Reply to US soccer rumors of changing back age groups?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]It’s better from a friendship and keeping kids interested in playing perspective, but yes other than that it is just moving the borders. Someone will always be the oldest and someone will always be the youngest (and smallest/biggest, slowest/fastest) no matter where you put the borders. [/quote]

I fully disagree.  The current rule discriminates children born in the later months because they aren’t able to play down.  You see coaches in the US are behind  in terms of IQ  compared to the rest of world. The majority of coaches in US overlook the small children and select the biggest and tallest, most of these are born January-March, some may be born in November but because they are big they get noticed. Those other younger and smaller are left behind (unless they are the Messy of the team but how many?). Because the age they are selected to move to DA or other elite league  is 12-13, the age when children are going through many changes including psychological changes, the fact of being discriminated by coaches results on many of these kids quitting soccer. I have read many articles that  bring up that the age when kids stop liking the sport is 12-13.
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There will always be RAE, birth year simply allows us to have the same RAE as the rest of the world. [/quote]

I am not the PP, but the relationship between birth month and the school year makes a big difference in the lower years, as linking the two together encourages kids to play soccer and makes it more likely that they will keep playing.  Yes, there is going to be a RAE no matter what.  However, January - March/April kids are advantaged. They are the oldest and largely they are going to be on teams with kids they go to school with (or in the same grade with), because very few Sept to December kids are going to be on the top team. The later born kids, July through November, tend to be on B teams and lower and are a mix of kids in two different grades. You are young, you may be smaller, it is clear that no matter what, the coaches don't favor you - why keep playing?  It is more fun to play basketball with your friends in your grade (even if you are small) than it is to keep getting moved to different teams each year that have fewer kids that you know, so basketball seems more fun than soccer. Obviously there are going to be outliers, but it is clear to me that very few small kids overcome where they are placed at age 12 in the US soccer system.

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First, I agree that it is better to be grouped closer to grade level than birth year... but...as other have pointed out, there will always be someone on the younger end of the spectrum.  Moving it to grade year puts the youngest as those born April-July, instead of September - December.
My son is on a B team.  Almost every player is either a fall / winter birthday, or playing an age group up. [/quote]

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