Anonymous
09/09/2025 14:37
Subject: ECNL moving to school year part 2
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Yeah, makes sense that RAE doesn't seem to exist if you focus on girl soccer. There aren't nearly as many girls playing compared to boys and the boys are much more physical and growth differences are more stark. I haven't heard RAE used as an excuse for Q4 kids in BY but RAE will be a good excuse for kids who get demoted under SY that are Q1 and Q2 and quit the sport.Anonymous wrote:My kid is on an olders top team of a top 20 nationally club. She's played on the same top club/team since she was 5.
There are 5 players currently on the team now that were on the team when they were 5 years old. There's currently 4-5 trapped players (one is out hurt). My daughter is a Sept birthday. Current roster is 22
What all this means is 17 of the players weren't with the team at 5 years old. It also means that 17-18 were born Jan 1st to Sept 1st. This means 23% are trapped players but Sept-Dec is 33% of a 12 month calendar. This means that theres 10% variance that can be attributed to RAE if you believe in that kind of thing. On a BY team!
The person that keeps posting about RAE is ridiculious. They're likely a professional victim that's latched onto an excuse that can be molded into whatever that want it to be. At some point thet need to step up and stop making excuses.
I like how the professional rae victim said that the biggest kids are always Jan birthdays. This can be true but it can also be false. Not every Jan birthday will be the biggest kid. I also like how the professional rae victim said that being on the top team means getting the best coachs and resources. This is not true, theres good 1st team coaches and really poor 1st team coaches. Also on a 2nd team players will get more opportunities to play multiple positions. This is important because positions players play when they're 5 most likely wont be what they play at 16. Then they bring up the confidence thing. Some of the most confident players Ive seen stayed on the 2nd team for a long time just to build up confidence.
The professional rae victim is mostly nonsense. Yes there are a large number of Jan birthdays. But this doesn't mean if your kid isnt doing private lessons and futsal 2-3 hours a week on top of regular practice that they cant be a top player. My daughter played soccer with the boys every lunch in elementary school. I've never seen a trapped player sept-dec birthday that puts in the extra work not get noticed and opportunities. I have seen parents talk about rae when their kid got cut. As a parent you humor them but everyone knew that the issue wasnt rae.
It's not an excuse. Some clubs, especially these elite ones, are solely focused on winning. Some pick size as a determining factor for boys or girls. See the other recent comment. And yes, sometimes you have several strong Sept-Dec players, even at BY, but these are the outliers, skewing the perspective of these parents. The chef's kiss, though, is these clubs are ruthless and will move these players to the appropriate age level to retain their age edge. All parents should prepare.
The REAL LIFE example that was provided said what you're trying to convince everyone of isn't true.
Actually they said it was 10% true but other than that it wasnt true.
There were counter examples from REAL LIFE.
Anonymous
09/09/2025 14:37
Subject: ECNL moving to school year part 2
Anonymous wrote:You clearly don't know what an actual excuse is.Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:It's the club coaches before the kids hit age 13 that have butchered things.Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Coaches being blind to RAE everywhere is a big Achilles heal for U.S. soccer. Judging based on size instead of talent not only rules out the bulk of the kids at the younger ages, it makes the play pinball like instead of linked.Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:My kid is on an olders top team of a top 20 nationally club. She's played on the same top club/team since she was 5.
There are 5 players currently on the team now that were on the team when they were 5 years old. There's currently 4-5 trapped players (one is out hurt). My daughter is a Sept birthday. Current roster is 22
What all this means is 17 of the players weren't with the team at 5 years old. It also means that 17-18 were born Jan 1st to Sept 1st. This means 23% are trapped players but Sept-Dec is 33% of a 12 month calendar. This means that theres 10% variance that can be attributed to RAE if you believe in that kind of thing. On a BY team!
The person that keeps posting about RAE is ridiculious. They're likely a professional victim that's latched onto an excuse that can be molded into whatever that want it to be. At some point thet need to step up and stop making excuses.
I like how the professional rae victim said that the biggest kids are always Jan birthdays. This can be true but it can also be false. Not every Jan birthday will be the biggest kid. I also like how the professional rae victim said that being on the top team means getting the best coachs and resources. This is not true, theres good 1st team coaches and really poor 1st team coaches. Also on a 2nd team players will get more opportunities to play multiple positions. This is important because positions players play when they're 5 most likely wont be what they play at 16. Then they bring up the confidence thing. Some of the most confident players Ive seen stayed on the 2nd team for a long time just to build up confidence.
