Age Difference

[covrec1]

Is it me or is there a big difference between first year U10 and second year U10. We play some second year teams and they are a lot bigger and stronger. Most of our girl's are age 8-9 and in the 3rd and 4th grade and the second year teams are 5th graders.

 

[YoungBuck]

There can be a huge difference from first to second year 10U.

 

[RetiredCoach]

Same is true even at the 12U level.

 

[coachjwb]

Definitely ... and there is generally a pretty big difference between 11-U and 12-U as well, but then the 1 year differences start to disappear for the most part.

 

[marriard]

Oh yeah 10U is pretty bad ... 12U is much, much worse. Our first year '02 12U team plays against a couple of teams that are full of grown woman (all legitimately 01's - they just matured early)

Then it evens out once they all hit high school - though you still see a lot of late maturers in 14U

 

[longball00]

It is a big difference. Last weekend my '02 DD played up at 14U as a sub. Most every girl there was a '99. Talk about a big difference?

 

[James Smith]

I think in is more the experience then the age. A 9 YO that played up when 8, will play better at 10U then a 9 YO playing 10U for the first time and about the same as a 10YO playing 10U for the 2nd time. Same with the other age groups.

There seems to be a big difference in the game at the various age groups that can take a little while to catch up with.

Same can be said for TB and Rec.

 

[canyonjoe]

Just look at the age difference. Assume everyone is playing correct age. I.E. 9 and 10 year olds playing.

an ASA age 9 born in December versus an ASA person born in January. Buy May the 9 year old is 9 years 6 months, but the 10 year old is actually 11 years 5 months old. That's an extreme but a 23 month difference.

It's even worse in the fall. Our first tournament a couple of years ago we were a 10 U team playing our first 12U tournament. We played a 2nd year 12U team that chose not to move up in our first game. It looked like a bunch of high school players on the other team.

 

[GunnerShotgun]

The 1/1 age cutoff is the issue. There should be two cutoff dates.

 

[Eric F]

Just look at the age difference. Assume everyone is playing correct age. I.E. 9 and 10 year olds playing.

an ASA age 9 born in December versus an ASA person born in January. Buy May the 9 year old is 9 years 6 months, but the 10 year old is actually 11 years 5 months old. That's an extreme but a 23 month difference.

It's even worse in the fall. Our first tournament a couple of years ago we were a 10 U team playing our first 12U tournament. We played a 2nd year 12U team that chose not to move up in our first game. It looked like a bunch of high school players on the other team.

My DD's All-Star team has girls ranging from 9-11. While you can certainly see some physical differences, on the field, the differences get decided by skill level, which is less age-dependent.

The youngest girl in our 10U division could technically play 8U (5 days under the cutoff date). She's one of the top 4 overall players in the league. The smallest girl in 10U is 11.