Post
by Andy Bittner » Sun Sep 28, 2003 6:09 pm
Obviously, there are many different organized sports in this world that have chosen age limits defining their Junior Classes. In most cases it seems like the ages selected are somehow relative to the expected longevity of an athlete in the sport, and the relative impact of widely divergent physical capabilities on the outcome of competition. Then again, some sports (golf, tennis) just seem to stick by the tried and true arbitrary numbers like 18 or 16.
I guess my point is that gymnastics or figure skating, where the (non-professional) competitive window seems to close for an athlete in his/her early 20s, would have a very different definition of "junior" than would a sport like curling, where the competitive window can stay open well into a curler's 50s. In world-class curling, where differences in physical capabilities are not as much of an issue, a player is a junior until he/she is 21 (curling, at least club-level curling, is a sport where drinking age after the game matters almost as much or more than the slight physical differences there'd be between an 18 y.o. and a 21 y.o.); and I'd bet that in gymnastics, if an athlete hits 21 and is still competitive they are probably considered "Masters".
My personal opinion is that significant differences in basic physical capabilities are influential on competitive outcomes in our sport. Thus, I think our primary consideration in defining a Junior class needs to be focused more on age, relative to physical maturity rather than psychological or emotional maturity. This means I am in favor of younger age limits on junior divisions, more closely linked to the ages at which the body's physical changes are taking place, rather than the ages at which society has decided people are mature enough to vote or drink beer. At first consideration of all of this, my mind is inclined to define "Junior" as 15-and-under. Turn 16... skate with the adults.
I'd also like to add one of the things I noticed while researching other sports for this commentary, while acknowledging Jani's absolutely correct point that right now slalom skateboarding is still too small to divide and then sub-divide classes. In some sports, where differences in physical size and capability make a big difference, the youth classes are further divided with the use of terms like "Juvenile", "Children's", etc.
I think there's one more alternative to consider in all of this, again acknowledging Jani's earlier point, and that would be to further divide the overall "Junior" age group by weight classes, like Boy's Club (American) football. That way, even in the crucial growth years, we don't get slight, late-blooming 12 yr. olds getting taken out by some adult-sized, early maturing types. (To make my point, I always like to cite a kid I knew who was 5'11 and 197 lbs. at the age of 11. Not coincidentally, his father was an NFL offensive lineman.)
I think, ultimately, many of us witnessed a physical mismatch in the Junior of the World's last year, and with full credit and respect to all of the Juniors for giving it their all, I think we'd like to avoid situations like that in the future, if possible.
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Andy Bittner on 2003-09-28 13:14 ]</font>
