Small-Sided Format and Calendar Year Age Groups Mandated for 2017

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Well the da is going to single birth years starting next year at u12.

Are they starting with 04's?

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I of course have seen the U12 announcement which I think was after the December board meeting, but haven't seen anything about single birth year. When was that announced?

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I of course have seen the U12 announcement which I think was after the December board meeting, but haven't seen anything about single birth year. When was that announced?

I have been hearing about going birth year for years. I never have heard why this is a better? Does anyone know the rationale or advantage? Seems to be counter the social structure of our schools and what the kids are experiencing and exposed to with their peers? I'm not saying I'm opposed to it just don't know why. I also think it would be better start this from the beginning ages rather than make existing teams shift.

[Unregistered]

I have been hearing about going birth year for years. I never have heard why this is a better? Does anyone know the rationale or advantage? Seems to be counter the social structure of our schools and what the kids are experiencing and exposed to with their peers? I'm not saying I'm opposed to it just don't know why. I also think it would be better start this from the beginning ages rather than make existing teams shift.

It is a bad idea. But if it is really going to be done, it should be phased in starting with pre-teens. Otherwise this will break up every single team.

[Unregistered]

It is a bad idea. But if it is really going to be done, it should be phased in starting with pre-teens. Otherwise this will break up every single team.

I don't see it as a bad idea, it puts us on the same schedule as the rest of the world when it comes to soccer. So what if it breaks up teams, what is bad about that?

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I don't see it as a bad idea but think it should start with the littles. It's like if the public school system in the U.S. sent out a press release that starting in fall of 2016 classes are going to be smaller (great!) and all students in all grades will be switched to birth year to determine grade placement, regardless if they have been in a different grade since kindergarten based on the old state systems. Now that part sounds crazy not to be grandfathered in and start the new birth year age groups with pre-kinders.

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I strongly disagree with the small-sided initiative. I think practice should be small-sided for many of the reasons stated, yet the game should be full sided as early as u10.

Playing full side makes a kid very position aware in my experience. No more running around the field and trying to get into every play. Structure is very important in a full sided game. Best to learn that around 9 or 10 and not 12 or 13. Small sided is great for practice.

The rest of the world strongly disagrees with you.

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It is a bad idea. But if it is really going to be done, it should be phased in starting with pre-teens. Otherwise this will break up every single team.

DA system is not about developing "TEAMS"! It's about developing individual players. The DA always should of been single birth year anyway. Name me another country that does not run there academies with single birth years? Problem here though, unlike other countries, is the US probably does not have enough qualified coaches to handle that many teams.

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DA system is not about developing "TEAMS"! It's about developing individual players. The DA always should of been single birth year anyway. Name me another country that does not run there academies with single birth years? Problem here though, unlike other countries, is the US probably does not have enough qualified coaches to handle that many teams.

One of the reasons for an August calendar year was keeping kids on track with School Grade Years. What do "Other Countries" Have to do with kids in Florida? If we did things as other countries we would not be ourselves.

[Unregistered]

Ideally graduation date would be the determining factor. A team having 01 birth years can still have 9th and 10th graders mixed in but a 2019 graduation date would have only 9th graders. Hope my math is right.

[Unregistered]

Ideally graduation date would be the determining factor. A team having 01 birth years can still have 9th and 10th graders mixed in but a 2019 graduation date would have only 9th graders. Hope my math is right.

Daughter born August 10, 2001. As things are currently set up she is a rising U-14 because on the cut-off date of August 1st, 2015 she will be 13 (for 9 more days until she turns 14). She is the oldest on her rising U14 team; about 1/2 of the girls are rising 8th graders [graduation date of 2020] and 1/2 are rising 9th graders [graduation date of 2019]). It starts to get tricky from a scheduling standpoint because some of the rising 9th graders want to play for their High School team in a few months but half the club team is going to still be in middle school. If they change the birth date rule it would rip teams like this down the middle.

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You just described why graduation date should be used. Your team is already ripped down the middle based on grade differences. Sooner or later your team is going to lose half their players. Better to rebuild at u14\u15 than when half your team graduates from high school.

[Unregistered]

Ideally graduation date would be the determining factor. A team having 01 birth years can still have 9th and 10th graders mixed in but a 2019 graduation date would have only 9th graders. Hope my math is right.

This is genius! I totally agree. All but elite national team stuff like ODP/id2/US Soccer/DAs etc should be graduation year (especially for girls!) because college is the goal/next step not pros. Why can't we switch to graduation year?? It would all become so simple & the elites could still go off & do birth year.

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This is genius! I totally agree. All but elite national team stuff like ODP/id2/US Soccer/DAs etc should be graduation year (especially for girls!) because college is the goal/next step not pros. Why can't we switch to graduation year?? It would all become so simple & the elites could still go off & do birth year.

problem is not every kid starts school at the same time, and what about if a kid fails a year? In this system, you could conceivably have 16 yo playing with 13-14 yo. Not good, esp on boy's side.

[Unregistered]

The USMNT is just ranked #29 in the world. Our best players aren't even good enough to sit on the bench on the top leagues in the world. (Except for our goalies)

This country needs to understand that the sport of futbol is not about being the biggest,fastest,tallest, or strongest athlete. It is an art. It is about developing individual artistry on the ball, rather than playing on set plays, and it's not a sport that coaches can just dictate everything.

Messi is just 5"6, and even fast. Xavi and Iniesta are just 5"7. I say this because the sport just requires a lot of creativity, and not physical training.

Small sided games should encourage more touches. But let me remind you too about the culture of winning in this country. Almost 90% of the small sided outdoor games I've seen are concentrated on cherry picking and booting it as hard as they can. No emphasis on passing at all. Just winning.

Younger kids need to play futsal, and 3v3. There has to be more focus on fun and these kids need to play at least 10 times more games than they do here in Florida.
LET THEM PLAY THE GAME. That is the only secret that the rest of the world does so well. Since our kids don't play it with their friends at home, at the park... The solution is not on "training", but just let them play it more.