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Are Kids Allowed to Play 'Up' in the Next Age Group?
Occaisionally we get requests to have kids play in a division higher than their assigned age group. Historically, Pony has been adament about kids staying in their defined age division. But, over the last couple of years, Pony has allowed each league to make their own decision about whether kids can play 'up.'
LJYB has carefully considered the issue. We have talked with other leagues that have allowed kids to play up, to give us the best perspective possible on whether this would be beneficial to our league and the individual players. Somewhat surprisingly, most of the leagues seem to think the negatives outweigh the postives.
Even for the exceptional player, a potentially three-year age difference is enormous for a young kid. While this is usually true for experience and skill, more importantly it is true for physical maturation and even feeling like they fit in on the team. The exceptional player in the younger age group has consistently become only a marginal player at the higher age group. Concern is that rather than being pushed and thriving at a higher level, kids regress and it becomes a counter-productive experience.
As such, our current stance is that we do not allow kids to play up. We believe that this decision is in the best interest of the individual kids and the league overall.
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