a player can be pushed at their level or being pushed up. What matters is how much work will the player put in every single day. Will they sit home and watch tv or go outside and juggle. You don't have to go up a year to enhance your skills.. Practice does Have your kids check out boxofmess.com, we have interviews of soccer players top highschool/college/ and a professional player
the U11 team my daughter(u10) guests for just had a girl(u11) fracture her wrist yesterday in the first 5 minutes of the game. injuries happen at any age, playing up, playing thier age or playing coed. it doesn't matter. my daughter is taller than many of the girls on the U11 team. if she were small, i probably wouldn't let her play up but there are many U10s my daughter towers over. they may be little but they are fierce! LOL!
mine plays up and has for 5yrs, great player, great team. if you think yours might be a special player then its worth the chance, but there will be many more peaks and valleys than if they stay in their own age group.
My daughter is 10 and just finished her third full season of playing on a boys' team a year up. For us, we're now at a point where a move to a girls' team her own age would mean a drop in the speed of play, a drop in athleticism, a drop in physical play, etc. We always said we would move her if she was not playing at their level, but she is certainly holding her own, and there's no question it's been good for her. My personal feeling has always been that kids should play with and against kids of similar ability, regardless of age (or sometimes gender). It's nice to have them in a setting where they're being pushed and challenged, but not over their head.