At what age is it too late?

[MoeFoes]

Ever heard of the "Fee Nomm"

... or the Hot Mom ? of course ... I don't think that factor works as well at D1 ...

I agree 100%...
But at D1... I cant help but being the sexy man that I am.........MoeFoe in tha House

[N2DFIRE]

Another factor of great importance is when the kid athleticly peaks if a kid peaks at 11 thru 14 years old ,I know everybody have seen these young phenoms are they just doing it on sheer size and early maturity as compared to their peers or are they athleticly gifted.
You will see these less gifted kids start to drop back around 15 or 16.Then the kids that are most athleticaly gifted will start to rise to the top.
So can a gifted kid pick up softball at the older age and become a recruitable kid absoulutly in 2 or 3 years they can compete with and pass up an average skilled player who has been playing for years.
Remember,the top 12 year old softball player in the nation gets a birthday next year and moves up to 14s.
Where the top 16 ,17 or 18 year old can get a scholarship.

I agree!!!!

It seems the mentality now days is that every kid must start at the age of 8 and play at a college level at such young age.

With the high pressure to play at such a high level, do more and more kids become burnt out before they are physically mature enough.
To play with someone who is a giant and has early success, because mostly of size and not talent.

Everyweek I see some young girl or boy being pressured or yelled at to compete with someone who is much bigger at an early age.

[DonnieS]

With the high pressure to play at such a high level, do more and more kids become burnt out before they are physically mature enough.
To play with someone who is a giant and has early success, because mostly of size and not talent.

Everyweek I see some young girl or boy being pressured or yelled at to compete with someone who is much bigger at an early age.

What is nice is to finally reach the age where all this early growth evens out. Usually the early growers know what has happened, its the parents of those kids who struggle to understand.

[Blind Squirrel]

A general observation:

Every kid and their situation is fairly unique. Different stage of physical development, different ultimate physical characteristics, different child's desire to be as good as they can be, different abilities relative to their peers at any given age, different amount of unreasonable ego-driven parental pushing, yada yada yada.

Folks seem to want to use 14 year olds playing 18s as a prime example of the dangers of playing up (I'm surely not being defensive). Inevitable burn out. Parents forcing their kids to do unhealthy/counterproductive things. Been through it myself. My kid is like many others. She wanted to play up, we let her. In retrospect, I believe the additional experience and playing with/against higher level players best prepared her for exposure tournaments and college ball. We'll see. Burn out? Not close. She does wish she could have started playing college ball rather than another year of HS and travel.

Bottom line is, as stated above, every kid/situation is different and I would think it is best for parents to make decisions based not on stories read on a message board but rather upon objective assessment of their kid's particular situation. What works for one kid would be disastrous for another. Generalities in this context are meaningless.

John

[Sftbll4ever]

A general observation:

Every kid and their situation is fairly unique. Different stage of physical development, different ultimate physical characteristics, different child's desire to be as good as they can be, different abilities relative to their peers at any given age, different amount of unreasonable ego-driven parental pushing, yada yada yada.

Folks seem to want to use 14 year olds playing 18s as a prime example of the dangers of playing up (I'm surely not being defensive). Inevitable burn out. Parents forcing their kids to do unhealthy/counterproductive things. Been through it myself. My kid is like many others. She wanted to play up, we let her. In retrospect, I believe the additional experience and playing with/against higher level players best prepared her for exposure tournaments and college ball. We'll see. Burn out? Not close. She does wish she could have started playing college ball rather than another year of HS and travel.

Bottom line is, as stated above, every kid/situation is different and I would think it is best for parents to make decisions based not on stories read on a message board but rather upon objective assessment of their kid's particular situation. What works for one kid would be disastrous for another. Generalities in this context are meaningless.

John

Funny you bring up different stages of development. I was talking to some parents about that yesterday. They said they remembered when little Suzi was 10 and just could pitch so hard. Little Suzi now doesn't throw as hard as younger Debbie and they wondered what happened. I said Suzi was the same size as 12u girls at 10u. Debbie was about average. Debbie grew up and got stronger while Suzi is taller but ability has maxed out. You just never know.

Every kid is different. My kid is being asked to move to 18U/Gold teams. She is 14, we think she would be able to compete at that level, but SHE wanted to stay in 16u. Why, she said she needed time to play down and get mentally prepared for the older ages. Now she thinks she is ready and next year will move up.

It is never to late. It depends on the athletic ability. Like I had stated before. As a freshman in HS a girl who never played softball came to the HS team and played. 3 years later, we have recruiter from UCLA at our game asking her to play for them and the girl who thought they were there to see her and has played all her life was passed up (This is another interesting topic about how parents can play into what happens to the future of their kids).

[Blind Squirrel]

You know, parents typically think they know better than their kids what is best for them. In many, many contexts that is probably the case. In youth sports, we've taken our cues from our kids. We let them know the options and pros/cons of the options and let them decide. No ego-driven attempts at coercion. Don't know if that was the optimal approach, but it was our view. Your kid says she doesn't think she is ready. Who would know better than her? I would say the same thing if she had said she thought she was ready to compete earlier and that she felt she could force herself to get better and eventually be successful.

This isn't intended to be a cosmic, universal best practice for everyone's enlightenment. Just the view of another youth sports parent hoping for the best.

John