Parental Hold-back year.. NCAA rule???

More or less fact but the terminology wasn't right.

Most state associations limit how many years of varsity competition a player can participate in, and the NCAA requires prospective student-athletes to complete their core curriculum requirements not later than the high school graduation date of the class with which they entered ninth grade.

HUH?  Sorry, new to this world.  Who said the 6th grader needs to be held back?  What does this have to do with NCAA rules?  If your kid is in 6th grade how did anything to do with the NCAA even come up already....why do I always feel like I am behind.

Please tell me that you're not asking this because you feel like holding your kid back will help him athletically in the future. 

I’m going to be the a-hole here….

Wow, you’re really worried about holding back a 6^th grader on the 1% (yep go look it up) chance that your son may play college ball and then be redshirted.  Based on the number of 11Us playing LL alone only 1% of them go on to play in college ball.  If you start to factor in all the 11Us across the country playing travel, PONY, etc. I would guess its less then 1%.

Right now the only thing you should be worried about is enjoying your kid playing baseball.  I can tell you from experience I had the stud 11 YO in the area.  Kids  were scared to step in the box against him, he was walked about 40% of his ABs as no one wanted to give up the HR to him.  Fast-forward to 2014 and his sophomore year in HS.  He is still a very good player and is starting to garner some interest from some colleges but everyone else is closing the gap. 

Fortunately for my wife and I we remained grounded, as did our son.  My wife works in a field that requires her to have a very solid understanding of childhood development and we were able to keep perspective.   You will have no idea how good of a player your son is until at least their freshman year in HS.   Some will argue moving to the big field is the difference but there is still a lot of growing to be done between 15 and 17/18U.

There is no reason to hold a child back on the off chance he may actually play in college.  Unless a kid is struggling academically or socially you may very well do more harm then good to them by holding them back. 

The idea of holding a kid back athletically comes up from time to time.  Some parents think by holding back a kid they provide them with an edge as they are physically more mature then the others thus giving them a leg up when it comes to college recruiting.

Maybe an advantage for college recruiting, but not for the draft.  See interesting story on one family's decision to have their son skip his junior year:

http://www.letstalkbaseball.li...he-wolforth-decision

So, why are you considering holding your 11U kid back?

1. Youngest in his class;

2. Maturity level in young men in general; and

3. Smaller frame child from smaller frame parents.

If you were in our school system you would be laughed out of the building if you attempted to hold your child back for sports reasons. if you were really worried about his age/maturity you would have started him in K/1st grade later. Let's not pretend your on a baseball website asking about NCAA rules for an 11 yr old for any reason other than holding him back in hopes he can have one more yr to develop. 

Crazy idea.

by the way, your son can burn out in a few yrs and not want to  play anymore, I see it all the time. Be prepared in case it happens. Please find something more productive to do with your time then considering messing with your child's education over sports. 

My son has a May birthday. He was 5' in 6th grade. It was obvious he was a late physical bloomer given my height, his mother's height and his sister was a late bloomer who grew to be 5'10". Given he was a top student I figured if there might be a benefit to being held back a year for athletic reasons it would be on the back end. If another year would have made a difference I would have sent him to a post graduate school for a year between high school and college. By junior year he was 6'1". Staying back would have been a waste of time.

Arbitrary (but required I suppose) age cut-offs are found in all sports.  Early on it makes sense to have kids play among kids with same abilities.  But as Malcolm Gladwell points out so well (book Outliers) in relation to Canadian hockey, older (and hence physically more mature) kids in the same year/grade/age group will be pushed along to better and more elite teams---an unforeseen advantage for being born just after the cut off date.  I don't think that plays as much in the U.S., especially in baseball.

The most important ?

how does your son do academically?  You did not mention that he was struggling.

if you have him repeat a yr when he does not need to academically, he will be behind his friends and know it's for sports.  Most kids repeat a grade in elem. school if they need extra time, not in a Middle school. 

Sorry, it's wrong on so many levels. 

We were clueless that our son would play in college when he entered kindergarten.He has a Sept birthday, but we felt he was ready. He was also always a well adjusted student who did well in school most years.  By the time he got to be a sophomore in college we realized many of the freshman were older than he was. Many of them started school late with sports in mind. We were told several times over the years we should hold him back. I never saw a good reason to hold him back. He had good grades and lots of friends. 

My son is now a senior in college and still playing baseball, two others in his class are still playing baseball. One young man from the class behind his is still playing and has not seen much playing time. Talent will win out. If one works hard and has the talent he will play.

I would have to agree with playball2011. I read 4seamers response on the other thread about when to showcase. Please take a breadth and relax. you have a lot of time before you should be worrying about your sons college baseball future.