Age limits

Discussion in 'Rules / Tournament Regulation / Officiating' started by ramkathi, Aug 3, 2019.

  1. ramkathi

    ramkathi New Member

    Joined:
    Dec 12, 2017
    Messages:
    4
    Likes Received:
    0
    Location:
    washington
    Why does clubs block kids playing with adults? A local club mentioned to me, that to play in mixed doubles, one has to be 13+. I was wondering if a 11 year who plays decent could play. Because the day I played with an adult, who didn't know the rules nor scoring. But just because of age, someone gets to play? Shouldn't this be based on ability to play - some way to measure the ability of players?

    what are your thoughts on this? what other reasons could it be?
     
  2. badmintony

    badmintony Regular Member

    Joined:
    Jul 3, 2016
    Messages:
    1,370
    Likes Received:
    275
    Location:
    San Andreas
    That's one of the most discriminating thing i can think of when it comes to this sport. I know of amazing players here who are way younger and can beat the ass of their opponents who are twice their age.

    Sent from my JSN-L22 using Tapatalk
     
    ramkathi likes this.
  3. phihag

    phihag Regular Member

    Joined:
    Mar 4, 2014
    Messages:
    1,008
    Likes Received:
    730
    Location:
    Germany
    There are a number of potential reasons for this:

    Young players are not fully developed mentally and physically. Their strategies in doubles, especially mixed doubles, are often very chaotic as a result. For player development, it may be better to first focus on singles or level doubles instead. Below 13, the girls are also often stronger and more developed than the boys, so normal mixed doubles rarely makes sense. You can get the finesse of mixed doubles once the relative body development between women and men is roughly as it will be in adult life.

    Some tournaments, or some disciplines in tournaments, may go late. Depending on your local laws & regulations, young children should not be required to be on court after a certain time (often 20:00). If the tournament organizer cannot guarantee that the last match will end before 20:00 in a discipline, they may simply exclude younger players.

    In mixed doubles specifically, some cultures and religions frown upon close and often unsupervised contact of adults and young children, especially of different genders. Stemming from child abuse protection, this mentality is particularly prevalent in the US, whereas attitudes elsewhere are more relaxed.

    While badminton abilities may be similar or young children may even be better than some adults, the mental game is different. In a tournament where mental tricks are part of the game, you may not want to expose young children to taunts and other tricks such as refusing to switch shuttle, taking extra breaks etc. . Better to let them focus on badminton fundamentals first and introduce the mental game later. Many young children have trouble dealing with this kind of stuf; even if you are an exception, it's much easier to have a generic age rule than to require a psychological evaluation or so.

    Clubs and federations strive to have as many players as possible. To that effect, many aim to have a social component, in the form of friends playing and training together. It's much easier to find friends in the same age group, and therefore many find it preferable to have kids play kids of the same age. This also allows them to judge their progress much better than matches against adults.

    Young players whose physical development is still ongoing also need to be protected from playing and training too much, because it can lead to injuries. They may also lose enjoyment of the game. Therefore, many federations try to limit total playing time for young players (typically up to U15 and sometimes U17) by limiting their access to senior tournaments.

    Sometimes, the there are youth events going at the same time as senior events. Especially when the pride of a team or club is on the line, there is a danger of clubs moving good young players into the senior events. While that is desirable for the team or club at the time, in the long term it is seen as detrimental to player development, for the reasons above. Also, if many clubs/teams do this, the youth tournaments may lack entries, and be forced to join different age groups or to be cancelled altogether. Therefore, youth players are often forbidden from playing senior events when junior events are going on at the same time.

    While some individual young players may developed further and not be affected (at all or as much) by the above, you need discrete rules in life. As an analogy, actual speed limits on the streets should certainly account for the driver's experience, their car's features and reliability, the weather, the traffic, and much more, but in practice we cannot measure all of these, so we set a fixed limit for everyone regardless of ability, car, and weather. For the same reason, organizers/federations may opt to simple exclude every U13 player.

    It is often possible to be exempted from youth protection rules, typically by one or more of the following:
    • A doctor's certificate showing that the health of the player is excellent, so there is no physiological reason against playing.
    • A psychiatrist's certificate showing that the mental development of the player is sufficiently advanced that they can play in a competition with adults.
    • A personalized training/competition plan which accounts for, and avoids, overtraining/overload.
    • Regular evaluation by professional athletic&badminton coaches.
    • Having a certified coach at the tournament who will guide and look after the child at all times.
    • Competition at a very high level, e.g. the national squad or international tournaments.
    So there may be some reasons to exclude young players. But if you or your child are excluded, you should ask the tournament organizers for other options – maybe there is a youth tournament going on at the same time – or if there are circumstances where an exemption from the rules is possible.
     
    Saru, decrepit, yuquall and 1 other person like this.
  4. psyclops

    psyclops Regular Member

    Joined:
    May 17, 2017
    Messages:
    117
    Likes Received:
    30
    Location:
    ger
    I take it this club is based in America. And is private?
    If so, they can make their own rules for usage of their facility, membership, including the essence of your inquiry - the mixed age groups.

    Generally, if it is open play, then anyone would be able to play. Read the fine print of the club's guidelines and rules.

    Inquire with this club owners-managers if they would make exception? If they do not, then you may hire a lawyer better than the club's lawyer and file an age-discrmination suit. Or you may wait for the 2 years to fulfil the age-requirement.
     
    ramkathi likes this.

Share This Page