ECNL moving to school year not calendar

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So which kids now have the advantage? Which months are we talking about?

Previously using calendar which birth years had the advantage?

"Depending on the date, RAE will be reduced for kids born from Jan-July and increased for those from August-December."

So now Jan-June has a sliding scale of age advantage and July-August has a sliding scale of disadvantage.

So my 6 year old was born in April 2018.

He plays 2 years up and is the best on the team.

I’m new to this so please explain what advantage he would be getting?

It’s a little confusing 😂

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If your kid is not playing soccer because they want to be with their school friends, then they are not cut out for highly competitive sports. That's fine. It's not a knock. Have one kid in high travel and one in rec. But you as a parent should recognize the level, desire, and environment that is best for your kid. Then drive them there and leave them the hell alone.

This makes no sense.

The top competitive teams have players from all over a geographic area. It's highly unlikely that they all attend the same high school.

This is the problem, town/rec parents are weighing in on something they don't understand or comprehend.

All the parents I know on top teams are apprehensive about changing to SY. Nobody is jumping for joy at playing down at least on the sidelines and in conversations. Maybe they come here and act differently.

You only want your kid playing down because you think it's an advantage for them to look better. Because that's more important than putting in hard work to actually be better.

All an illusion to satisfy superficial parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If your kid is not playing soccer because they want to be with their school friends, then they are not cut out for highly competitive sports. That's fine. It's not a knock. Have one kid in high travel and one in rec. But you as a parent should recognize the level, desire, and environment that is best for your kid. Then drive them there and leave them the hell alone.

This makes no sense.

The top competitive teams have players from all over a geographic area. It's highly unlikely that they all attend the same high school.

This is the problem, town/rec parents are weighing in on something they don't understand or comprehend.

All the parents I know on top teams are apprehensive about changing to SY. Nobody is jumping for joy at playing down at least on the sidelines and in conversations. Maybe they come here and act differently.

Change can be scary and boy, everybody understands what a change means here so much that those losing something are trying to throw sand in the gears (who wouldn't in their situation).

Latest ECNL podcast again discussed advantages of going to SY while comparing U.S. and international situations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So much astroturfing going on.

There's 4 "trapped" players on my daughters 2010 team and nobody is excited about playing down with the 2011s.

Not sure how the people are that are rejoicing in the street but it's not my experience with trapped player parents.

Said by a parent who does not have a trapped player…you have no idea what those parents are saying behind closed doors. Our teams four trapped players are all talking amongst ourselves but we are def not sharing our plans with the rest of the team and we are pretending to be sad so as to not offend.

Don’t get me wrong- we love the team. But at the end of the day the kid wants to play in college and being a trapped player on a team with kids outside your recruiting year is shit.

Peace out- cant wait for SY teams…

Agreed. I'm not sitting around with my current kids team telling everyone we're excited for her to move down an age group but like, yeah, we're excited for that opportunity! Struggling on the bubble of the top team against kids basically a year older has been good for her, but like, being a really impactful player at the top of the age group an age down will be fun in a different way!

No your kid will likely struggle on the bubble but a year down.

Age makes a difference but top players will filter to the top no matter what. Also mid level players will be mid level players no matter what.

Your assumption will be proved wrong very quickly.

No it won't.

The same parents that think playing down and doing SY so recruiters can see their kid easier will move onto something else when they continue to suck as soccer.

If you actually believed this you wouldn't be so worried as to get angry at the switch from CY to SY. The change in relative age for kids will be a real motivator for kids playing against relatively younger kids and a demotivator for others.

I do actually believe this and I do think marginal year up players will be marginal when they play down.

They might get a 6 month boost. But over time they'll end up exactly where they started just on a year down team.

Well, you don't have to believe that RAE is real but science proves it is.

RAE has already happened by the time players are U11. After U11 the effects of RAE diminish exponentially.

