All-Star Too immature for j team?

[Cheerfolk33]

My daughter is 10.5 flyer and they are considering putting her on a j team next year. She’s never done all star cheer before, just a year of rec classes, but is a fast learner and great stunter. She really wants to be a flyer so j team is where she could land but I worry she will be one of the little one and not have the camaraderie feeling of a team the same as if she was on a youth team. She’s very sensitive and very intimidated by older girls at first then loves them. The j girls at the gym this year just seem so much more mature than her and I worry it’ll affect her confidence if they treat her as the little, maybe sometimes annoying, one. Maybe I’m overthinking it, I just really want her to have a positive experience and grow in her confidence and she’s easily knocked down emotionally. Idk if I should bring it up to the coaches before try outs. She really wants to fly and I guess still could if there are enough strong bases on youth. Has anyone had any bad or good experiences with their younger flyer on a j team?

 

[liv.cheers]

I’m an athlete. When I was 9 I was placed on a J2 team alongside a few other younger kids my age. I didn’t fly (I actually ended up basing on that team) however many of those other younger kids did. It was a very positive experience for us. We loved the older kids and they were very friendly too us and inclusive. From what I can remember they didn’t treat us like babies yet were still mindful of our young age. I don’t know if your daughter would be on that team with any girls her age, but either way I’ve seen young kids on junior teams where it has played at smoothly. In the beginning of the season if she’s placed on a junior team and you feel that things aren’t working out you could always speak to a coach about perhaps moving her to a youth team. But in my opinion there’s no problem in seeing how it plays out, just talk to a coach beforehand if you feel she’s not ready.