Standardizing Age Groups across Urban Disciplines (in case the Age Group committee does not come to a general solution)
Comments about this discussion:
Started
Even though there is an Age Group committee working on standardizing age groups across all disciplines,
I would like to propose standard age groups across Urban disciplines temporarily, in case the Age Group committee cannot find a general solution or until it does.
This would also serve as the Flatland/Urban view on the topic of age groups for the Age Group committee.
In the last rulebook committee 2023 (which couldn't be finished) Marie did some research into where the ideal cutoff between Junior and Adult should be. We based these on an improved version of the Trials age groups. We came to the conclusion that the following age groups would be ideal.
Kids (0-9)
Junior (10-14)
Adult (15-34)
Senior (35-49)
Master (50+)
Since the committees were never finished, these weren't officially introduce to the rulebook.
In Flatland we currently have Junior Expert (0-14) and Expert (15+). These categories and their names seem less than ideal and confusing at best.
I therefore propose to change the Flatland categories and age groups as follows (until the age group section in the Flatland part of the rulebook will be overhauled completely if and when the Age Group committee comes to a general rule.
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New:
Kids (0-9)
Junior (10-14)
Adult (15-34)
Senior (35-49)
Master (50+)
with the Kids & Junior competitors having a combined Junior competition (Prelims and Finals)
and the Adult, Senior and Master competitors having combined Adult competition (Prelims and Finals)
Age Group awards would then be given to the best riders of each age group in addition to any placement they might have reached in the combined competition.
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I have used these exact age groups and competition setups for the last few years on all of our events. (German Championships '23/'24 & Winter EUC '23/'24).
They seemed to be appropriate and the additional Master category did have some competitors, who got some recognition because of it.
Comment
I think some of the mebers here are the same as in Trials and Street, but I will repeat my answer in all diskussions.
First of all, I think it is very good to move away from the previous terms Junior Expert and Expert and to define age groups from which certain age groups compete in joint preliminaries and finals. I think winning a final to win a champion titel is more clear to oudsiders and with the age groups in the prelims you have the possibility to also honor age groups, which can be an important factor in attracting new young riders to the sport or retaining older riders..
Even if the Age Group Committee ends up proposing standardized base age groups, it will be up to the individual areas to decide which of these age groups make sense for the disciplines in that area. It is therefore not entirely wrong to consider at this level which age groups would make sense - this can then also be fed directly into the discussions at the Age Group Committee.
I think the proposed change is basically very good, however in the kids area, I would like to point out that in all track races the age group 0-10 years rides on smaller unicycles, which is why this age group would certainly remain if it were to be standardized. The question would therefore be whether a division of 0-10 and then 11-14 would also be imaginable for the Urban area?
This would also allow us to achieve a significant level of standardization even without a decision in the Age Group Committee.
Comment
Hey both,
I agree with Ian's approach of standardizing age groups for urban for now.
I see where you are coming from Jan - the unicycle change is a really big one. From my perspective, both proposals for kids age groups could work. However, I am wondering - how was this unicycle change at age 11 determined, could this in theory happen earlier? Or is this based on the height of the riders?
Comment
However, I am wondering - how was this unicycle change at age 11 determined, could this in theory happen earlier? Or is this based on the height of the riders?
I think the main reason for setting the age was that the lower the age limit, the more likely it is that children will not yet fit well on a 24 class unicycle.
Comment
I would be fine with changing Kids to 0-10 and Junior to 11-14 to make it easier to achieve standardization. Ich think for Urban, that year does not make a huge difference. If anything it might lead to more competitors for the Kids age group, who we really rarely see.