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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I agree that outside backs are in highest demand, but I also agree with the poster who said versatility is the best quality. I know players who went to college and had only played MF, but when they got there, it wasn't what the team needed. Never having played anywhere else, they just didn't convert well and wound up with a lot of bench time.

[b]The developmental answer is to train and play in more than one position. I'm not sure that people who think players can just be slotted in wherever actually played. Some players can; others that haven't been coached to be versatile and aren't as mentally elastic can't. [/b]

The one thing I miss about ODP was that my DC usually played a different position for ODP than their club teams. [/quote]

Huge problem with most of our youth travel Clubs.  With the design to win early, they pigeonhole kids into positions.  If your kid does a decent job on defense and nobody else does, your kid will never move out of defense even if he is one of the better forwards.

I have two kids and only 1 Club out of the 4 we've been with routinely rotated kids through the positions, even requiring all kids a stint in goal.

The only way I was able to ensure my kids maintained versatility was having them play for their father in the off-season so they could play the positions they never got to play during the season.  We also switched Clubs.

Now I am constantly told that me kids have such great versatility.  They excel in many different positions and the coaches can reliably place them anywhere.  It has been interesting to see different coaches perception of where they should be.  Several coaches had one of my kids pinned for a left wing.  Now he does not get moved out of center defense or wingback and he's not a 'big' kid.  We did get the spiel that they can't trust anyone else back there.

I find you can raise the topic and the coaches will swear up and down that kids will all play a variety of positions this year---and then it starts up and the same kids go into the same positions every single game, and they don't even give them the opportunity to play other positions in scrimmages.

This is all before puberty when nobody knows what their affinity/characteristics will be down the road.  That goalkeeper they love might not make it past 5'6" and now he's screwed because he never developed good field skills.

You have to constantly watch your kids training and make sure they are getting what they need to develop all around.[/quote]

What a well laid out post!  And the goalkeeper comment is on point.  I've seen many a keeper who was fantastic at the youth level, but never got tall enough to be considered at the higher levels in the older age groups.  Any good developmental program should rotate players.  If your kid is playing the same position game after game, year after year, that's a problem.  My kid has played almost every position on the field.  At the younger age groups, they should try everything, but at the older age groups, they should still move around some.  Don't just only play left wing, holding mid, or whatever position.  Each position has a different way to do it well, so celebrate that.

Someone talked about Crystal Dunn as a midfielder who got moved to left back.  That is such an incorrect representation of her.  She has a long history of playing almost anywhere on the field except in goal.  She's such a versatile player that coaches sometimes end up playing her where they may have a gap, and not where she could have the most impact.  She played both forward and right back while still in college, left back, midfield, and in her late youth, yes boys and girls, she played as center back.  So she's not a career midfielder who recently got converted to left back.  She's a career versatile player who has made it a characteristic of who she is to be able to play anywhere.

It is also well known that for example Rapinoe (who I really love and has long been one of my favorite players) is not.  Dunn got moved to left back because she has a history of being able to go wherever the team needs.  Rapinoe would never be moved back there (or Lloyd or Morgan, etc), because she can't.[/quote]

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