Hi just looking for advice please. My son is part of under 10's hurling team. He attends all training. Club is small so often call on the 10's when there is under 12 match to play. 4 or 5 players are continually asked and my child is never asked to play. He loves playing. I approached the coach and he told me they need the strongest players. My child's confidence has been knocked and now saying doesn't want to play anymore because he is obviously no good as he is never asked to play. I thought we were meant to include all children at this age and not to discriminate. The coach son is in under 10's also but plays every under 12 match. All advice appreciated please

Shell (Tipperary) - Posts: 1 - 27/05/2017 10:35:22    1991176

Hi just looking for advice please. My son is part of under 10's hurling team. He attends all training. Club is small so often call on the 10's when there is under 12 match to play. 4 or 5 players are continually asked and my child is never asked to play. He loves playing. I approached the coach and he told me they need the strongest players. My child's confidence has been knocked and now saying doesn't want to play anymore because he is obviously no good as he is never asked to play. I thought we were meant to include all children at this age and not to discriminate. The coach son is in under 10's also but plays every under 12 match. All advice appreciated please
Shell (Tipperary) - Posts:1 - 27/05/2017 10:35:22 Dont worry. Under 10s shouldnt be expected to play under 12s anyway. I would encourage your kid to play as much as possible and keep training and not playing under 12 while underage for under 10s isnt an issue.
Your kids confidence shouldnt be knocked by fact he hasnt been asked to play a full 2 years over his age group.
You are meant to include all kids at this stage but not all kids who are under 10s playing under 12.
If your kid was an under 12 player and under 10s were being played ahead of him then you would have a point but thats not the case so you dont have one.

ormondbannerman (Clare) - Posts: 13473 - 27/05/2017 23:24:52    1991332

As long as his getting games in his own grade that will help his development. I was 16 playing Intermediate hurling back in the day for my club and by the time I was 21 the race was run for me as I was playing 3 grades.
Have only played 3 full years since and I'm 35 now. Wish I could have turned back time and just stuck with my own grade.

WildPundit (Tipperary) - Posts: 1709 - 20/06/2017 18:05:01    2002697

As another poster said, best for him to stick to his own age group. Every club is different. In our club, we only play a player up an age group in exceptional circumstances. Your U12 coach is in a difficult situation in that he needs some extra players from the U10s to field a team and has to choose some players from the U10s. He will always get parents who feel aggrieved in this situation. If it really is starting to be a problem, he could maybe arrange some sort of competition where the top 4 winners get to play for the U12s, but I think this might be a bit of overkill.

liam500 (Wicklow) - Posts: 175 - 28/06/2017 11:07:41    2006724