Player Age when 1 grade lower

[clarity]

Yeah I understand that, and it seems to manifest itself in the Hockey numbers, as that was the example used in Gladwell's book.

However, we see the Baseball numbers show a high proportion of Sept-Dec birthdays (older kids in the grade). Is there something different about baseball? Do they go to grade level sooner? Does the existence of middle school baseball teams give an advantage to the older kids in those grades?

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From the link you posted. This might have something to do with the baseball side.

Notes: Little League baseball’s birthday cutoff was August 1 when this cohort of players entered that system, but changed to May 1 several years ago. 2011-12 NCAA Division I first-year student-athletes compared to population birthday data from Centers for Disease Control (CDC) for all 1993 U.S. births (similar age as student-athletes in this analysis).

 

[daywalkerdad]

See Malcolm Gladwell. I was giving daywalker a hard time because he said that most college player birthdays come from 8 months of the year. Basically, the theory (and reality) goes that when kids are in 8u or 10u, older kids (those born in the 1st few months of the year) get selected for the best teams because they are more physically mature than the younger kids. At 8u, a January birthday is more than 10% older than a December birthday and has had that much more type to physically develop. So, the early birth months get on better teams, play better competition, get better coaching, and stay on the top teams throughout their careers, resulting in what is called an "accumulation advantage" as the cycle repeats year over year.

Thank you I could not remember the guys name. A co-worker told me about this. Apparently he was a good hockey born in Dec. Another was born Jan. He felt he was better but the Jan birthday got to play on numerous all star, and national teams.

 

[BlueDad]

Okay, so if we all know this is causing bias there is actual data to support it, why are all associations softball ages not aligned to grade (like USA)?

 

[bsbs]

There is alway going to be a bias. Whatever date you pick the older girls will benefit.

 

[BlueDad]

There is alway going to be a bias. Whatever date you pick the older girls will benefit.

Do we see the same issue in baseball with summer cut-offs? Just wondering what the data says.

 

[4Martini]

There is alway going to be a bias. Whatever date you pick the older girls will benefit.

But the data doesn’t actually support that. It shows Jan- April as lower than May- Aug and then a precipitous drop to Sept- Dec.

ETA or you could say that Jan- Aug are in proportion to school enrollment. But Sept- Dec is not.

 

[ninthgirl]

There is alway going to be a bias. Whatever date you pick the older girls will benefit.

I have one kid whose birthday is on the USA Softball cut-off, which happens not to align with her grad year (to put her with that grad year would have been a very normal redshirt in our district, but we didn't do it). I sometimes think of the slight benefit she'd get if everyone aligned with USA Softball, but it's no big deal. She's just got to play her best regardless.

 

[Rolling Hard]

I didn't read while thread.
In SoCal "dark" teams will form. So a coach will join up with 2 or 3 other coaches (usually from same organization) with left over players and create a team with the promise that there will be no stealing players. LOL. When my DD was in 8th grade and most of her teammates where playing HS we actually formed 2 teams. Blue and Gray tee-shirt teams. It was a great time.

 

[D500]

I didn't read while thread.
In SoCal "dark" teams will form. So a coach will join up with 2 or 3 other coaches (usually from same organization) with left over players and create a team with the promise that there will be no stealing players. LOL. When my DD was in 8th grade and most of her teammates where playing HS we actually formed 2 teams. Blue and Gray tee-shirt teams. It was a great time.

I was going to comment this as well. It sounds like the OP is from So Cal. There are enough teams with players in similar situations that dark teams form. My DD's team (they are only 12U) have at least 3 players (out of 12) that this would apply to if they were older.

 

[Roger Dorn]

I have one kid whose birthday is on the USA Softball cut-off, which happens not to align with her grad year (to put her with that grad year would have been a very normal redshirt in our district, but we didn't do it). I sometimes think of the slight benefit she'd get if everyone aligned with USA Softball, but it's no big deal. She's just got to play her best regardless.

I believe the USSSA will eventually realize how silly its birthdate cut-off is and make the change. They likely already know what they need to do, they just wanted to flex on USA who did it without any communication or notice. My daughter has a December birthday. Even if USSSA changed to align with USA, she would continue to "play up" so it doesn't really affect her one way or the other. It will be a bit of an inconvenience when she's in 8th grade playing club ball with high schoolers I suppose. Whatever, we will work around it.

Good players will be good regardless if they are playing with kids a grade level above them. It's really not that big of difference. My concern is for the younger players who aren't as good. Quitting because they don't have the support system of their classmate friends. I've coached a lot of softball from 8u to high school. I've seen countless kids quit because they are playing with a bunch of players a grade older than them. It's not because they are the youngest, that's going to happen with any birthdate deadline. It's because they hit a confidence issue then go through the season while their friends at school are talking about a team they feel they should get to be a part of. If it were my kid, I'd say "tough luck, fight through it." Some kids don't have the mental maturity or parenting to help them get through this.

Just my two cents. Not a battle I am overly passionate about as it doesn't affect my situation. I've seen it happen quite a few times though so I do have an opinion on it.