This is why when your kid is young the best way to make the top competitive teams is to make sure the coach sees you drive a fancy/expensive car and be tall/ in shape.

[Anonymous]

I understand the title of this thread is ECNL, but these comments are maddening. Everyone even those that make it to ECNL start soccer usually with their local club. And for the 100th time it's not about literal classmates. It's about having teammates at a similar maturity/exposure level. The trapped player is a real issue without a current solution that didn't exist at this magnitude before the change to BY.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If your kid is not playing soccer because they want to be with their school friends, then they are not cut out for highly competitive sports. That's fine. It's not a knock. Have one kid in high travel and one in rec. But you as a parent should recognize the level, desire, and environment that is best for your kid. Then drive them there and leave them the hell alone.

This makes no sense.

The top competitive teams have players from all over a geographic area. It's highly unlikely that they all attend the same high school.

This is the problem, town/rec parents are weighing in on something they don't understand or comprehend.

All the parents I know on top teams are apprehensive about changing to SY. Nobody is jumping for joy at playing down at least on the sidelines and in conversations. Maybe they come here and act differently.

You only want your kid playing down because you think it's an advantage for them to look better. Because that's more important than putting in hard work to actually be better.

All an illusion to satisfy superficial parents.

This works both ways. You only want your kid to continue to be older than those that they play with because you think it is an advantage for them to look better. If you feel otherwise, let the new SY era begin.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If your kid is not playing soccer because they want to be with their school friends, then they are not cut out for highly competitive sports. That's fine. It's not a knock. Have one kid in high travel and one in rec. But you as a parent should recognize the level, desire, and environment that is best for your kid. Then drive them there and leave them the hell alone.

This makes no sense.

The top competitive teams have players from all over a geographic area. It's highly unlikely that they all attend the same high school.

This is the problem, town/rec parents are weighing in on something they don't understand or comprehend.

All the parents I know on top teams are apprehensive about changing to SY. Nobody is jumping for joy at playing down at least on the sidelines and in conversations. Maybe they come here and act differently.

Change can be scary and boy, everybody understands what a change means here so much that those losing something are trying to throw sand in the gears (who wouldn't in their situation).

Latest ECNL podcast again discussed advantages of going to SY while comparing U.S. and international situations.

Changing to SY for players and parents on top teams in top clubs over U13 has very limited appeal.

I bet most trapped players on top teams would choose to stay with their team than play down. Looking forward to playing down is just not in a high level competitive players DNA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I understand the title of this thread is ECNL, but these comments are maddening. Everyone even those that make it to ECNL start soccer usually with their local club. And for the 100th time it's not about literal classmates. It's about having teammates at a similar maturity/exposure level. The trapped player is a real issue without a current solution that didn't exist at this magnitude before the change to BY.

Aren't players only trapped for the 3 months of 8th grade when their 9th grade teammates are playing HS?
They can't find soccer during that time?

How does that mini period affect them for the rest of their youth soccer?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So much astroturfing going on.

There's 4 "trapped" players on my daughters 2010 team and nobody is excited about playing down with the 2011s.

Not sure how the people are that are rejoicing in the street but it's not my experience with trapped player parents.

Said by a parent who does not have a trapped player…you have no idea what those parents are saying behind closed doors. Our teams four trapped players are all talking amongst ourselves but we are def not sharing our plans with the rest of the team and we are pretending to be sad so as to not offend.

Don’t get me wrong- we love the team. But at the end of the day the kid wants to play in college and being a trapped player on a team with kids outside your recruiting year is shit.

Peace out- cant wait for SY teams…

Agreed. I'm not sitting around with my current kids team telling everyone we're excited for her to move down an age group but like, yeah, we're excited for that opportunity! Struggling on the bubble of the top team against kids basically a year older has been good for her, but like, being a really impactful player at the top of the age group an age down will be fun in a different way!

No your kid will likely struggle on the bubble but a year down.

