Whether or not to play up in youth baseball

You have been reading this board for at least a year now, isn't that right? If you seriously feel the need to ask posters here, then I doubt you think he's ready to move up.

For an inexperienced baseball parent, the question on whether or not to play their child up can be stressful. It was for me with my first child. The answer is pretty simple, though. If your child can adequately play with and against players at the higher level, do it.

Unfortunately, evaluating whether or not your player can play at that level is not as simple. If you can view your child's abilities without bias (some can't - it's common and not an insurmountable problem), then check out the next level of competition and also compare your player to the players that will be at the level you are considering. If you can't be unbiased, ask some people, preferably coaches at the level you are considering, to evaluate your son relative to his good players. Actually get together with them and toss/hit a ball around if possible.

The key, in my opinion, at the young ages is to be reasonably sure that your child will obviously be one of the best 5 or 6 players in EVERY phase of the game. That would include hitting, throwing, fielding, running - and I'd include maturity.

If you have any doubts, don't do it. If either of you isn't ready, then even minor setbacks will result in a loss of confidence that could snowball into a disaster.

If you do decide to play your child up and realize later that the decision was a severe mistake, then take action as necessary (hopefully you've addressed issues as they've occurred such that no serious issues get a chance to arise). The worst case is to remove the player from the team. Missing part of a season will do no harm if you provide positive support and your player truly loves the game and has the ability to keep playing the next level of youth ball. Your player can always drop down. The players I've seen do that usually end up with tremendous confidence against players of their own age.

By the way, size is a minor consideration in my opinion. If the player is very small and you or the player believes size is an issue, that's another story. If so, then don't do it. It can get a bit scary around 12-14 or so, when some of the giants have sprouted up (e.g., when the behemoth 1st baseman blocks the base on pickoffs because he outweighs the baserunner by 150 pounds). Still I've seen many tiny players (playing up or not) that succeed despite their size. "It's not the size of the dog in the fight - it's the size of the fight in the dog".

Lastly, from personal experience, a good way to play up is to always play up from the start (note I didn't say the only way, but a good way from my experience including my sons and many others). If a child starts playing with older teammates and is obviously one of the better players (due to a lot of work "in the back yard" and/or to natural talent), he will move right on up naturally. Realize that the leagues are set up with the average (or slightly above average if we are talking select/travel teams) players in mind. Those that work harder, have better coaching, and/or have more ability can easily play up a year or two.

I always figured if one of the goals is to play high school baseball, and not just as a senior, then at some point the player will have to play with and against older kids anyway. Sure they may be able to make the jump when they are older (and if so, then playing up still got them a year or 2 more against better players). But if they start early and just move with the flow, there's no jump required at all, just natural progression.