Rate the kid

I wasn't being any harder on him than anybody else who plays the game. The fact is, the rule clearly says that the ball should be tossed at least 6 inches. Now granted, most people do not follow this rule, so I will cut him some slack, especially because he is short like you said. 

And he actually may be gaining an advantage from the lack of toss, it just may not affect you like it could others. The problem is, since he is young and doesn't know how to manipulate the rule and spin the ball from his hand, he may eventually learn such things. 

I just don't want him to be called out at a tournament if he starts beating someone. 

 

Jokers be lacing their salads with those special California mushrooms if they think he is only 1700. Still, it can be easy to mis-classify someone from a peak at a vid. I have more than once stuck my foot my mouth deep doing the same thing. 

I once overheard a coach at a tournament tell one of his juniors something to the effect " I don't care if you are missing all those loops.  You are doing great trying to move into position.  Keep it up and soon they will be landing and you will really have a higher level game."    He was not concerned at all with her results at that tournament.  He just wanted to make sure that she was ingraining the techniques and tactics she would need for the higher level of play he was trying to get her to in the future.

Maybe something like that is going on here.  I think Larry Hodges blogged about this dilemma between playing with tactics that will give you the best chance of winning now at the expense of developing habits that will make it harder to develop the tactics and techniques that you will need later and playing with tactics that give you less chance of winning now but help you develop the skills you will need at higher levels.  He noted that part of the problem is you often need to win a lot when young to get recognized so that you get access to high level coaching and possibly have part of your training costs subsidized.

Mark