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Youth soccer declining because its to expensive

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    #31
    Originally posted by Unregistered View Post
    In our class M town where there's 5 classes for each grade in grammar school, kids are in class with a different set of kids each year. I've never heard a kid or parent complain about that. And in rec sports you're with a different set of players every season. Life goes on. The whole 'birth year rule messed up everything' argument is a crock.
    It's not their actual class it's their grade ... it's all fourth graders used to play with other fourth graders. You met other kids/parents from other schools or who had other teachers.

    Now is half the team is fourth and the other is fifth graders

    It absolutely caused kids to drop out, especially young girls

    Now would these dropouts ever turned into players, probably not.

    Could it be a blessing in disguise, perhaps if it causes some consolidation

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      #32
      Originally posted by Unregistered View Post
      It's not their actual class it's their grade ... it's all fourth graders used to play with other fourth graders. You met other kids/parents from other schools or who had other teachers.

      Now is half the team is fourth and the other is fifth graders

      It absolutely caused kids to drop out, especially young girls

      Now would these dropouts ever turned into players, probably not.

      Could it be a blessing in disguise, perhaps if it causes some consolidation
      We won't have a stronger soccer culture if fewer kids play the game. Also, the bigger the talent pool the better. From a coaching and club standpoint yes declining demand would help weed out some of the garbage, but it's the players that matter most.

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        #33
        Originally posted by Unregistered View Post
        For those who were on the margin maybe. For those players who have a passion for the sport, they continue to play. Many of the players that my D played with that were impacted at the club level still play, just on an older team now, and often on a lower level team than before. The kids in town programs who were marginal and only played because of their friends, maybe they dropped it... but there are plenty of young ones still coming up from the ulittle ages who won't know anything but calendar year.

        Economics has more to do with the drop off than anything else. Too many parents complaining of the cost of leagues and teams, the travel, etc.
        For older kids it's less of an issue, perhaps.

        But when my oldest kids were just starting out, they started playing soccer when their friends at school started playing. They played together at kinderclinics, the U-little, then on the town travel teams, and they continued playing soccer in the backyard after games - because they were playing at the same times and at the same locations. This was crucial to them getting to love the game, IMO. The talent eventually sifted them apart by age 11-12, but those first few years of playing soccer with their friends from school worked because they were not subject to the birth year restriction. Looking back, at least 3 of my daughter's friends would have been pushed into a different year.

        My youngest is a late fall birthday. She would not have started playing soccer if she couldn't play with her school friends. End of story.

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          #34
          Originally posted by Unregistered View Post
          Technical skills are technical skills are technical skills. Kids moving down or up should have the same skills they had before. They didn't forget how to dribble or take space or make a move just because they're playing with different teammates.
          you don't get it. It has nothing to do with skill or ability. It has to do with social issues, at the younger ages.

          If a first grader wants to try soccer out, and all of a sudden is forced to play with 2nd graders because she was born in October, it may not be much fun. If she's miserable, she might go find another activity the following spring. End of soccer career.

          I suppose you'll assume that she would have sucked anyway, and that the soccer world is better off with her not giving it a chance?

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            #35
            Originally posted by Unregistered View Post
            you don't get it. It has nothing to do with skill or ability. It has to do with social issues, at the younger ages.

            If a first grader wants to try soccer out, and all of a sudden is forced to play with 2nd graders because she was born in October, it may not be much fun. If she's miserable, she might go find another activity the following spring. End of soccer career.

            I suppose you'll assume that she would have sucked anyway, and that the soccer world is better off with her not giving it a chance?
            I was in charge of our town rec program for a long time but before the age change mis-step. Believe me the social aspect is huge for the little kids. I would have parents calling all the time asking for their kid to get moved so they could be with so-and-so. Some people are born introverts. As you get older most people learn tactics to deal with social apprehension, but that's a tough skill for 5-7 year olds to grasp. I'm a big fan of the game and want to get as many kids playing as possible. I'd hate to see even one child decide not to play because of this absurd policy. My kids aren't fall birthdays but they've all had friends impacted because of not having an 8th/9th grade team as well as senior year. It probably doesn't happen as much here because of our age cutoff for school,. But most states have Sept 1 (or so) so many more kids nationwide are hit by that rule than here.

