Anonymous wrote:I'm for the idea, but perhaps for a different reason than most. My son is small, and wound up getting hurt a lot playing with his age group for travel soccer once the sport got more physical. It was truly almost constant.

This is a real concern especially around U13 and U14 when there are some kids who are 6 feet tall with muscles, and others who are under 5 feet tall and scrawny. I wonder what that looks like in hockey with the checking.

The official guidance uses percentage of growth towards predicted adult height so a child could be large and still be biobanded down if his parents are 7 feet tall and he still has a long way until he hits his full growth.

A child who is 5 foot 1 at 15 might not be biobanded down if his dad is 5 foot 4 and mother is 5 feet tall. There are a lot of kids I know who are small at 15 who are really muscular and some who are small at 15 and not muscular because they are late to puberty.

Why are they so weird about it? Why not band based on a skill assessment?

I'm for the idea, but perhaps for a different reason than most. My son is small, and wound up getting hurt a lot playing with his age group for travel soccer once the sport got more physical. It was truly almost constant.

I know of a few BSC kids doing it. One of them is exactly who the rule was designed for. Excellent, skillful player who is very small. I guess the others met whatever guidelines are in place, but those guidelines must be quite flexible as they are average in height and weight.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In our age group, Bethesda and Achilles do this. Our club this year has not.

Based on what you see in BSC, Achilles and Armour, do you feel it is unfair and is used for the sole reason to gain the system to win? Or is it used as per intended?

In my nonexpert opinion, only one time have I seen it done appropriately with a "late bloomer" kid who is just abnormally small for his age but is a very gifted player and he is playing down (for Bethesda, which is not our club). All other times I have seen clubs do it in the 3 years we have been in MLS Next the kids are not small so I don't get it how they're qualified (and this includes our club in prior years, I believe in that case the parent really pushed for it vs playing on the red team in their appropriate age group). So in general, it does seem to be abused but what are you going to do?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In our age group, Bethesda and Achilles do this. Our club this year has not.

Based on what you see in BSC, Achilles and Armour, do you feel it is unfair and is used for the sole reason to gain the system to win? Or is it used as per intended?

I have seen other teams do it, and the primary reason is to keep good players from having to leave because they cannot compete with the size or speed or testoserone of more biologically mature players in their age group in MLS Next. The primary beneficiaries should be midfielders. The players whom I've seen do it are average-sized for the age group below them, or perhaps below-average size for that age group. I've seen good players who were 4'10 at 13 or 5' at 14 (maybe true bio age is 11/12) who stopped playing or had to move to lower teams to get playing time, and were then fully grown in 1-2 years. Even if you are quick, you are quickly overpowered, and if you don't think that's the case, then watch a really good U14/U15 MLS Next team try to beat average MLS Next teams or ECNL teams who are one year older. The irony is that there was a lot more tolerance in US youth soccer of smaller players in the old days because fewer pure athletes played at all.

Anonymous wrote:In our age group, Bethesda and Achilles do this. Our club this year has not.

Based on what you see in BSC, Achilles and Armour, do you feel it is unfair and is used for the sole reason to gain the system to win? Or is it used as per intended?

In our age group, Bethesda and Achilles do this. Our club this year has not.

Anonymous wrote:I know Armour does this pretty often and have heard that BSC is starting to do it a little but it with a few players.

BSC and biobanding - good one.

Solid news. Thanks!

I know Armour does this pretty often and have heard that BSC is starting to do it a little but it with a few players.

https://soccernovo.com/mls-next-rules/

MLS NEXT Bio Banding Rules
Also known as Late Developers (L), the following bio banding rules must be adhered to:

(3) Late Developers per team
All age groups are eligible
Must complete Late Developer forms and receive approval from MLS NEXT

Anonymous wrote:What happened to those efforts? Are there any clubs or leagues that do this?

According to this website, bio-banding is used (with limitations) in MLS Next

What happened to those efforts? Are there any clubs or leagues that do this?