Another playing up question

[Proudmumof2]

My youngest is 10 and turns 11 in late July. If I put her on a 10u team, this will be her 3rd year playing 10u. She can hold her own on the field and routinely goes to the high school winter workouts that the players put on to stay in shape. She is the only little one there but the girls don't take it easy on her. She has to do the same drills that the older girls do.

We are thinking of moving her up to 12u, which would give her 2016, 2017, and 2018 to play 12u. It would also mean she only had two years to play 14u.

She isn't a big child, only 17% on the height and weight chart but she has always been the catcher. She would continue being catcher on the 12u team.

Should I keep her down as long as possible in each level or move her up? I have two choices team wise for her, one 10u and one 12u. Both have great coaches, both have a great group of girls playing. Both want her as their catcher.

So, what should I do?

 

[CatchTheFever]

Sounds like she'll benefit by playing 12u. As long as she'll be one of thw top 9 on that team, definitely move up. Otherwise, she'll just be dominating first year 10s making thw move from 8u or little league.

 

[YOCOACH]

If she's going to play a majority of the innings for the 12u team, move her up. Otherwise, moving up and sitting the bench or being dominant in a lower division does very little for her development as a player/catcher.

 

[#7sDad]

Yep, I pretty much agree with the previous posts as well. One thing to consider is she'll be with older girls who are not her age or in her friends group. But this too is a chance to learn and grow, as long as she doesn't think it's less fun. It sounds like she likes to hang with and be challenged by the older kids, so maybe there's no issue to even worry about.

 

[riseball]

If she is only "holding her own" at 10U moving to 12U is probably ill advised. However, if she has outgrown 10U and is able to hold her own in 12U then move her up. Bottom line is that if you kid is one of the best in her age group she is in the wrong age group.

 

[DefiantGray]

My 10y/o is in the same boat. Her team was dominating 10u for the last two seasons. we have two 04 girls that had to move up in the spring and coach made the decision. My daughter had a jump on 12u while guess playing in a few 12u tournaments in the fall. She was able to hit consistently against 04 pitchers but when she face 03 pitchers it was a different story, a little faster but she wasn't intimidated. She did well defensively playing CF and 2nd.

 

[redbirdone]

My youngest is 10 and turns 11 in late July. If I put her on a 10u team, this will be her 3rd year playing 10u. She can hold her own on the field and routinely goes to the high school winter workouts that the players put on to stay in shape. She is the only little one there but the girls don't take it easy on her. She has to do the same drills that the older girls do.

We are thinking of moving her up to 12u, which would give her 2016, 2017, and 2018 to play 12u. It would also mean she only had two years to play 14u.

She isn't a big child, only 17% on the height and weight chart but she has always been the catcher. She would continue being catcher on the 12u team.

Should I keep her down as long as possible in each level or move her up? I have two choices team wise for her, one 10u and one 12u. Both have great coaches, both have a great group of girls playing. Both want her as their catcher.

So, what should I do?

What level of ball is she playing right now? A, B, rec? What level 12u would she play? How much playing time would she get?

 

[BobInMadison]

Yeah, the level of play matters.

When DD 3 was a second year 10U, she played 12U for rec league, but played in 10U for TB. Both were appropriate for her.

Also, is the 12U team that wants her a team she has played for in the past? Sometimes younger kids wind up attached to a group of older girls and move up with them. Very common, as long as she can hold her own.

 

[GoCaboNow]

My 10y/o is in the same boat. Her team was dominating 10u for the last two seasons. we have two 04 girls that had to move up in the spring and coach made the decision. My daughter had a jump on 12u while guess playing in a few 12u tournaments in the fall. She was able to hit consistently against 04 pitchers but when she face 03 pitchers it was a different story, a little faster but she wasn't intimidated. She did well defensively playing CF and 2nd.

2005 dd plays on a 2004 team that played 12u last fall to prep for full time 12u this season. In the whopping 8 fall games we played a mix of good, and less than good, 2004 and 2003 pitching. We pounded bad 2004 pitching and competed with good 2004, and less than good, 2003 pitching. Good 2003 pitching was faster, craftier than we were used to and we were the hunted.

But we learned more in those games than the ones we pounded, so a very good experience.

DD will play 12u LL and 6-7 12u travel tourneys this year.

 

[CoogansBluff]

Unless you're concerned about her fitting in socially, then it's not about age level. It's about skill level. Which team is the best fit for her skill level?

As long as she'll be one of thw top 9 on that team, definitely move up. Otherwise, she'll just be dominating first year 10s making thw move from 8u or little league.

It's not necessarily true that she'd be dominating first-year 10U's. The best 10U teams aren't playing 9-year-olds. They're playing each other. And those top 10U teams might be better than the average 12U team. But, I do agree that getting good competition for a 10U team can be more of a challenge because it's not so easy to just play up in a given tournament because of the differences in ball size and pitching distance.