It is good to play against older kids. Let teams cheat and play down so long as it is safe. Winning these tournaments and team rankings mean nothing. Your kid should be in this for fun and development as players. The kids who play the correct age will only get better and as many 2021 kids who played down for the top teams are finding out playing down has hurt them and many of those older 2021 kids who played down are now on B teams or playing proper age on B teams. They failed to develop as much as they could have playing down. There are a lot more kids that fail playing down than kids that succeed. We just hear more about the successful ones. Other than kids don't develop as much as they should playing down the only other issue is coaches and parents would like to know if the kids they are playing against are older so they can measure thier own kids development. It is hard to measure the development of a proper aged kid if he is playing against kids one to two years older without knowing ages. Hard to tell if the proper age kid got beat and looks slower or was the kid that beat him just older? Other than that who cares if you are playing against older kids so long as it is safe.
Originally Posted by Anonymous
Originally Posted by Anonymous
Bandits are so far above that the next team should be 3rd!
Bandits are a great team no doubt but it is hard to route for a team that classifies itself as a 2023 when there are older kids on that team. When I was a kid travel meant going to the next town and if you were good enough you played with the older kids. It did not mean playing with younger kids. I know the argument for holdbacks but I think there needs to be more transparency regarding how many older kids are on ANY team. I play on a 40 and over hockey league and am creeping to the older league but you are allowed 2 players under 40. You are not allowed a majority of players to break the age limit. BUT I do enjoy watching those kids play.
