Age group, or aging up

[tenniscrazed]

For sure I'm NOT BradBaughman I don't think.... I'm going to go look in the mirror. I will be back in a minute.

I'm back, I'm not Brad, certainly I'm not his wife.

Now on to bigger and better matters. The aging up issue has been a long standing debate in many sports.

Pete Sampras played both his age group and up. I think it's a matter of how you train. If you train with kids (clinics, semi privates, camps etc) you should absolutely play your age group. If you are fortunate (and wealthy) enough to train with D1's on a regular basis and never attend kids clinics. Play your practice matches against kids 3-5 years older. My advise is to build up your sectional ranking in whatever age group, move to a regional ranking, then to a national ranking. I believe that any competitive child has the need and desire to win regardless of the age group. I think the pressure to beat your age bracket is a little overrated. Further if a kid succeeds in their bracket it does reflect that the coach / academy is doing a good job. INMHO, kids learn to deal with whatever environment they are put in. So a child with a game big enough may not initially do well in higher brackets but rest assured the child will adapt and learn to win in that bracket. It just may take more time.

 

[TennisCoachFLA]

For sure I'm NOT BradBaughman I don't think.... I'm going to go look in the mirror. I will be back in a minute.

I'm back, I'm not Brad, certainly I'm not his wife.

Now on to bigger and better matters. The aging up issue has been a long standing debate in many sports.

Pete Sampras played both his age group and up. I think it's a matter of how you train. If you train with kids (clinics, semi privates, camps etc) you should absolutely play your age group. If you are fortunate (and wealthy) enough to train with D1's on a regular basis and never attend kids clinics. Play your practice matches against kids 3-5 years older. My advise is to build up your sectional ranking in whatever age group, move to a regional ranking, then to a national ranking. I believe that any competitive child has the need and desire to win regardless of the age group. I think the pressure to beat your age bracket is a little overrated. Further if a kid succeeds in their bracket it does reflect that the coach / academy is doing a good job. INMHO, kids learn to deal with whatever environment they are put in. So a child with a game big enough may not initially do well in higher brackets but rest assured the child will adapt and learn to win in that bracket. It just may take more time.

I hear you. Aging up is great if the purpose is not to play very, very low ranked older kids just to show wins in an older bracket.

 

[tenniscrazed]

I hear you. Aging up is great if the purpose is not to play very, very low ranked older kids just to show wins in an older bracket.

And certainly not to brag about any win or loss. The other thing that I've found ironic is that so many kids age up that a 16s tournament is really juiced up 14s, and 18s is juiced up 16s and 14s becomes juiced up 12s.

 

[TennisCoachFLA]

And certainly not to brag about any win or loss. The other thing that I've found ironic is that so many kids age up that a 16s tournament is really juiced up 14s, and 18s is juiced up 16s and 14s becomes juiced up 12s.

ha, that is so true. Some tourneys are almost all aged up kids.