US soccer rumors of changing back age groups?

[Anonymous]

I disagree with this analysis. I can't say whether my kid has "stronger relationships" with travel soccer friends or classmates. But what I can say is that not playing with kids that he was initially friends with has required him to branch out and meet a new friend group - so now he has a larger group of friends overall.


Why don’t you ask them if they would enjoy it more with their school friends or their soccer teammates?

I did, but at this point, it doesn't seem like the social aspect of soccer is he cares about. He initially said "friends from school because then there would be kids from higher level teams and we would win all the time." (his grade has many kids who play travel, and many of them are more talented than he is). I explained that it was unlikely that a league would put top-level travel team players on a mid-level travel team, even if they were at the same school. He then said he'd rather keep things like they are, because his team could wind up with worse players overall if there were a change. So it seems like winning is his concern.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^Im assuming a team that is a member of FIFA. Not any MLS team—but International professional teams and USMNT (which there would be more than 1 player but the group represents about 0.0001% of US kids currently playing soccer).

The point is the switch to relative age was kind of stupid for a Nation like ours that is completely different. The switch has ultimately led to more American kids dropping the sport. It’s created a trap and loss of teams for 8th and 12th grade kids w/ fall bdays.

“When it comes to all the professional soccer leagues in Europe, their seasons mostly run from mid-August until the end of May. Here in the states, Major League Soccer will start in March and conclude their season in either November or December. For European teams, their goal doesn’t stop at being champion of their league. Probably the most major difference between the MLS and European leagues is the fact that the MLS doesn’t relegate teams. Soccer teams in Europe that perform badly during the season are sent down, or relegated to a lower division. While the top teams from a lower division are promoted to a higher league. The MLS doesn’t follow that structure. Instead, teams that perform poorly are rewarded higher picks in the league's player draft.”

Kids with July birthdays quit the sport under the old cutoff too the difference is you didn’t care then.

Kids with July birthdays can play soccer on their high school teams in 8th grade; September through December born players cannot. In addition, July born kids under the old system were playing with other players in the same grade. Not every team is DA/ECNL level. Why is that so hard to understand?

They should play with kids their own age, not grade.

For the love of God....it is still a 1-year age band. Nobody could play with kids more than 1 year younger them in travel before or after the birth year change. It moved from July 31-Aug 1st to Jan 1-Dec 31st.

AND THE SEPT - DEC KIDS cannot play with kids their own age BECAUSE OF A LEGALLY MANDATED SCHOOL CUT-OFF. ....so they have to miss a spring season when their age peers (not grade peers) are playing HS...which they are not allowed to do the spring of 8th grade.

Are you really this slow or just trying to be a major PIA? You are a dumb parent of a kid in elementary school most likely since you cant' seem to grasp the older years.

Why does a soccer federation need to adjust their age bands to accommodate schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Grade year enhances opportunities to "play with friends" and kids who play with their friends and schoolmates are more likely to continue playing the sport than kids who are playing with random fellow players. While many friendships do arise in these random travel situations, in younger kids these relationships aren't as strong as the relationships they have with their classmates.

I disagree with this analysis. I can't say whether my kid has "stronger relationships" with travel soccer friends or classmates. But what I can say is that not playing with kids that he was initially friends with has required him to branch out and meet a new friend group - so now he has a larger group of friends overall.

Why don’t you ask them if they would enjoy it more with their school friends or their soccer teammates?

Different poster, but I can tell you my son enjoys playing soccer a lot more with his club teammates than his school friends, because his club teammates (who also are friends) are a lot better at soccer. His old club teammates are the ones he calls to meetup for training sessions when he’s on break from college. We also have as many close friendships with parents we met through club soccer as we do school friend parents. I assumed this is true of most people, but maybe not.

[Anonymous]

Birth Year is the universal way to go. It allows your kid to broaden their pool of friendships if anything. I mean whose to say the school friends are even all at equal skill levels ? Many may be placed on B or C teams or even at different clubs. Playing with their classmates over their talent level is a weak argument.

[Anonymous]

Only some of the kids ever get to be on teams with their classmates. My son was generally always on teams with kids from other schools (and at that point who cares if the kid is in 1st grade or 2nd grade). I did not coach and did not have a personal relationship with any of the coaches so we ended up where we ended up. I think it was better for him to mix with different kids anyways.

This "in a bubble ideal" of kids playing with classmates only happens for a limited set of kids in house soccer which can still do grade year anyways (which is dumb IMO but whatever). If a kid does travel soccer the kids on a team are going to be from multiple schools. On my son's team I do not see grade playing any factor in the relationships.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Birth Year is the universal way to go. It allows your kid to broaden their pool of friendships if anything. I mean whose to say the school friends are even all at equal skill levels ? Many may be placed on B or C teams or even at different clubs. Playing with their classmates over their talent level is a weak argument.