The professional rae victim is mostly nonsense. Yes there are a large number of Jan birthdays. But this doesn't mean if your kid isnt doing private lessons and futsal 2-3 hours a week on top of regular practice that they cant be a top player. My daughter played soccer with the boys every lunch in elementary school. I've never seen a trapped player sept-dec birthday that puts in the extra work not get noticed and opportunities. I have seen parents talk about rae when their kid got cut. As a parent you humor them but everyone knew that the issue wasnt rae.
Because of my survey of 1 RAE doesn’t exist🙄
The Hawks, out of their ~120 kids on ECNL rosters, have virtually no youngers.
Now what?
A statistics course should be a high school requirement.
They have interviewed every person that jumped out of an airplane without a parachute. 100% of them lived. Therefore it is completely safe to jump out an airplane without a chute.
They gave you a real life example and you discount it.
This is exactly what a "professional rae victim" would do.
So if 100 teams have no youngers and 1 team has 5 youngers does RAE exist or not? You honestly cant be that stupid..........
You are this stupid.
You've also provided no proof for your statement. Unless your kid has been on 100 teams and you documented evey Q4 player.
Just because you see rae in everything doesnt mean its always there.
There's always one communist in the group looking for an excuse. Your kid will age out soon and you'll find some other excuse to talk about online 24/7.
Jesus, you really are this stupid. Your proof that RAE doesnt exist is that some random team, that is not documented either, is proof that RAE doesn't exist because it has 5 youngers.
I am not OP. I am just pointing out that taking a singular data point for anything (durr my team has 5 youngers so RAE must not exist) is just plain moronic. Read Gadwell, listen to the ECNL podcast, understand the makeup of the older USYNT roster. RAE is documented over and over and obviously real. Not that age change does anything but shift the curve, but to say it doesnt exist is akin to thinking the world is flat.
The issue is you make rae sound like the ultimate excuse for everything. Its not
Its something victim mentality parents key into because it makes quitting or not making the top team easier to justify/quantify.
I dont have a dog in the fight. My kid is a q4 and a top player on a top team and the age change is the worst thing possible for her. She doesnt want to play "down" but she is also on the smaller size so the idea of kids another 5 months older than her is not super appealing either. I am just pointing out RAE exists. We can argue over the actual impact by age but to say it doesnt exist is not accurate
And just for comparison, roster of 20 and 3 youngers.
It's not playing down.
You again. Why do you care so much about how others describe moving from a team that is objectively better to one that is objectively worse as "down"? Bigger battles to fight than this one.
Its the same person that sees rae in everything.
Just annoying to be annoying
Complete Nonsense.
US Soccer recruiters put players into the funnel at u12-u13 and keep tabs on them. They look at players all day every day picking who might work out. Also clubs submit players to talent ids but these are bought and sold unfortunately.
You can complain that the players US Soccer chooses are questionable at best. But I've never seen them focus on biggest players born Jan 1st over everyone else. I personally think US Soccers choices for invites are crap.
More excuses
The actual excuse is a parent blaming everything on rae. Its pretty easy to identify. 100% victim mentality, its always someone or somethings fault that they're not successful.
Anonymous
09/09/2025 14:34
Subject: ECNL moving to school year part 2
You clearly don't know what an actual excuse is.Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:It's the club coaches before the kids hit age 13 that have butchered things.Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Coaches being blind to RAE everywhere is a big Achilles heal for U.S. soccer. Judging based on size instead of talent not only rules out the bulk of the kids at the younger ages, it makes the play pinball like instead of linked.Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:My kid is on an olders top team of a top 20 nationally club. She's played on the same top club/team since she was 5.
There are 5 players currently on the team now that were on the team when they were 5 years old. There's currently 4-5 trapped players (one is out hurt). My daughter is a Sept birthday. Current roster is 22
What all this means is 17 of the players weren't with the team at 5 years old. It also means that 17-18 were born Jan 1st to Sept 1st. This means 23% are trapped players but Sept-Dec is 33% of a 12 month calendar. This means that theres 10% variance that can be attributed to RAE if you believe in that kind of thing. On a BY team!
