Middle school track by weight in all states?

Middle school was nearly 20 years ago for me but our league did have weight classes. I'm from PA but I don't know if it was just our league or the entire state.

middle school track wrote:

Do all states/leagues run their sprint events by weight? Our league does, and I know the surrounding areas do as well (although we use slightly different weight classes). I guess I sort of assumed it was common practice for middle school. We had an angry parent want to know why you would even begin to discuss weight with middle school girls. Is this something done in all states?

Never heard of the practice. But the fact that any parent would flip out over this is ridiculous. Here's a thought Mom; try instilling some self-esteem into your kid and then you won't have to worry about her having an adverse reaction to being put in the Clydesdale Division.

I'm a pretty liberal person, but if our nation doesn't get away from all this freaking coddling of its youth, I'm going to turn into Sean O'Limbaugh.

They put kids in heats depending their weight?

What is the point of that? To help the fatties win a ribbon?

I coach in San Jose, CA. Our league used the height/weight/age method to divide the boys into 3 divisions, A,B,and C. A's were the biggest and C's were the smallest. They only used it for the boys. The girls were always divided by grade level. As far as I can tell, that was the practice form the 60's all the way up 'til about 2000 when we dropped it and do grade level for boys and girls. It messed all the records up but has been a good change IMO. Some of the other leagues in our city still use the old A,B,C divisions for boys. The change kind of screwed up our all city championship since only half the leagues switched to grade level but oh well. At least the 6th graders have a chance to compete and do well rather than get smoked by smaller older kids.

joho wrote:

They put kids in heats depending their weight?

What is the point of that? To help the fatties win a ribbon?

No. Think about middle school. It's the exact opposite. It's so a 75 pound kid isn't racing against a 140 pound kid that runs like a grown man. I coach at a middle school in PA, and it still has weight classes for both boys and girls. Our open boys would blow the doors off most of our under 90s. You'll have some kids in under classes who can compete with the best opens, but it's rare.

Under 90, under 105, under 120, and open for 100, 200, and 4x100.

Under and over 105 for 400 and 4x200.

No weights for hurdles, distance races, or throws/jumps.

I don't know what it's like in other leagues around us though.

Gonna admit that I had no idea this went on.

It's kind of scary that I would be in the middle weight class and I'm nearly 30 years old. . .

Please...Not more of this wrote:

Never heard of the practice. But the fact that any parent would flip out over this is ridiculous. Here's a thought Mom; try instilling some self-esteem into your kid and then you won't have to worry about her having an adverse reaction to being put in the Clydesdale Division.

I'm a pretty liberal person, but if our nation doesn't get away from all this freaking coddling of its youth, I'm going to turn into Sean O'Limbaugh.

The implementation of weight classes seems like coddling to me. You're letting kids "win" races just because you've created some arbitrary cutoff to eliminate a portion of the competition.

luv2run wrote:

Gonna admit that I had no idea this went on.

+1

It's all grade level here. 8th grade boys against 8th grade boys - no racing against 7th grade boys, and (except for a few events to speed up the meet) no racing against 8th grade girls. That just seems like the logical way to go...

luv2run wrote:

Gonna admit that I had no idea this went on.

Me as well.

Been involved in track since my youth and I am now a coach. I have never once heard of this and it sounds, frankly, ridiculous. We do school based and club based meets. It's all the standard 2-year age increments in all cases. Grade, and certainly weight, have nothing to do with it.

Coddling wrote:

The implementation of weight classes seems like coddling to me. You're letting kids "win" races just because you've created some arbitrary cutoff to eliminate a portion of the competition.

Yeah, and frankly it's ridiculous that these kids are kept out of Diamond League competitions!

They should do this with elites. It would be awesome to see who the fastest 300+ lb 800m runner in the world is.

In South Jersey (15 years ago) it was weight class for sprints and relays only.

under 105

105 - 125

unlimited.

Never ever heard of anything like this.

Seems like extra administrative work to have a weigh in.

And weight changes.

Your birthdate never changes.

Why just the sprints and why just in Middle School?

I really see no need for weight classes in non contact sports in school.

Never heard of this. Might have made sense when everyone was skinny, so a little prepubescent kid doesn't run against a more developed kid, but today the chubby underdeveloped kid runs against the lean developed kid.

In Virginia, it's every kid in grades 6-8 for themselves. If you are a small 6th grader, you gain experience and learn how to work hard to be one of the kids up front by the time you are 14.

middleschoolcoach wrote:

I coach in San Jose, CA. Our league used the height/weight/age method to divide the boys into 3 divisions, A,B,and C. A's were the biggest and C's were the smallest.

I'm in Santa Rosa. When I ran at my junior high (7-9 at the time) we did A, B, and C for boys and girls. Athletes were allowed to move "up" a class or two if they chose. When they went to true middle school (7 & 8) sometime around 2000 it's been split by gender and grade only. The former system leveled only the developmental field which can be considerable in some events but it created other inequalities. There are still inequalities by grade but now that I'm coaching I see that it works much, much better.

Why are the kids categorized by how fast they are? Who the hell cares if a 60lb kid doesn't win anything. He'll grow and be faster in high school.