Question about playing up

[The Man In Blue]

My god, just the thought of that is crazy.

There is a lot to unpack here — the whole thing is crazy.

Then again, not surprising. When I ran a rec program we started telling people “NO” on this stuff. Sign your kid up for the appropriate age group. If she is good enough and an older team needs subs, then she can be “called up” to play as a guest.

Hell, when we launched t-ball, we launched it for 5 and 6 year olds. The next year the board decided to take 4 year olds (which turned into a disaster!). That meant the next year we had people wanting to sign up 2 and 3 year olds. Seriously.

Of course, we made people mad and they left to go force competitive ball on their budding All-Star. After awhile, we realized we were better off not having those people in that particular rec program. Every program has a purpose. Find the program that works with yours.

The fact that you and another coach are already planning on poaching players and going elsewhere is extremely disrespectful.

Just my humble opinion. But hey, you do you.

 

[justanotherguy]

I'll reiterate what has already been said by saying no...NO, no, No, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

 

[So Cal Seth]

Seems to me the issue for the original poster is his rec league sucks.

Is there another league you can drive to? We have girls - even in southern California - come to our rec league because their rec leagues stink/don't have a large enough population to adequately fill each age division.

Can you play somewhere else?

But I do agree it's too big of a jump. I think you'd be better off letting her play in 8U and finding other ways, outside of the league, to challenger and develop her.

 

[TigerD313]

At most ages, but definitely her age, it should be about building friendships and forming a team bond. I would let her have fun with a local team with her school/neighborhood friends. Softball (and all sports unfortunately) already has too much of a problem with this soft of thing.

You don’t only get better by continuing to move up. At her age, playing better competition would be the least of my concerns. Just my opinion. Best of luck!

This is actually the main reason I'm considering it. My daughter is really shy (this is the main reason we put her in a lot of extra curricular stuff) and is just now really talking to the coach and other girls I'm almost scared to start over

 

[uncdrew]

Playing up to 8U makes sense if she's good and enjoying the game. But 10U would scare me. A lot. She could get very hurt. And honestly might not enjoy the game much.

Can you get on with that 8U team?

 

[Momo'sDad]

My biggest concern is her getting pigeonholed at 2b and RF because the other girls having stronger arms

Would you have let your dd play 10u at age 6?

I racked my brain trying to think of any scenarios where this could make any sense and kept going back to the 1970s, when there were only a few softball hotbeds around the country outside of SoCal. According to stories from that time, it was quite common to have 6yo's on the field with 12yo's. Every area doesn't have the same resources, but we're smarter now and have more information to work with. And we also have highly advanced equipment.

My biggest concern is the safety of any young player, so as a league official, I would be opposed to allowing a 6u player to play up 2 divisions. I don't know how your league's rules read with respect to that, but unless you have a really young 10u division - it is possible, for example, to have all 9yo's - I would hope that an adult in the room would argue that it's not in the best interest of player safety to put an undersized 6yo in with young women who are hitting the growth years. I'm not saying to wrap her up in bubble wrap, but I think a little common sense ought to carry the day.

 

[TigerD313]

So here's the thing, if our coach leaves and takes 5-6 girls from the all Star team and then you count the girls that are actually 9 and have to move up anyways they might not even be able to field a single 8u team next year, as I believe they only had one 6u team this year. When I say the league sucks it's not the girls (would never say that about little kids) it's the people in charge who have ran it into the ground. When my wife played there growing up she said every division had 5-6 teams.

Personally without even thinking about I was thinking of saying no right away because it just sounds like too much, but then I look at the girls from her All Star team that would have to move up anyways and I'm like if they can play I know my DD could. (The wife seems pretty set on letting her try it in the fall)

But we do have 4-5 weeks before anything is concrete so maybe we don't even have to make a decision.

Appreciate you guys taking a bit of time out your day to give me some feedback

 

[_MIA_]

So here's the thing, if our coach leaves and takes 5-6 girls from the all Star team and then you count the girls that are actually 9 and have to move up anyways they might not even be able to field a single 8u team next year, as I believe they only had one 6u team this year. When I say the league sucks it's not the girls (would never say that about little kids) it's the people in charge who have ran it into the ground. When my wife played there growing up she said every division had 5-6 teams.

Personally without even thinking about I was thinking of saying no right away because it just sounds like too much, but then I look at the girls from her All Star team that would have to move up anyways and I'm like if they can play I know my DD could. (The wife seems pretty set on letting her try it in the fall)

But we do have 4-5 weeks before anything is concrete so maybe we don't even have to make a decision.

Appreciate you guys taking a bit of time out your day to give me some feedback

If your coach is going to play mainly 9U tournaments or 10UC/10Urec tournaments it might be ok. Even some lower level 10UB teams might be ok. These girls will still be a lot bigger/stronger but their skillsets probably won't overwhelm a 6YO. I would still advise against it but if this is your only option then it might be better than not playing at all. Once you start playing higher level B or A teams you start running into girls throwing low to mid 50's from 35 feet and capable of hitting 200+ foot HR. A lot of these girls will turn 11 early in the season.

My DD is playing up a year. She was 7 (she turned 8 in September) in the fall when her team started playing 10U however in the fall I want to say they played in mostly 9U tournaments. They played in 10U tournaments in the spring and while I wouldn't say she was overwhelmed per se, she didn't have a whole lot of success against the better 10U teams (which is ok). She is also tall (but not heavy..thin as a rail) for her age.

 

[cnardone]

You mentioned she is shy. My daughter is terribly shy as well. Last year, as an 8U my dd made the 10u all-stars. The girls were so good to her. They treated her like a little sister they liked. But she never let herself ...relax, enjoy, be silly the way she does with girls her age. She felt like she ......had to be big? I don't know exactly what was going through her head.

At this age, I can't imagine my dd enjoying being on a team with girls 3 years older. As someone said earlier it is not always about being challenged. I'd keep my dd down.

 

[wheresmycar]

Absolutely NOT. You cannot play up 5 years! A lot of girls in 10u are already 11. Honestly, a 5 year old playing 8u is a stretch.