Young Girls On Junior Teams

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Depends on the child.....

My daughter was on a Jr. team last year at age 7. One of the coaches has made it a point to tell me how well she handled herself in regards to picking up the routine, listening, etc. The older girls were always really sweet to her and understood that some of her skills were in some areas better and she had a place on that team.

This year she again is on a Jr. team and will be the youngest but I am confident that she will provide value to the new team as well.
 
I Dont think its a good idea, although some young girls have as much talent as some junior girls, their mind set and maturity level is not the same. It causes a problem having different kids with different maturity levels on the same team because majority of the time older kids get more irritated with the younger ones for playing.
If teams follow the USASF divisions it would be helpful to the cheerleaders
 
In my opinion, it depends on the girls. Sometimes, the oldest girls on the junior team act worse than the minis - and I am not a adult saying this. If your daughter is independent and not easily swayed by others, she should be fine. But if she is the type of person that will do anything to be "popular" or a part of the "in crowd", I would recommend holding her off a year or two, just so she is not influenced by the wrong crowd. I am not trying to say the people at your gym behave badly, or that your daughter would be wrongly influenced, I am just speaking from my experience at my gym. Some people love having a "baby" of the team, while others are jelous of the attention that the younger kid receives.
PS - I was assuming that this wasn't a question asked for general interest, I am sorry if I assumed incorrectly.
 
Cps former team had a few last season to help with team numbers. The young girls worked very hard and blended in well. It was only an issue when something went wrong in a comp if they had an error...the older girls sometimes would not handle the situation well.
 
The age guidelines should be followed. Otherwise, what's the point of having them. Puting young girls on older teams is not the best idea because they're not mature yet. Not just socially but all things being equal their skills haven't been refined yet. For example, a youth age athlete can do the same tumbling as their junior counterpart but often look like they're not nearly as smooth and and it sticks out on a team of older girls who carry a much younger athlete.
 
I go to a small gym and we only have 3 teams so we let the more talented and experienced younger kids that were around 7 or 8 be on the junior team instead of the minis. It worked well and we didn't have a problem with it besides the fact that the younger flyers don't stay as tight in the air since they are used to minis. As far as maturity, we didn't have too much of a problem. The younger girls were still able to pick up the routine and were overall pretty good listeners although they did have their moments. The older girls treated the younger ones like their little sisters and loved them so much! Some even treated them as if it was their own daughter or something! haha. Now that I've aged up to seniors, I miss the younger 8 years olds on juniors because in a way they were like my little sisters! I think it is a good idea to keep kids on a team in their age groups but in a smaller gym where that is not possible, it's not too big of a problem to bring the younger kids up to the junior teams.
 
Does it happen? Yes. Do I like it? No. Thats a huge age difference between someone who's 8 and someone who could potentially be 15 years old. It's the same discussion we have all the time about putting 11 or 12 year olds on a senior team. The age gap is just too big. This is the difference between a 4th or 5th grader and a freshmen in high school. On our junior team this year we had a big problem with the older girls standing in stunt groups with younger kids and talking about parties and boyfriends sprinkled with a coating of bad words. The older girls were never mean to the younger ones and often tried to include them. But the younger ones were hearing things they shouldn't have heard
 
My cp (8) is on a J3 team this year. There are definitely cons. The good news is, she's not there to socialize. She's there to cheer. The rules say 14 and under. she's age appropriate according to the rules. If she didn't belong there, skill wise, the coaches would not have put her on the team. She is definitely more mature for her age, so she is sometimes bothered by the "oh you're so cute..." stuff and would much rather be treated like an equal. There is only one other girl her age on the team but i'm thankful that she has her, because otherwise she'd have no one to relate to. If there was a possibility for a Youth 3 we'd both prefer that, but at a small gym, that's just not going to happen very often. So far, she has not overheard any inappropriate comments. they don't do much socializing, they're pretty much all business at practice anyway. This year our only choices for teams are Y1, J2, J3, S4.2 and S5. I suppose some would think she's only 8 she should be on the Y1 team. But she's done level 1 twice and level 2 once and has her full, i could see her (as a person) getting incredibly bored and not enjoy it. She's the type that needs to be challenged. I don't spend all this money for her to be bored. i also don't spend all the money for her to socialize, again, she's there to cheer. So, the age group is not my priority...her being challenged, learning new skills, and enjoying herself IS my priority. Again, i do prefer her to be with girls closer to her age, but that's just not an option, IMHO.
 
