Why send a 10 yr old to majors?

I've had this questions asked of me dozens of times...

Questions to consider:

1. Is my child capable of playing at the higher level? Stop and REALLY think about it. I tell parents who are unsure to bring their child to evals and watch. DON'T watch to see which players their child is better than. Watch to see the players who are better than your child. How much better and how many are there. If there are a lot of better players, and/or a lot better, then LL minors is for you. If they "hold their own" with the top players, majors is a good place to be.

2. Is your child ready socially? A 9 or 10 year-old surrounded by 12's is quite a large age gap. The 9/10 isn't playing with his/her friends - they are usually playing with their friends' older siblings. This can be hard on some kids. For kids who have trouble socializing, this can sometimes make a bad situation worse.

3. Can they handle the pressure? There is a lot more pressure in majors than minors. A child who isn't ready for it will have an awful time.

4. Are there any skills to be gained in the minors? If your child needs basic work before getting to the polishing, minors is a better place for it.

5. Do they pose a danger in the minors? We had one 10 year old who was 5' 6" feet tall, and would smash line drives all over the place. The league intervened and moved him up. He struggled (a lot) at first, but by the end of the season, he was fine. In the meantime, all the LL minors kids kept their teeth.

Hard questions, hard answers. Bottom line is that you must become totally objective, which is hard to do sometimes.

Best of luck!