Play up the right way, with everyone agreed
Propose a player plays up to the EIH Junior Playing Up Policy: the head coach approves, the family agrees and the safeguarding lead signs off before anything changes. Girls on mixed teams can also play for a girls' team, under IHUK's rules.
Propose it with the reasons that count
From a player's page, press Propose under Playing up and choose the team: one age group up, or across a division in their own age group, never down. Say why (physically ahead, or technically and tactically ahead), what they'll gain, How you'll ease them in and who you've talked it through with. The reasons that don't count on their own are listed right there, as the policy says.
Who can propose
Head coaches, coaches, team managers and club admins. Only a head coach or club admin approves.
Age rules built in
A player must be 7 to play up to Under-12.
The family agrees, and the safeguarding lead signs off
The family sees the proposal on This week with what the coaches think and how it will work, and answers We agree or Not for now (or a coach records that they agreed in person). The safeguarding lead signs it off. The family can stop playing up at any time, with no judgement either way.
Training first
Games wait until EIH has approved; until then the player only trains with the older team.
Reviewed
The first review is six weeks out unless the coach picks a date, and it doesn't carry into next season.
Judged at their own age
Reports note the older team but score against the player's own age group.
Girls' teams, alongside her own
Tick This is a girls' team in team settings. A girl on a mixed team can be added to the girls' team as well from her player page, under IHUK's rules for the girls' category. It isn't playing up, so there's no dispensation to wait for: her family is told, both teams' coaches score into one assessment, and if two games clash her family decides which she plays.
Her own team keeps the record
Reports and goal reviews stay with her own team.
Girls' U16
She can play from 10, netminders from 9, and train from 8.
Progress you can see
Once there's more than one skills check, a Progress card on the player's page draws their average on the 1 to 10 scale over time, the Biggest changes by skill, and the coaches' quick checks Since the goals were set. Families see the same card from published reports, and each report now opens with where the player was and where they are now. Only the player's own numbers, never anyone else's.
