Park Pirate
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jan 26, 2016
Warning - this topic is about travel sports. I apologize if this has been covered before. However, I am wondering how other sports determine how to place teams in a tournament/competition.
My son plays both travel soccer and lacrosse. Although I enjoy the lacrosse a bit more, I must say that the soccer tournaments that I have been to are far more 'fair' as teams are required to have kids within the same calendar birth year and, it seems that this must be proven via a birth certificate. Lacrosse on the other hand is a mess.
Although it seems that USA Lacrosse is putting rules in to use age and verification, it seems that none of the tournaments are following these 'guidelines'. Pretty much every tournament we go to is organized by graduating class, and a certain number of holdovers are allowed. Travel programs are aware of this and often intentionally stack their teams with older players. I know of several very good players for their real age, that have been asked to play down, to strengthen a team. This completely changes the competitiveness of a team, especially when dealing with the physical differences at the ages involved.
So for example, a team playing in a 2023 (graduation year) bracket should typically have kids that are currently 13-14 years old and in 8th grade. However, it is very possible to have a 14-15 year old that is in 8th grade. Furthermore, many tournaments will even stipulate that you can have 5-6 holdovers on a team, which means that almost half the team can be a full year older. No one checks to see if they are in the correct grade.
My daughter is in competitive dance, and I know there is a lot of interpretation in determining the age of the group and proper competition level? I think they generally average the ages of a group dance team, often putting an extremely young girl or two in with a small part to lower the average? I think the competition level has guidelines, but I am not sure these are followed much.
We do generally enjoy the travel sports, but I have been on both sides - losing to teams that have far older kids or winning and not feeling like it was that great of an accomplishment. Improving and learning is the most important thing, but it is nice to have competitive events - no one really learns anything from a lopsided win or loss. How do other sports/activities, where age is a factor, try to even the competition level?
My son plays both travel soccer and lacrosse. Although I enjoy the lacrosse a bit more, I must say that the soccer tournaments that I have been to are far more 'fair' as teams are required to have kids within the same calendar birth year and, it seems that this must be proven via a birth certificate. Lacrosse on the other hand is a mess.
Although it seems that USA Lacrosse is putting rules in to use age and verification, it seems that none of the tournaments are following these 'guidelines'. Pretty much every tournament we go to is organized by graduating class, and a certain number of holdovers are allowed. Travel programs are aware of this and often intentionally stack their teams with older players. I know of several very good players for their real age, that have been asked to play down, to strengthen a team. This completely changes the competitiveness of a team, especially when dealing with the physical differences at the ages involved.
So for example, a team playing in a 2023 (graduation year) bracket should typically have kids that are currently 13-14 years old and in 8th grade. However, it is very possible to have a 14-15 year old that is in 8th grade. Furthermore, many tournaments will even stipulate that you can have 5-6 holdovers on a team, which means that almost half the team can be a full year older. No one checks to see if they are in the correct grade.
My daughter is in competitive dance, and I know there is a lot of interpretation in determining the age of the group and proper competition level? I think they generally average the ages of a group dance team, often putting an extremely young girl or two in with a small part to lower the average? I think the competition level has guidelines, but I am not sure these are followed much.
We do generally enjoy the travel sports, but I have been on both sides - losing to teams that have far older kids or winning and not feeling like it was that great of an accomplishment. Improving and learning is the most important thing, but it is nice to have competitive events - no one really learns anything from a lopsided win or loss. How do other sports/activities, where age is a factor, try to even the competition level?