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              #36
              Originally posted by Unregistered View Post
              I was in charge of our town rec program for a long time but before the age change mis-step. Believe me the social aspect is huge for the little kids. I would have parents calling all the time asking for their kid to get moved so they could be with so-and-so. Some people are born introverts. As you get older most people learn tactics to deal with social apprehension, but that's a tough skill for 5-7 year olds to grasp. I'm a big fan of the game and want to get as many kids playing as possible. I'd hate to see even one child decide not to play because of this absurd policy. My kids aren't fall birthdays but they've all had friends impacted because of not having an 8th/9th grade team as well as senior year. It probably doesn't happen as much here because of our age cutoff for school,. But most states have Sept 1 (or so) so many more kids nationwide are hit by that rule than here.
              Your town rec program changed to a birth year basis for 5-7 year olds? Our rec program remained unchanged. Only travel was affected.

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                #37
                https://trainingground.guru/articles...o-top-of-world

                Comment


                  #38
                  The funny thing to me about the birth year change is that the youth clubs and leagues (at least ones I am familiar with) still hold their seasons based on the school year. I assume this is probably true nationwide, but not sure.

                  I dont know anything about youth soccer internationally. What do they do in England and France and Germany for ages and season length? I know many of the football clubs have youth academies and I would assume as the senior teams seasons in European leagues are all roughly Aug/Sept to May/June that the youth academies also follow that.

                  Someone on this board has probably been an ex-pat and had kids play overseas. How do they do it there?

                  Comment


                    #39
                    Originally posted by Unregistered View Post
                    Your town rec program changed to a birth year basis for 5-7 year olds? Our rec program remained unchanged. Only travel was affected.
                    Lots of towns change - ours did because travel did and they thought it would make for an easier transition for those kids. However, I'm not the poster you responded to and I don't know what kind of impact it has had since my kids aren't little any longer. ASYO which has half a million kids across the US (big out west) changed too. It looks like they make some accommodations for the 5 and under crowd but everyone else is birth year. It's a great program my oldest did when we lived in another state - all about fundamentals, everyone plays, great way to start kids loving the game. I coached ASYO kindergartners and had a few reticent players I had to coach out of their shells. I can definitely see some not wanting to play if a familiar face wasn't there.

                    http://www.ayso.org/wp-content/uploa...r_Year7472.pdf

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                      #40
                      Just to clarify traver soccer in Massachusetts is by grade so 4/5 u10 5/6 would be u12 7/8 u14 and so on.

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                        #41
                        Originally posted by Unregistered View Post
                        Just to clarify traver soccer in Massachusetts is by grade so 4/5 u10 5/6 would be u12 7/8 u14 and so on.
                        That was done because towns were threatening to pull out of MYSA & form their own league rather than convert to birth year. Everyone knew what kind of impact converting to birth year would have.

                        I would guess that, as result, soccer participation in Massachusetts has been stable, at least within the town programs.

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                          #42
                          Originally posted by Unregistered View Post
                          Just to clarify traver soccer in Massachusetts is by grade so 4/5 u10 5/6 would be u12 7/8 u14 and so on.
                          We were told our travel league will change to birth year from grade spring 2019. Why we didn't switch over right away I don't know, but for our team, now we're at an age where it will be harder to replace players that have to move up. Playing up a year is an option, but not a very good one as most of the team should be playing age appropriate given the skill level.

                          What a crap show.

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                            #43
                            Head Injuries

                            Any thought to the rise in concern regarding head injuries causing the decline in participation? Anyone hat has been around has seen more than a couple of nasty concussions. Ten years ago it was looked at as just a "ding", now we are more enlightened and are aware of the long term effects. Football gets a lot of headlines regarding head injuries, but I saw so many in soccer.

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                              #44
                              Soccer has always been a rich man's sport in this country. Don't let anyone fool you.

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                                #45
                                https://www.washingtonpost.com/sport...=.6194b51a4104

                                Article in today's Post with more evidence that soccer participation is cratering since the birth year mandate went into place. The Federation needs to get rid of the Goldman banker & get someone in place who understands the sport & US culture before soccer in this country is effectively killed.

                                I continue to think that the ECNL could deal the DA a knockout blow by abandoning the birth year mandate & grouping kids by grade. It would be directly in-line with their strategy of appealing to the 99% of kids who aspire to play college ball, rather than for the National team.

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