Do any of you understand how it works? Rec is not talent-level based, it’s school and/or neighborhood based. Travel (even when it was school calendar year) was always talent-based. So kids playing rec—first, 2nd, 3rd grade in rec would be with classmates and best friends in calendar year.

Now that birth year has pushed travel to the even younger age groups—you have fall bday kids in 1st grade trying out for travel to remain with early birth year kids the school year ahead. They are starting travel a full year earlier. Studies show more kids are burning out by going to the 90 min 3X week practice schedule and missing all of their friends bday parties and trips out of town at 7/8/9 years old. Parents sign them up early so they won’t get frozen out of the top teams if they delay switching to travel.

Nobody is talking about college/HS kids when they talk about “playing w/friends”. Good lord. The HS issue is about losing a team and having to play w/ lower group when the early bdays graduate. And the 8th grade issue is ABOUT talent level—having to play with a mish-mash of lower level players and/or having almost no spring games due to being a “trapped” Fall bday.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Birth Year is the universal way to go. It allows your kid to broaden their pool of friendships if anything. I mean whose to say the school friends are even all at equal skill levels ? Many may be placed on B or C teams or even at different clubs. Playing with their classmates over their talent level is a weak argument.

Do any of you understand how it works? Rec is not talent-level based, it’s school and/or neighborhood based. Travel (even when it was school calendar year) was always talent-based. So kids playing rec—first, 2nd, 3rd grade in rec would be with classmates and best friends in calendar year.

Now that birth year has pushed travel to the even younger age groups—you have fall bday kids in 1st grade trying out for travel to remain with early birth year kids the school year ahead. They are starting travel a full year earlier. Studies show more kids are burning out by going to the 90 min 3X week practice schedule and missing all of their friends bday parties and trips out of town at 7/8/9 years old. Parents sign them up early so they won’t get frozen out of the top teams if they delay switching to travel.

Nobody is talking about college/HS kids when they talk about “playing w/friends”. Good lord. The HS issue is about losing a team and having to play w/ lower group when the early bdays graduate. And the 8th grade issue is ABOUT talent level—having to play with a mish-mash of lower level players and/or having almost no spring games due to being a “trapped” Fall bday.

Studies show? Please post these studies after two whole years of birth year. Somehow kids in Europe do birth year and they don’t quit the game.

Travel soccer is not a social activity and is under no obligation to form teams based on friends.

If you believe travel starts to soon then keep your kid in rec another year.

[Anonymous]

If they decide to move back, what would the cutoff be? August? September?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If they decide to move back, what would the cutoff be? August? September?

No July...that’s the rumor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they decide to move back, what would the cutoff be? August? September?

No July...that’s the rumor.

Ahhh, the rumor.

[Anonymous]

Another Vote for keeping birth year

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Birth Year is the universal way to go. It allows your kid to broaden their pool of friendships if anything. I mean whose to say the school friends are even all at equal skill levels ? Many may be placed on B or C teams or even at different clubs. Playing with their classmates over their talent level is a weak argument.

It simply does not matter. It is an arbitrary cut off wherever it is placed. It can never accommodate all school children as there is o universal school cut off date.

And once the children get older, the age difference is not meaningful and they get sorted according to skill, with stronger ones playing up . Or they play on the varsity team with older players in the case of school soccer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they decide to move back, what would the cutoff be? August? September?

No July...that’s the rumor.

Ahhh, the rumor.

I heard June.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Birth Year is the universal way to go. It allows your kid to broaden their pool of friendships if anything. I mean whose to say the school friends are even all at equal skill levels ? Many may be placed on B or C teams or even at different clubs. Playing with their classmates over their talent level is a weak argument.

It simply does not matter. It is an arbitrary cut off wherever it is placed. It can never accommodate all school children as there is o universal school cut off date.

And once the children get older, the age difference is not meaningful and they get sorted according to skill, with stronger ones playing up . Or they play on the varsity team with older players in the case of school soccer.

In some clubs, the stronger team is on age and top talent could also stay on age. It depends on the situation. The age groundings just structure the sport for most players. Outliers that need to adjust something will always exist. They can try to find a situation to suit their needs. No need to structure an entire youth sport to accommodate a few outliers of unique ability.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Birth Year is the universal way to go. It allows your kid to broaden their pool of friendships if anything. I mean whose to say the school friends are even all at equal skill levels ? Many may be placed on B or C teams or even at different clubs. Playing with their classmates over their talent level is a weak argument.

It simply does not matter. It is an arbitrary cut off wherever it is placed. It can never accommodate all school children as there is o universal school cut off date.

And once the children get older, the age difference is not meaningful and they get sorted according to skill, with stronger ones playing up . Or they play on the varsity team with older players in the case of school soccer.

Travel soccer has nothing to do with High School Soccer. Neither are beholden to the other.