What Level Should My 8 (soon to be 9) Year Old Play?

Question
Sean,
My son is in 3rd grade and is moving into kid pitch baseball this year. The league we are involved in moves straight from coach pitch to kid pitch (with no machine pitch option in between). He has a mid-May birthday and will turn 9 this year. He misses the age cutoff date for the league by 2 weeks which means that he can either play up with the older kids (his class; 9-10 year olds), or down on a team where he would the oldest kid on his team of mostly 6-7 year olds.

Right now he is currently on a team where he is the only third grader playing on a team of mostly 2nd graders and a few first graders. We are getting ready to enter the league that most of his classmates played in last year, and those boys will be playing at the next level above where we are going to be playing.

Based on what I have seen, my son: is solid fundamentally, can hit at a level appropriate to the rest of the boys his age, and he has also been working with pitching coach in preparation for this upcoming season. I have no doubt that he will be appropriately challenged if we were to play him up.

On the other side, the team that he currently plays for is very young and less experienced. The team does have a good coach though. I fear that they are going to struggle as they adjust to the new league and most of the skills instruction will be geared towards the younger guys which could potentially short change my son's development.

Should we look at moving my son to a new team in the higher level league with his classmates, or should we keep him with his current team?  

Answer
Nick,

This is a question I am asked a lot from the parents of those kids who I give private pitching lessons to.

While there were a lot of things which contributed to my success and development in baseball, the biggest key was that my parents always pushed me to play at a level higher then what my age range was. I was rarely given the chance to be the star just because I was older and more experienced. I was always put on teams where I had to work hard to catch up to the older kids.

For most athletes, the drive to be the best is what will push us to practice and prepare harder. Therefore, not allowing a kid to simply be the best based on purely age and experience will really help him in the long run. A pitcher who can just throw fastballs down the middle by other players will never learn how to develop his skills, because he simply does not need to.

Your decision will have to be based on what you know about your son. If he is the type to accept challenges and try to over come them, then the older team is the best fit. However, if he is the type to shy away when he feels over matched, then keeping him at the lower level will prevent him from pulling away from baseball. He may struggle some at a higher level, but if he has the right approach, it will help him in the long run.

Best of luck,
Sean