Ours is so weak mine would have needed to play 14s when she was 10 to play with kids her own skill level, but I guess it's not like that everywhere

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk
 
Jul 31, 2015
761
93
DD is a second year 10u (turning 11 this year) on a travel team as a pitcher/3rd base. Skills are probably average relative to other second year girls on her team. She also wants to play on her local little league team starting up this spring. Not trying to overstate her skills, but I feel like she was one of the top players on the team last spring and competition wasn't challenging. In fairness, the formal season was cancelled, games consisted of informal scrimmages, and they may have had trouble finding suitable teams to play due to parents wary of covid.

For the local league starting this spring, I was thinking of having her do 12u. I doubt she'd pitch, and she may just end up on the bench, but I was thinking practicing/playing with older kids would help push and challenge her, and would facilitate the transition to a 12" ball for 12u travel in the fall. Also, she happens to want to go to the 12u team. With that I was set to have her try out for 12u when I mentioned this to her pitching instructor. She felt that creating a mindset of having the ability to dominate other teams (as a 10u player) outweighed the benefits of being challenged in 12u play.

Curious if you've been in the same position and/or what everyone's thoughts are?

My DD pitched up in 12U during the "regular season" and went back to 10U for the All-Star summer season. It was tough to adjust to the different sized ball and 5' distance. Wouldn't recommend. Stick with one or the other.
 
Mar 28, 2020
285
43
Our rec team wanted to stay together but they were driving teams at the 10U level in late 2019 (they are all 2009s) so for 2020 spring we moved the girls to 12U. Spring ball was canceled so they played summer. Being a young 12U team they took some beat downs in the summer. But man did they improve the fight came out. Fall they stayed 12U and went undefeated -- beat everyone who beat them in the summer so this year they are moving to 14U as new 12 year old's.

Our pitchers really improved. Since they were not dominating they really focused on consistency and let the outfield play.....the girls learned it was ok to get hit.....the outfield improved like crazy.....1st game there were in the park homeruns all over the place....the last 3 games not one in the park home run and no doubles. Our experience - It was the best thing for our girls....since many of the parents don't want to travel.

But I wouldn't have her pitch at both divisions. the ball is bigger and the distance is further. It took our pitchers a while to adjust.
 
Last edited:
Oct 4, 2018
4,611
113
As others have said, playing up into 12U will be good. And fun.

Trying to pitch in both and go back and forth will be problematic. For both her 10U games and 12U games. And add an artificial level of stress that really isn't needed.

In my experience, almost every pitcher I know had very little problem going from 10U pitching to 12U pitching. Yes, ball is bigger and yes, you're 5 feet back. But if you work with the bigger ball and longer distance for several weeks between your 10U and 12U season, you'll be fine.
 
Jun 11, 2020
38
8
Pitching both at the same time would be hard. Playing both otherwise not a problem. A 2nd yr 10u travel player shouldn't sit the bench in 12u rec league unless you've got an amazing rec level of rec league. Ours is so weak mine would have needed to play 14s when she was 10 to play with kids her own skill level, but I guess it's not like that everywhere

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk
My daughter pitched both at the same time. Not a problem for her. Longer pre-game warm-up with the appropriate ball from the appropriate distance before 10u/12u games helped. Then again, my daughter only played 1 year of 10u travel and was acclimated to 12" ball before the 11" ball. All lessons since she was 9 were done with 12" ball.
 

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