Anonymous wrote:Some points for clarity.

1. The OP did not say her child was on a B team. A subsequent poster said that.

2. The OP’s child also appears to be on age for her grade and playing a year up. The OP just made a point that she has an early Fall b-day and it wouldn’t be crazy for her to have started school a year earlier.

OP here - both of these are correct. She is an October birthday (we didn't hold her back) and on an A team. Thanks everyone for the responses.

Anonymous wrote:I am brand new to lacrosse but my 10 yr old. daughter is pretty good. She is in 4th grade, but this year she "played up" on a 5th grade club team and was one of the better players. Her birthday is early fall so she technically could be in 5th grade if we had pushed for it.

The benefits of playing with bigger & better girls have been great, but I'm not sure she's supposed to keep doing this. At what point do most girls who "play up" move back down to their proper grade year?

She is the same age as the kids on the team and is not "playing up". Holding her back doesn't change her age. If she is truly one of the best players on the team then why would you move her down?

Some points for clarity.

1. The OP did not say her child was on a B team. A subsequent poster said that.

2. The OP’s child also appears to be on age for her grade and playing a year up. The OP just made a point that she has an early Fall b-day and it wouldn’t be crazy for her to have started school a year earlier.

Anonymous wrote:I don’t see why it would be different with girls, but with boys you keep them up as long as possible as long as they are playing on a top team and if (big if) everything is going fine socially. Your club director / coach should be able to advise when the right time to step back is skill-wise. I’ve seen boys ride it all the way to junior year of high school.

It isn’t good for any kid to be going to B team tournaments instead of A team tournaments in recruiting years. Did you not read the post and realize that part of playing up was being on B team?

Anonymous wrote:If she’s red shirted she’s not really playing up, she’s playing with kids who are closer to her age instead of being age dominant in the grade below. I would try to keep her there so she’s with physically similar peers and receiving an appropriate challenge.

Yeah, she isn't really playing up if she is in the age range for the grade she was supposed to be in. Presumably you kept her back from school because you thought she wasn't academically ready, but that doesn't mean she isn't physically ready to play sports with kids in her age.

My daughter, who played a different sport (my son is the lacrosse player), has an early September birthday, and there was one kid who was a late October kid but red shirted so a grade behind her on her travel team. Her parents kept making a big deal about how their kid was playing up with older kids. But my daughter and a few others on the team were younger than their daughter.

I don’t see why it would be different with girls, but with boys you keep them up as long as possible as long as they are playing on a top team and if (big if) everything is going fine socially. Your club director / coach should be able to advise when the right time to step back is skill-wise. I’ve seen boys ride it all the way to junior year of high school.

If she’s red shirted she’s not really playing up, she’s playing with kids who are closer to her age instead of being age dominant in the grade below. I would try to keep her there so she’s with physically similar peers and receiving an appropriate challenge.

Concur. We switched between 5th and 6th grade to get on a club's A-team. That was the right timing for our daughter, but doing it a year earlier would have been fine as well.

Around fifth grade, you want to get your kid on the best team possible. That will be the most competitive on age A team. There is no benefit to playing up on a B team, especially if the club isn't particularly strong.

I have an elementary age boy doing same for a B team. I am struggling to see downside other than holes in teammmates' games. On average he attacks against bigger, faster, stronger comp than he would otherwise. They are probably not as skilled as A players in his age range, but does that really matter for his skill building and confidence going against against bigger/faster/stronger?

Most teams won’t allow it starting 7th grade

I am brand new to lacrosse but my 10 yr old. daughter is pretty good. She is in 4th grade, but this year she "played up" on a 5th grade club team and was one of the better players. Her birthday is early fall so she technically could be in 5th grade if we had pushed for it.

The benefits of playing with bigger & better girls have been great, but I'm not sure she's supposed to keep doing this. At what point do most girls who "play up" move back down to their proper grade year?