Softball: Is USSSA moving to the 8/31 cut-off?

[Anonymous]

Our PGF (west coast) just changed, so I'd imagine USSSA will too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our PGF (west coast) just changed, so I'd imagine USSSA will too.

Link, if you don't mind? All I can find is their rather snippy social media posts from earlier this year when Alliance changed saying they haven't. But then message board posts saying it varies by director.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Baseball is totally different than fast pitch possibly driven by long standing little league age rules which mirror school grades

The biggest difference between baseball and softball is that baseball has tryouts for the kids to advance to the higher levels based on skills rather than birth year or grades. I found baseball to be better in this respect. Award the best players with promotions and allow the players who are new and/or still figuring it out to stay down a level for another season.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Baseball is totally different than fast pitch possibly driven by long standing little league age rules which mirror school grades

The biggest difference between baseball and softball is that baseball has tryouts for the kids to advance to the higher levels based on skills rather than birth year or grades. I found baseball to be better in this respect. Award the best players with promotions and allow the players who are new and/or still figuring it out to stay down a level for another season.

That’s rec. Travel softball players can absolutely play up (but not down).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our PGF (west coast) just changed, so I'd imagine USSSA will too.

Will the PGF change be effective January 2025 (like USFA) or August 2025? I hope they all get on the same page soon.

[Anonymous]

Anymore on this subject

[Anonymous]

It’s official
https://www.usssa.com/fastpitch/newsRead/?id=22651

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s official
https://www.usssa.com/fastpitch/newsRead/?id=22651

Hooray, my fall b-day kid will be so happy to finally be able to play with classmates. Thank you USSSA!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s official
https://www.usssa.com/fastpitch/newsRead/?id=22651

Hooray, my fall b-day kid will be so happy to finally be able to play with classmates. Thank you USSSA!

Ugh I wonder if DDs team is going to break up because of this.

[Anonymous]

It might be that the Fall kids move to the younger age group and you just replace those kids. But if there are several that can move down, including any of the coach’s kids, I’d guess the whole team will break up.

[Anonymous]

From the chatter I have seen online it seems like people's perspectives on this change depend entirely on:

1) How old their kids/teams are (younger kids think it's a bigger deal while older kids don't care because the distribution is already more about talent than age)

2) How good their kid is (better teams/kids care less because they may already be playing up anyway)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:From the chatter I have seen online it seems like people's perspectives on this change depend entirely on:

1) How old their kids/teams are (younger kids think it's a bigger deal while older kids don't care because the distribution is already more about talent than age)

2) How good their kid is (better teams/kids care less because they may already be playing up anyway)

Will affect 10U and 12U the most.

[Anonymous]

This is more to do with younger kids not being separated from their peers early on into the sport. Forcing 1/4 of a grade to play up with an older class was never a good idea. Plus study after study has proven that opportunity heavily skews towards the oldest quartile with the youngest getting less attention and coaching especially early on in a sport when it matters most. So telling the oldest girls in a class they have to be the youngest in their sports classification was incredibly awkward. 5th grader competing against a 6th grader is way different than kids who have gone through their growth spurts competing in HS.

Anonymous wrote:From the chatter I have seen online it seems like people's perspectives on this change depend entirely on:

1) How old their kids/teams are (younger kids think it's a bigger deal while older kids don't care because the distribution is already more about talent than age)

2) How good their kid is (better teams/kids care less because they may already be playing up anyway)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is more to do with younger kids not being separated from their peers early on into the sport. Forcing 1/4 of a grade to play up with an older class was never a good idea. Plus study after study has proven that opportunity heavily skews towards the oldest quartile with the youngest getting less attention and coaching especially early on in a sport when it matters most. So telling the oldest girls in a class they have to be the youngest in their sports classification was incredibly awkward. 5th grader competing against a 6th grader is way different than kids who have gone through their growth spurts competing in HS.

Anonymous wrote:From the chatter I have seen online it seems like people's perspectives on this change depend entirely on:

1) How old their kids/teams are (younger kids think it's a bigger deal while older kids don't care because the distribution is already more about talent than age)

2) How good their kid is (better teams/kids care less because they may already be playing up anyway)

My Fall birthday 5th grader on a 12U travel team has been playing against 7th graders who have gone through puberty. It has been ridiculous so very happy for this change.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is more to do with younger kids not being separated from their peers early on into the sport. Forcing 1/4 of a grade to play up with an older class was never a good idea. Plus study after study has proven that opportunity heavily skews towards the oldest quartile with the youngest getting less attention and coaching especially early on in a sport when it matters most. So telling the oldest girls in a class they have to be the youngest in their sports classification was incredibly awkward. 5th grader competing against a 6th grader is way different than kids who have gone through their growth spurts competing in HS.

Anonymous wrote:From the chatter I have seen online it seems like people's perspectives on this change depend entirely on:

1) How old their kids/teams are (younger kids think it's a bigger deal while older kids don't care because the distribution is already more about talent than age)

2) How good their kid is (better teams/kids care less because they may already be playing up anyway)

My Fall birthday 5th grader on a 12U travel team has been playing against 7th graders who have gone through puberty. It has been ridiculous so very happy for this change.

Wait...I have a fall birthday 5th grader and she's still 10U eligible through this year (and now next year, though under the current cut-offs she would have been pushed up in August). Did you chose not to try out for 10U teams? Under USA softball/new cut-offs fall birthday 2014s currently count as 9.