Playing up 10u-12u

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Nov 22, 2022
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Lol..look at what I wrote regarding birth years and the corresponding age groups for the 2023 (Spring season). If they turn 11 in the summer of 2023 they can play 10U in the spring/summer.

Sorry i may of confused you. I was referring to next season 2023-2024.
 
Jun 8, 2016
16,118
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Sorry i may of confused you. I was referring to next season 2023-2024.
Ok so the other kids on the team are only 1 year ahead of her and they will be playing 10U in the Spring of 2023, right? Or am I still confused.. 😂
 
Last edited:
Mar 10, 2020
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My daughter is currently playing 10u and is 9 years old. She is still working hard on becoming a good pitcher. She can technically play another year of 10u or move up with the rest of her team to 12u. She is the youngest on the team. What are the pros/ cons of moving her up? Should she stay at 10u so she can improve her skills. Just thinking if bigger ball/ farther distance will hurt her.
Cannot make the decision while comparing to the team she's already on that's moving up. That team is going to have its own learning curve. Go watch 12u teams that she will be playing against who have already played a year at 12u.
You should have your answer after that.
 
Nov 22, 2022
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Ok so the other kids on the team are only 1 year ahead of her and they will be playing 10U in the Spring of 2023, right? Or am I still confused.. 😂
Lol blame me im bad at explaining stuff. Currently she is playing 10u travel (2022-23) season. She is 9 and rest of girls are 10 but will be 11 during this season. She turns 10 in jan which means she can play another year of 10u. I was asking about next year ( 2023-24) to see if it would be wise to keep her at 10u. Rest of her teammates will move on to 11u meaning bigger ball, farther mound, etc
 
Mar 10, 2020
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Lol blame me im bad at explaining stuff. Currently she is playing 10u travel (2022-23) season. She is 9 and rest of girls are 10 but will be 11 during this season. She turns 10 in jan which means she can play another year of 10u. I was asking about next year ( 2023-24) to see if it would be wise to keep her at 10u. Rest of her teammates will move on to 11u meaning bigger ball, farther mound, etc
Where are you playing that the next age bracket is capped at 11U? Everything we played in that bracket was capped 12u which meant 13-year-olds could still be playing for a couple months.
 
Nov 26, 2010
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Michigan
Lol blame me im bad at explaining stuff. Currently she is playing 10u travel (2022-23) season. She is 9 and rest of girls are 10 but will be 11 during this season. She turns 10 in jan which means she can play another year of 10u. I was asking about next year ( 2023-24) to see if it would be wise to keep her at 10u. Rest of her teammates will move on to 11u meaning bigger ball, farther mound, etc
That is planning too far in advance. Let this next season play out and consider tryouts next fall.

The team she is on will not look the same in 2 seasons. Of the girls she likes 3 will quit softball and another 3 will move to different orgs and 2 will just move. Never plan at 10u to be with the same girls another year and especially not 2.
 
Feb 24, 2022
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Lol blame me im bad at explaining stuff. Currently she is playing 10u travel (2022-23) season. She is 9 and rest of girls are 10 but will be 11 during this season. She turns 10 in jan which means she can play another year of 10u. I was asking about next year ( 2023-24) to see if it would be wise to keep her at 10u. Rest of her teammates will move on to 11u meaning bigger ball, farther mound, etc
Ok, so she is the youngest on the team and you are asking if she should move up to 12U with the team in the Fall of 2023 (even though she has another year of 10U eligibility). If she doesn't, I assume that she would need to find another team? That's a tough call. If she was any other position besides pitcher, and she can hold her own, then I would definitely consider it (My daughter did that exact thing - only played 1 yr of 10U and then moved up to 12U with her team).

However, if she is dead set at pitching, you may be putting her at a very big disadvantage. Depending on the level of play of the team, she may not get as much mound time as you'd like. This is where, as her parent, you have to take a look at the situation and try to do what is best long term for her. After 1 year of 12U, we decided to leave the organization we grew up playing with to find a higher level 12U team that my daughter was age appropriate for and could grow with. It ended up being a very good choice for her. But this is something that you'll have to decide as a family because each situation is different.
 
Oct 8, 2021
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My DD has always been the youngest on her team. Most of her teammates are 1.5yrs older. She plays P, 1B, and OF. It really depends on your DD's abilities. Playing 1 year up was not an issue for DD as she has always been one of the stronger players on the team. Her team plays A ball, but they are not what I would call an elite A ball or power pool type team.

Now that her team is moving to 16U a year early, playing up has been a topic of discussion in our house. She just turned 13 this past August so she would be playing up 2 years early. She has played against 16U teams and it hasn't been a problem for her - she is perfectly comfortable playing with and against older girls. However, we have discussed whether it would be better for DD to move back to a 2009 birth/2027 grad team that she could grow and graduate with or continue with her current team. Ultimately we decided to stay with her current team; however, we understand there will come a point when we will probably have to look for a 2027 grad team.

For us, the pros of playing up were on the development side. For DD, competition against older, bigger, and stronger girls really helped her develop her game. This is not always the case for players moving up early and I have coached a lot of girls that should not move up. As the team got older, the cons had more to do with the social side of things. DD has always been very adult-like but socially, as the girls got older, you could see differences in the social side. This especially became apparent when her teammates started High School. All of the girls on the team are close, but the older girls just have a different social life than DD - as would be expected.
 
Apr 14, 2022
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Most of the girls will be 11
Some of her opposition will be 13 come spring. You will think who are these grown women playing against my little girl.

The other thing is how strong is your daughter. The 12 inch ball from 40’ would strain some kids.
 

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