The person that keeps posting about RAE is ridiculious. They're likely a professional victim that's latched onto an excuse that can be molded into whatever that want it to be. At some point thet need to step up and stop making excuses.
I like how the professional rae victim said that the biggest kids are always Jan birthdays. This can be true but it can also be false. Not every Jan birthday will be the biggest kid. I also like how the professional rae victim said that being on the top team means getting the best coachs and resources. This is not true, theres good 1st team coaches and really poor 1st team coaches. Also on a 2nd team players will get more opportunities to play multiple positions. This is important because positions players play when they're 5 most likely wont be what they play at 16. Then they bring up the confidence thing. Some of the most confident players Ive seen stayed on the 2nd team for a long time just to build up confidence.
The professional rae victim is mostly nonsense. Yes there are a large number of Jan birthdays. But this doesn't mean if your kid isnt doing private lessons and futsal 2-3 hours a week on top of regular practice that they cant be a top player. My daughter played soccer with the boys every lunch in elementary school. I've never seen a trapped player sept-dec birthday that puts in the extra work not get noticed and opportunities. I have seen parents talk about rae when their kid got cut. As a parent you humor them but everyone knew that the issue wasnt rae.
Because of my survey of 1 RAE doesn’t exist🙄
The Hawks, out of their ~120 kids on ECNL rosters, have virtually no youngers.
Now what?
A statistics course should be a high school requirement.
They have interviewed every person that jumped out of an airplane without a parachute. 100% of them lived. Therefore it is completely safe to jump out an airplane without a chute.
They gave you a real life example and you discount it.
This is exactly what a "professional rae victim" would do.
So if 100 teams have no youngers and 1 team has 5 youngers does RAE exist or not? You honestly cant be that stupid..........
You are this stupid.
You've also provided no proof for your statement. Unless your kid has been on 100 teams and you documented evey Q4 player.
Just because you see rae in everything doesnt mean its always there.
There's always one communist in the group looking for an excuse. Your kid will age out soon and you'll find some other excuse to talk about online 24/7.
Jesus, you really are this stupid. Your proof that RAE doesnt exist is that some random team, that is not documented either, is proof that RAE doesn't exist because it has 5 youngers.
I am not OP. I am just pointing out that taking a singular data point for anything (durr my team has 5 youngers so RAE must not exist) is just plain moronic. Read Gadwell, listen to the ECNL podcast, understand the makeup of the older USYNT roster. RAE is documented over and over and obviously real. Not that age change does anything but shift the curve, but to say it doesnt exist is akin to thinking the world is flat.
The issue is you make rae sound like the ultimate excuse for everything. Its not
Its something victim mentality parents key into because it makes quitting or not making the top team easier to justify/quantify.
I dont have a dog in the fight. My kid is a q4 and a top player on a top team and the age change is the worst thing possible for her. She doesnt want to play "down" but she is also on the smaller size so the idea of kids another 5 months older than her is not super appealing either. I am just pointing out RAE exists. We can argue over the actual impact by age but to say it doesnt exist is not accurate
And just for comparison, roster of 20 and 3 youngers.
It's not playing down.
You again. Why do you care so much about how others describe moving from a team that is objectively better to one that is objectively worse as "down"? Bigger battles to fight than this one.
Its the same person that sees rae in everything.
Just annoying to be annoying
Complete Nonsense.
US Soccer recruiters put players into the funnel at u12-u13 and keep tabs on them. They look at players all day every day picking who might work out. Also clubs submit players to talent ids but these are bought and sold unfortunately.
You can complain that the players US Soccer chooses are questionable at best. But I've never seen them focus on biggest players born Jan 1st over everyone else. I personally think US Soccers choices for invites are crap.
More excuses
Anonymous
09/09/2025 14:33
Subject: ECNL moving to school year part 2
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Your house of cards falls on Sept-Dec kids reaching parity on older teams. It doesn't.Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Rae of course doesn't change in the aggregate with the change but for individual players calling them lightly affected us underselling it. Not just who is on what team but quality minutes on the field at stake here.Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:My kid is on an olders top team of a top 20 nationally club. She's played on the same top club/team since she was 5.
