Reply to Late calendar year birthdays - deciding which age group to play in

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Here is a winning formula based on 20/20 hindsight having gone through the college recruiting process.

Caveat-  This is only relevant if your kid wants to play in college. For those with other ambitions there may be other answers

Play up with the older age group until
u-14. You get the benefit of development and playing with older and theoretically stronger players for 4 years before the real selection opportunities and personal and showcase exposure truly matter.

In U-11- U14 or U-15 you build your skills in the most competitive environment you can (which means being the youngest on the team because theoretically you are up against stronger and faster players).

Then repeat at 15 to get in line with your grad year. Your player will be a freshman playing with other freshmen.

Key is to simultaneously make sure you are on a good team when you repeat (you should be able to make a strong team as you will have 1 extra year of playing with older players compared to all the other players) .

Don’t repeat U-15 with a weak team. That won’t help. Find the best team in your correct age group locally

You need to be playing with your grad year by freshman year of high school for a whole host of reasons and you need to take advantage of being the oldest (and potentially fastest and strongest) right when individual exposure starts to matter and when college coaches start to really look at you at showcases.

Being off cycle hurts you at that point- but luckily not before ..So there is definitely a bit of a sweet spot for making a transition if college is priority[/quote]

I appreciate the effort but as a parent going through this I find this tremendously poor advice.

The best advice I have received from people who played professionally is:

1) Keep pressure as low as possible and let them have fun pre-U15

2) Work on their technical ball mastery on their own daily.

3) Play as much small-sided games as possible and work on the soccer IQ and cognitive load

4) Find ways to build a complete multidimensional athlete with supplemental activities and/or sports (manage the workload)

5) For girls, play with the boys until nature takes its course.

6) Vary the playing environments. They will need to learn to be the best and carry a team somehow. If they are always the smallest kid getting beat up, they will perpetually be the runt and never know how to be a beast who dominates.

7) Don’t pay attention to any bodies path but your own. People have different personality and social styles. There is no one way. Cater the path to your child.  Even my advice my not fit for your child and their path.[/quote]

Your advice is good for those who want to go pro. Not so good for those with a college path as it does not take into account college recruiting context. Totally different ballgame. Unfortunate but true. [/quote]

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