{"id":13955,"date":"2016-02-17T08:00:52","date_gmt":"2016-02-17T16:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/coachingvb.com\/?p=13955"},"modified":"2016-02-17T08:00:52","modified_gmt":"2016-02-17T16:00:52","slug":"at-what-age-should-kids-compete","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/testsite.coachingvb.com\/index.php\/2016\/02\/17\/at-what-age-should-kids-compete\/","title":{"rendered":"At what age should kids compete?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What is a good age for kids to start playing in legitimate competitions?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’m not really asking here whether little ones should have scores kept. That’s a bit tricky in volleyball since it’s a point target sport. You have to switch to a timed model to be able to toss out the score, if you really wanted to go that route.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rather, what I’m asking is at what point it really makes sense to have kids playing in meaningful competition. I’m talking about big tournaments and things like that rather than simply playing in an in-house type of league. Is there really any benefit to these youngsters playing in regional or national level competition? Is the potential higher level play meaningful in their development?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is something Volleyball Coaching Wizard Tom Turco<\/a> talked about in his interview. He runs a Juniors club, but for the 12s age group they do not take part in even regional competition. They are strictly in-house. Tom doesn’t see any potential benefit worth the added time and expense involved for the families.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I go even further and wonder whether the kids would be better off not playing in these bigger tournaments from the perspective of early specialization. I challenged<\/a> a 12s coach from Texas a while back on this basis. By all accounts it’s very hard to judge at that age what position a player is likely to be best suited for down the road. That being the case, it doesn’t make much sense to have them in fixed positions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, the desire or pressure to win encourages coaches to field their best team, which often means positional specialization. If we take that aspect of things away for players in these younger age groups, would we end up producing better players in the long run?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And maybe reducing the competitive pressures early on helps keep more kids in the sport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thoughts?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

See also:<\/p>\n\n\n\n