There are 5 players currently on the team now that were on the team when they were 5 years old. There's currently 4-5 trapped players (one is out hurt). My daughter is a Sept birthday. Current roster is 22
What all this means is 17 of the players weren't with the team at 5 years old. It also means that 17-18 were born Jan 1st to Sept 1st. This means 23% are trapped players but Sept-Dec is 33% of a 12 month calendar. This means that theres 10% variance that can be attributed to RAE if you believe in that kind of thing. On a BY team!
The person that keeps posting about RAE is ridiculious. They're likely a professional victim that's latched onto an excuse that can be molded into whatever that want it to be. At some point thet need to step up and stop making excuses.
I like how the professional rae victim said that the biggest kids are always Jan birthdays. This can be true but it can also be false. Not every Jan birthday will be the biggest kid. I also like how the professional rae victim said that being on the top team means getting the best coachs and resources. This is not true, theres good 1st team coaches and really poor 1st team coaches. Also on a 2nd team players will get more opportunities to play multiple positions. This is important because positions players play when they're 5 most likely wont be what they play at 16. Then they bring up the confidence thing. Some of the most confident players Ive seen stayed on the 2nd team for a long time just to build up confidence.
The professional rae victim is mostly nonsense. Yes there are a large number of Jan birthdays. But this doesn't mean if your kid isnt doing private lessons and futsal 2-3 hours a week on top of regular practice that they cant be a top player. My daughter played soccer with the boys every lunch in elementary school. I've never seen a trapped player sept-dec birthday that puts in the extra work not get noticed and opportunities. I have seen parents talk about rae when their kid got cut. As a parent you humor them but everyone knew that the issue wasnt rae.
Because of my survey of 1 RAE doesn’t exist🙄
The Hawks, out of their ~120 kids on ECNL rosters, have virtually no youngers.
Now what?
A statistics course should be a high school requirement.
They have interviewed every person that jumped out of an airplane without a parachute. 100% of them lived. Therefore it is completely safe to jump out an airplane without a chute.
They gave you a real life example and you discount it.
This is exactly what a "professional rae victim" would do.
So if 100 teams have no youngers and 1 team has 5 youngers does RAE exist or not? You honestly cant be that stupid..........
You are this stupid.
You've also provided no proof for your statement. Unless your kid has been on 100 teams and you documented evey Q4 player.
Just because you see rae in everything doesnt mean its always there.
There's always one communist in the group looking for an excuse. Your kid will age out soon and you'll find some other excuse to talk about online 24/7.
Jesus, you really are this stupid. Your proof that RAE doesnt exist is that some random team, that is not documented either, is proof that RAE doesn't exist because it has 5 youngers.
I am not OP. I am just pointing out that taking a singular data point for anything (durr my team has 5 youngers so RAE must not exist) is just plain moronic. Read Gadwell, listen to the ECNL podcast, understand the makeup of the older USYNT roster. RAE is documented over and over and obviously real. Not that age change does anything but shift the curve, but to say it doesnt exist is akin to thinking the world is flat.
The issue is you make rae sound like the ultimate excuse for everything. Its not
Its something victim mentality parents key into because it makes quitting or not making the top team easier to justify/quantify.
I dont have a dog in the fight. My kid is a q4 and a top player on a top team and the age change is the worst thing possible for her. She doesnt want to play "down" but she is also on the smaller size so the idea of kids another 5 months older than her is not super appealing either. I am just pointing out RAE exists. We can argue over the actual impact by age but to say it doesnt exist is not accurate
And just for comparison, roster of 20 and 3 youngers.
Its just annoying reading about rae 24/7 when its really not that big of an issue.
Whats also annoying is reading about how switching from BY to SY will change rae in some form. It wont, rae is exactly as it was before only different players are lightly affected.
You dont get it.
Yes rae affects youngers and yes they might have a few more opportunities because of it. But, when they get older theres more Q4s on teams so things even out.
Its hard to explain this to some people but being on the top team isnt always the best way to develop a player. Second teams often allow players to try several different positions. First teams recruit specific players and pigeon hole them into that role. Here's a really good example of this. Often at 7v7 players that can kick it hard get put in defense and told to boot it up to the front. They get put in defense to keep the other team from scoring. The problem is players like this are ideal forwards. But they wont get trained for this role because coaches + parents want wins. When you get to 9v9 sometimes it makes sense to play on a second team if your kid gets to play forward every game to build up their confidense.
