Anonymous wrote:Sounds like one of my daughters--she had spent so much time around her older sibling's practices and everything that when she hit the field at U-Little she knew how to play already and looked like a wolf among sheep. The rest of her team was lucky to touch the ball at all when she was in and the other team didn't do much better.

She is playing in college now at a pretty high level so she did fall in love with it and stick with it. She did start playing up very early, and she started playing on the boys team instead of the girls team since the clubs around here divide by gender as such absurdly young ages.

While she may be too young to really be able to tell you exactly what she wants in her own words, IMO as the parent you need to try to figure out what she wants and provide that for her. Based on the experience she's having right now she would probably be open to the idea of finding a setting a little more challenging. Depending on where you are try to find a small training group of other similar players. Vince Carter with McLean is by far the best coach in this area with those younger players--maybe reach out to him--if she really loves the game she will love working with coach Vince. I think NPC futsal starts with the kids that little, maybe check into something like that for her as well.

The leagues we run for U-littles are designed for parent enjoyment, not for player development. You want to get her into the best league setting for her sure, but if she really loves soccer the league is not the most important thing to look at.

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like one of my daughters--she had spent so much time around her older sibling's practices and everything that when she hit the field at U-Little she knew how to play already and looked like a wolf among sheep. The rest of her team was lucky to touch the ball at all when she was in and the other team didn't do much better.

She is playing in college now at a pretty high level so she did fall in love with it and stick with it. She did start playing up very early, and she started playing on the boys team instead of the girls team since the clubs around here divide by gender as such absurdly young ages.

While she may be too young to really be able to tell you exactly what she wants in her own words, IMO as the parent you need to try to figure out what she wants and provide that for her. Based on the experience she's having right now she would probably be open to the idea of finding a setting a little more challenging. Depending on where you are try to find a small training group of other similar players. Vince Carter with McLean is by far the best coach in this area with those younger players--maybe reach out to him--if she really loves the game she will love working with coach Vince. I think NPC futsal starts with the kids that little, maybe check into something like that for her as well.

The leagues we run for U-littles are designed for parent enjoyment, not for player development. You want to get her into the best league setting for her sure, but if she really loves soccer the league is not the most important thing to look at.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are 6 year olds on my kid’s U8 team. They actually describe it as 2013+. They flight the players at practice and for games the younger kids do SAM U7 while the 2013s and stronger 2014s do EDP Futures.

+1 our club has lots of 6 year olds playing u8, especially on the boys side.

OP this wont last forever and if you dont keep her playing a year up, her teammates will definitely catch up, unless you keep her in rec. These kids are common in pretravel. Bsc has an entire juniors program of 4 and 5 year olds getting technical training with real coaches. These kids enter U8 very prepared. She can be the star of rec or a top travel depending on your goal.

Anonymous wrote:There are 6 year olds on my kid’s U8 team. They actually describe it as 2013+. They flight the players at practice and for games the younger kids do SAM U7 while the 2013s and stronger 2014s do EDP Futures.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have a U6 DD who’s been consistently dominating the ball on her rec team. She’s been scoring 15-20 goals a game while not allowing the other team to score. I get that she’s only 5 and that a lot can change even in the next few years. She’s got older siblings that play travel at a high level where we have not seen this level of play this early on so wondering what we should do next fall. She’s also average to small in height for her team.

It’s great she’s touching the ball a ton but she’s clearly not being challenged. Do we try to play her up for a U8 program, possibly even a couple years up for U9? Worried that she may get discouraged if she’s not dominating but also worried she may not develop if she’s not being challenged. She has been doing little kid training at various places outside of rec practices as well.

Thank you in advance for the feedback.

1st thing, at this age there is always a kid that can score 15-20 goals a game. Half of the kids that are there are just being introduced to an activity that they have had zero exposure to before. It is inclusive of all skill levels and interests. Half the kids will stick with the sport through the next couple of years and half will find something else.

She isn't a next level talent, just a kid who has had just a head start over the other kids and at this age a little head start is enough to stand out.

That said, you'll want to find a group of kids who are at a similar experience level as her. I avoided saying "skill" for a reason. She has experience on most of the kids and many will catch up rather quickly if they stick with it.

There is nothing wrong with her dominating but it can lead to overconfidence when she runs into other kids who can match her play which will happen sooner than later.

Keep it loose and keep it fun for her, find kids of similar experience, boys, girls, older and younger and be inclusive with other kids as well.

Anonymous wrote:We have a U6 DD who’s been consistently dominating the ball on her rec team. She’s been scoring 15-20 goals a game while not allowing the other team to score. I get that she’s only 5 and that a lot can change even in the next few years. She’s got older siblings that play travel at a high level where we have not seen this level of play this early on so wondering what we should do next fall. She’s also average to small in height for her team.

It’s great she’s touching the ball a ton but she’s clearly not being challenged. Do we try to play her up for a U8 program, possibly even a couple years up for U9? Worried that she may get discouraged if she’s not dominating but also worried she may not develop if she’s not being challenged. She has been doing little kid training at various places outside of rec practices as well.

Thank you in advance for the feedback.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:she needs to pass. U4,5,6 scoring is more about the kid caring enough to try not about talent mismatches

Thanks for responding. I guess there isn’t any one correct method, but is this true? We’ve always been told that through U8 the emphasis should be on possessing the ball. Her coaches, who are excellent for rec as they all have multiple travel kids, have not mentioned passing whatsoever so I’ve kept quiet about it.