Age makes a difference but top players will filter to the top no matter what. Also mid level players will be mid level players no matter what.

Your assumption will be proved wrong very quickly.

No it won't.

The same parents that think playing down and doing SY so recruiters can see their kid easier will move onto something else when they continue to suck as soccer.

If you actually believed this you wouldn't be so worried as to get angry at the switch from CY to SY. The change in relative age for kids will be a real motivator for kids playing against relatively younger kids and a demotivator for others.

I do actually believe this and I do think marginal year up players will be marginal when they play down.

They might get a 6 month boost. But over time they'll end up exactly where they started just on a year down team.

This is the type of crap that Q1-Q2 BY parents post to make THEMSELVES feel like their Q1 kid is naturally better instead of having had some RAE influence. I'm not saying their kid is good ONLY because of RAE, but it has undoubtedly had an impact especially at younger ages and then again as they hit puberty. The narrative of "middle pack kids will always be middle pack kids no matter the team" is just nonsense. Just wait until that parent's April birthday kid goes from being one of the older ones to the one of the younger ones ... they'll be the first to google RAE and start using it as their defense for why their kid is no longer a top player.

Everyone also needs to stop calling it "playing down". If the new timeframe is SY, that's simply the new normal - it's not "playing down". In fact, if you're gonna start calling Q4 kid as "playing down" then aren't you admitting that your Q1 BY kid in 8th grade right now is essentially "playing down" against younger same-BY kids in 7th grade? How is that not "playing down"?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If your kid is not playing soccer because they want to be with their school friends, then they are not cut out for highly competitive sports. That's fine. It's not a knock. Have one kid in high travel and one in rec. But you as a parent should recognize the level, desire, and environment that is best for your kid. Then drive them there and leave them the hell alone.

This makes no sense.

The top competitive teams have players from all over a geographic area. It's highly unlikely that they all attend the same high school.

This is the problem, town/rec parents are weighing in on something they don't understand or comprehend.

All the parents I know on top teams are apprehensive about changing to SY. Nobody is jumping for joy at playing down at least on the sidelines and in conversations. Maybe they come here and act differently.

Change can be scary and boy, everybody understands what a change means here so much that those losing something are trying to throw sand in the gears (who wouldn't in their situation).

Latest ECNL podcast again discussed advantages of going to SY while comparing U.S. and international situations.

No, I'm saying that some people don't and can't comprehend others positions. My kid plays on a top competitive team. She's been playing since she was 3, we've been through it all. I know and understand why rec parents think playing with kids in their class is good. Unfortunately vice versa isn't possible.

So what ends up happening is rec and youngers parents jump online and go crazy fighting for something they think is right.

Here's some some facts you might not know.
- The US birthrate has been declining 2% yoy since 2007.
- One of US Soccer's reasons for switching to BY was to increase participation and they had data to backing it up.
- This all goes back to the DA days. ECNL is just throwing its penis around to show it has power again. ECNLs push to change to SY isn't for the kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If your kid is not playing soccer because they want to be with their school friends, then they are not cut out for highly competitive sports. That's fine. It's not a knock. Have one kid in high travel and one in rec. But you as a parent should recognize the level, desire, and environment that is best for your kid. Then drive them there and leave them the hell alone.

This makes no sense.

The top competitive teams have players from all over a geographic area. It's highly unlikely that they all attend the same high school.

This is the problem, town/rec parents are weighing in on something they don't understand or comprehend.

All the parents I know on top teams are apprehensive about changing to SY. Nobody is jumping for joy at playing down at least on the sidelines and in conversations. Maybe they come here and act differently.

You only want your kid playing down because you think it's an advantage for them to look better. Because that's more important than putting in hard work to actually be better.

All an illusion to satisfy superficial parents.

This works both ways. You only want your kid to continue to be older than those that they play with because you think it is an advantage for them to look better. If you feel otherwise, let the new SY era begin.