I don't think you can ever please everyone. There are pro's and con's to this - and we've all discussed them to death. Of course in a perfect world every team would be age and skill appropriate for EVERY kid. Never gonna happen. We have 7 year olds on senior teams in our gym, because the only level 3 and 4 teams we have are senior teams.

I definitely wish the divisions had bottom ages on them too, but I think that will NEVER happen. I genuinely don't think a 7 or 8 year old belongs on a senior team. As far as juniors? 9 or 10 is OK if they really have the skills. But 7 and 8? I just don't like it.

Our team started out as a J2 this season. My cp just turned 9 the day of tryouts. I was torn - part of me was excited that she was FINALLY off minis and on a "big girl team", but the other part of me was not too thrilled about her being on THAT big girl of a team. It's a new gym, so J2 was the youngest team they had. Fortunately enough kids have signed up that now they moved the 12 and up girls to Senior 2 and made the J2 into a Youth 2. Of course you can't make everyone happy - LOTS of moms are not too happy about the change. I wasn't at first, but now I think it's better.

I get that smaller gyms can't just make 10 teams of 5 kids to accommodate everyone, but I just don't think 7 year olds and 15 year olds should mix.

What other sport allows this? <-- actual question. I don't know...are there other team sports that mix ages like that?
 
What other sport allows this? <-- actual question. I don't know...are there other team sports that mix ages like that?

swimming? i think the junior USA swim team is "18 & under" with no lower limit (that i know of). I think other sports are more contact or power oriented...like for example football, it would be extremely dangerous for 8 year olds to be playing with 14 year olds. and with baseball, it would be nearly impossible for an 8 year old to hit a pitch thrown by a 16 year old, etc. most sports there is head to head competition, but in those where there is not, i bet there are more instances of mixed age groups...maybe golf? bowling? if there is no advantage and even major disadvantages (in terms of actually having a good team) to mixing ages, it's not likely to happen. whereas in cheer it can be advantageous to the team to use younger girls to fill teams (in terms of smaller gyms) or in terms of having smaller flyers.
 
My CP was 9 when she started on J5 at Twist & Shout. This will be our 5th year here and she is still on J5. She went from being the young one that looked up to the others on the team to now being the 8th grader that is a leader in her own right. We have not experienced ONE con to her being on the team. Not from a parent/child perspective or a coaching perspective. As a matter of fact, I would bet money that every single kid she has ever cheered with on J5 would say she most definitely belonged there every single year. The kids that were 13, 14 and 15 years old when she was 9 are the very same kids she just competed at worlds with and won their very 1st world championship. Those girls will always and forever be like big sisters to her. So my answer --> it depends on the kid, the gym, and there is no right or wrong answer. Each situation/environment is different and it should be left up to the parent and coaches what is best for each individual child. :)

Oh, and I want you to shimmy this response if you've personally seen me post this very response like 100 times already in other threads! LMBO ;)
 
well i was a flyer on a junior team at a very young age. to me it wasnt tht bad, it was actually a great experience and it helped a lot tht i could have the older girls tell me things tht i need to know. also if the kid can do wht is needed the right way and can take the criticisim(<--spelling??) and can try hard to fix and listen to wht the older girls are telling them to do, then it should be ok.
 
Thank you for the answers. I was asking specifically bc my cp was placed on a j4 team this year. So far it's going great! She as missed her friends from last year, but she is making new friends, and it is a challenging team with lots for her to learn.

Sorry if this was a repeat question... I hadn't figured out how to efficiently search when I posted it. (not sure I have yet either)!
 
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