My wife recently told me about a kid whose father decided to hold him back a year in school (“reclassify”) to help the kid’s baseball prospects. The kid is stocky and one of the bigger kids in his year. So I guess the thought process for the parents is that he’ll have an even more pronounced size advantage with the younger kids and dominate the year.
Reclassifying is becoming very popular in these parts and there some apparent logic to it. In the 2008 novel “Outliers,” Malcolm Gladwell reported that the kids with the earlier birthdays in a given school grade tended to be the more accomplished athletes, ostensibly because they’re bigger and further along on the path to physical maturity.
Yet for me, all of this reclassifying stinks of parental overreach and missing the forest for the trees. The same dads who complain about helicopter parents and tiger moms are basically guilty of the same meddling. If your kid needs to stay back a year with the goal of being a dominant baseball player, he’s probably not that great a player. The truly great players are going to excel whatever year they’re in.
Yes, Michael Jordan famously didn’t make his high school’s varsity program as a sophomore, because he was only 5′ 10″, and still had a major growth spurt to go, but he did make the team the following year, and went to UNC on scholarship, and became Michael Jordan. Plus he had extra motivation from not making varsity his senior year.
But what if your kid is not an elite athlete? Is it worth it to reclassify so that you’ll kid will start and not be a bench player? Maybe he’ll make the team and not get cut. Then I ask is it really worth it? With every decision, you have to weigh the pros against the cons. By reclassifying a kid you’re basically ripping them from their year socially and throwing him in a new year. If your kid is doing well in school, you’re also forcing them to take the same classes over, boring them silly, and potentially turning the off to school.
I was one of the younger kids in my school year and I loved it. I always felt like an overachiever because everyone was older than me. And years later, I was the last one in my group of friends to turn 40.
In sum, stop meddling in your kid’s life and let them sink or swim on their own. Have him outwork the kids who are a little older and bigger. Have him want it more. Have him overcome any size disadvantage. Also, when it comes your kid’s junior and senior year in high school, your son will likely have gone through puberty, and the playing field will be mostly even in terms of age and size.
Blame the Baseball Clubs Teams for Reclassifying?
I actually think a lot of the reclassifying surge in my area might be due to trophy-chasing club teams routinely playing kids down. In our area the popular travel baseball league has a different cutoff date than the school system or Little League. So for the travel league, you can play down if your birthday falls after April 30, while the cutoff date for school is September 30. I know of a baseball father in town whose wife’s C-section was scheduled for the end of April, and decided to push it to May just so his kid would be able to play down for the travel league.
So some of the kids now who are being reclassified are kids who have been playing down for most of their baseball life. So it’s possible the parents aren’t doing this to give their kids an advantage, but more out of fear their sons won’t match up when facing kids their own age.
WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT RECLASSIFYING? LET US KNOW IN THE COMMENTS.
For information about the emotional side of baseball, see:
- I Spent 30K on Youth Baseball Last Year; Here’s How
- Anger Management and Youth Baseball: How to Calm Down
- How to Manage Your Kid’s Baseball Tantrums and Meltdowns
- Youth Baseball: Why Do I Care So Much?
- 4 Ways to Respond to a Coach Playing Favorites
- How to Stop Being a Crazy Baseball Dad
- How to Be a Good Baseball Dad in the Backyard
- Is It Now Fashionable to Hate On Baseball Dads?
- Are Local Little Leagues Bad for Baseball?
For information on hitting, see:
- How to Get Out of a Hitting Slump
- 4 Best Baseball Batting Aids (No. 3 is Free)
- 4 Hitting Drills You Need to Do Before Every Game
- 4 Old School Baseball Drills You Need to Be Using
- 6 Mistakes to Avoid When Buying a Baseball Bat
For information on pitching, see:
- What You Need to Know About Little League Elbow
- 4 Ways To Increase Your Kid’s Pitching Velocity
- Is the Circle Change Dangerous for Youth Pitchers?
- Why I Don’t Let My Son Pitch in Little League
- How to Make Sure Your Kid Isn’t Overpitched in Basebal
For ways to get faster, see: