Playing Up- Pros And Cons

[sim111]

I have watched several kids play up over the years, some have handled it, some have not My daughter always played up, Nneka Ogwumike never did yet they are two of the best players ever to come out of Houston. Nneka could have played up and been effective but her parents chose to keep her playing her age and her team was one of the most succesful ever to come out of Houston. Clays article on Exposure summed it up, I would post it again but the link isn't working however in a nutshell it says if your kid isn't tearing her age apart, chill out and have her work on skills. Too many parents get caught up in thinking their kid has arrived when they haven't. It's one thing to have your team play up because I do believe if you play better comp, you will get better.

[beeeazy]

I think that you should become very effective at your level before you decide to play up full time. It seems a good formula to play your team up from time to time but the mistake I see is people thinking that if you play up, the girls will automatically play better/harder. Instead of focusing on the problems they have at their own skill level, they believe the kids will magically sort it out if they are forced to play at a higher level. In effect I think that attitude tends to cause more loss of confidence and a retreat back to your comfort zone as a player.

Second point is that so many people think their kids should play up now that when you do play, you end up playing against the same kids from your level because they are all playing up too.

It can be a very positive thing if a kid is READY!

[BUFan]

Sim111 has a very good point here. As a baseball coach, I always scrimmaged my teams agains older ones. I had college kids out to throw batting practice as often as possible to high school players. It always paid off.