Reply to Pro/rel, club-centric -- how should youth leagues be organized?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=RantingSoccerDad][quote=Anonymous][quote=RantingSoccerDad][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=RantingSoccerDad]Breaking out a new topic so we can discuss without swamping the FCB thread or any other. Enjoy.[/quote]

Good.  I say every single team should face promotion or relegation.  There should be no guaranteed placement in any league.  [/quote]

Why?[/quote]

My argument would be that teams need to find the right level of competition. If they're dominating a league, they should move up. If they're getting crushed, they should move down.

Beats the hell out of TDs insisting they need to drive four hours to find comparable teams when there's a comparable team 15 minutes away.[/quote]

How does that help the individual player develop? If Pro/Rel was so beneficial to developing players then why does NCSL not use it at the younger ages?[/quote]

The individual player would be properly challenged instead of scoring cheap goals against overmatched competition.

True story: I saw a U9 game that was ridiculously out of hand. The goalkeeper could barely play a goal kick out of the box, and the other team just swarmed to pounce on it. (This was before the buildout line.) Goal kick, shot, repeat. Goal kick, goal, kickoff, swarm, shot, repeat. The coach did nothing to change it up. The PARENTS were pissed. They were yelling at their kids to drop back, spread out and play some damn soccer. One parent told me later the coach didn't know what he was doing.

But the moral of the story is that those teams shouldn't play again. NCSL should do more tiering than they do.

They don't have to do literal pro/rel. Some leagues in California simply have three divisions. Initially, the coach and club pick the division they think is best. If the results aren't what they expect, they move up or down.[/quote]

I agree with you, RSD. And if your experience was a couple of years ago, I believe that NCSL does do more tiering at U9 and U10 than it used to. I have a couple of kids in NCSL and know that the coach was asked to rank the recent U9 team on a scale of 1 to 5. There were a couple of blowouts (like 8-0) but nothing compared to my family's first U9 experience (some games were 8-0 in five minutes). Common sense, coach feedback, and a little bit of effort can go a long way to ensuring that most games are competitive. Absolutely no one benefits from those ridiculous games.

The argument against promotion/relegation in the early years is based on the idea that coaches need to focus on development rather than winning, right? I absolutely get that. And while there are natural variations from year to year in every club someone can thoughtfully put together decent schedules just by being familiar with the area. At least they can avoid ridiculous situations where an enormous club's A team destroys a tiny club's B team.[/quote]

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