Someone is always older.
That's how calendar periods work.
Won't kids be older at the beginning of the SY period?

Someone doesn't have to choose to play down against younger kids for a perceived advantage to try to hide weakness.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So which kids now have the advantage? Which months are we talking about?

Previously using calendar which birth years had the advantage?

"Depending on the date, RAE will be reduced for kids born from Jan-July and increased for those from August-December."

So now Jan-June has a sliding scale of age advantage and July-August has a sliding scale of disadvantage.

So my 6 year old was born in April 2018.

He plays 2 years up and is the best on the team.

I’m new to this so please explain what advantage he would be getting?

It’s a little confusing 😂

You are right in this unique situation. Your child's issue will not be dealing with age cutoffs, it will be dealing with a smug idiotic parent. Youth soccer lords can't help here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If your kid is not playing soccer because they want to be with their school friends, then they are not cut out for highly competitive sports. That's fine. It's not a knock. Have one kid in high travel and one in rec. But you as a parent should recognize the level, desire, and environment that is best for your kid. Then drive them there and leave them the hell alone.

This makes no sense.

The top competitive teams have players from all over a geographic area. It's highly unlikely that they all attend the same high school.

This is the problem, town/rec parents are weighing in on something they don't understand or comprehend.

All the parents I know on top teams are apprehensive about changing to SY. Nobody is jumping for joy at playing down at least on the sidelines and in conversations. Maybe they come here and act differently.

Change can be scary and boy, everybody understands what a change means here so much that those losing something are trying to throw sand in the gears (who wouldn't in their situation).

Latest ECNL podcast again discussed advantages of going to SY while comparing U.S. and international situations.

No, I'm saying that some people don't and can't comprehend others positions. My kid plays on a top competitive team. She's been playing since she was 3, we've been through it all. I know and understand why rec parents think playing with kids in their class is good. Unfortunately vice versa isn't possible.

So what ends up happening is rec and youngers parents jump online and go crazy fighting for something they think is right.

Here's some some facts you might not know.
- The US birthrate has been declining 2% yoy since 2007.
- One of US Soccer's reasons for switching to BY was to increase participation and they had data to backing it up.
- This all goes back to the DA days. ECNL is just throwing its penis around to show it has power again. ECNLs push to change to SY isn't for the kids.

I'll call it playing down all I want because that's what it is.

After U11 RAE has already happened.

Marginal trapped players a year up will end up marginal players when they play a year down. Exceptional trapped players a year up will be exceptional players a year down.

You just don't know this yet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So which kids now have the advantage? Which months are we talking about?

Previously using calendar which birth years had the advantage?

"Depending on the date, RAE will be reduced for kids born from Jan-July and increased for those from August-December."

So now Jan-June has a sliding scale of age advantage and July-August has a sliding scale of disadvantage.

So my 6 year old was born in April 2018.

He plays 2 years up and is the best on the team.

I’m new to this so please explain what advantage he would be getting?

It’s a little confusing 😂

You are right in this unique situation. Your child's issue will not be dealing with age cutoffs, it will be dealing with a smug idiotic parent. Youth soccer lords can't help here.

Are all 6 year olds playing 2 years up?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So which kids now have the advantage? Which months are we talking about?

Previously using calendar which birth years had the advantage?

"Depending on the date, RAE will be reduced for kids born from Jan-July and increased for those from August-December."

So now Jan-June has a sliding scale of age advantage and July-August has a sliding scale of disadvantage.

So my 6 year old was born in April 2018.

He plays 2 years up and is the best on the team.

I’m new to this so please explain what advantage he would be getting?

It’s a little confusing 😂

You are right in this unique situation. Your child's issue will not be dealing with age cutoffs, it will be dealing with a smug idiotic parent. Youth soccer lords can't help here.

Are all 6 year olds playing 2 years up?

Sometimes, it depends on how big they are and if there's other opportunities to play or not.