Parent ego and fomo makes you think that the rae boogeyman is stealing from your Q4 kids experience. But this isnt the case. When youre young being the best player on the team (1st team or 2nd team) is more important than wins.
Older teams actually to have more Q4s and many are much better than the Q1s because they had to battle for everything thay have. The trick to enable this is to provide quality 2nd teams. This is the one thing your rae vision isnt accounting for.
You are soo close! Agree what's missing in youth soccer is clubs not giving the same coaches and resources to 2nd teams.
Anonymous
09/09/2025 14:31
Subject: ECNL moving to school year part 2
Can you name one ECNL team where Q4s outnumber Q1s, not including the final mixed year where Q4s have to spend 2 years before college.Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Your house of cards falls on Sept-Dec kids reaching parity on older teams. It doesn't.Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Rae of course doesn't change in the aggregate with the change but for individual players calling them lightly affected us underselling it. Not just who is on what team but quality minutes on the field at stake here.Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:My kid is on an olders top team of a top 20 nationally club. She's played on the same top club/team since she was 5.
There are 5 players currently on the team now that were on the team when they were 5 years old. There's currently 4-5 trapped players (one is out hurt). My daughter is a Sept birthday. Current roster is 22
What all this means is 17 of the players weren't with the team at 5 years old. It also means that 17-18 were born Jan 1st to Sept 1st. This means 23% are trapped players but Sept-Dec is 33% of a 12 month calendar. This means that theres 10% variance that can be attributed to RAE if you believe in that kind of thing. On a BY team!
The person that keeps posting about RAE is ridiculious. They're likely a professional victim that's latched onto an excuse that can be molded into whatever that want it to be. At some point thet need to step up and stop making excuses.
I like how the professional rae victim said that the biggest kids are always Jan birthdays. This can be true but it can also be false. Not every Jan birthday will be the biggest kid. I also like how the professional rae victim said that being on the top team means getting the best coachs and resources. This is not true, theres good 1st team coaches and really poor 1st team coaches. Also on a 2nd team players will get more opportunities to play multiple positions. This is important because positions players play when they're 5 most likely wont be what they play at 16. Then they bring up the confidence thing. Some of the most confident players Ive seen stayed on the 2nd team for a long time just to build up confidence.
The professional rae victim is mostly nonsense. Yes there are a large number of Jan birthdays. But this doesn't mean if your kid isnt doing private lessons and futsal 2-3 hours a week on top of regular practice that they cant be a top player. My daughter played soccer with the boys every lunch in elementary school. I've never seen a trapped player sept-dec birthday that puts in the extra work not get noticed and opportunities. I have seen parents talk about rae when their kid got cut. As a parent you humor them but everyone knew that the issue wasnt rae.
Because of my survey of 1 RAE doesn’t exist🙄
The Hawks, out of their ~120 kids on ECNL rosters, have virtually no youngers.
Now what?
A statistics course should be a high school requirement.
They have interviewed every person that jumped out of an airplane without a parachute. 100% of them lived. Therefore it is completely safe to jump out an airplane without a chute.
They gave you a real life example and you discount it.
This is exactly what a "professional rae victim" would do.
So if 100 teams have no youngers and 1 team has 5 youngers does RAE exist or not? You honestly cant be that stupid..........
You are this stupid.
You've also provided no proof for your statement. Unless your kid has been on 100 teams and you documented evey Q4 player.
Just because you see rae in everything doesnt mean its always there.
There's always one communist in the group looking for an excuse. Your kid will age out soon and you'll find some other excuse to talk about online 24/7.
Jesus, you really are this stupid. Your proof that RAE doesnt exist is that some random team, that is not documented either, is proof that RAE doesn't exist because it has 5 youngers.
I am not OP. I am just pointing out that taking a singular data point for anything (durr my team has 5 youngers so RAE must not exist) is just plain moronic. Read Gadwell, listen to the ECNL podcast, understand the makeup of the older USYNT roster. RAE is documented over and over and obviously real. Not that age change does anything but shift the curve, but to say it doesnt exist is akin to thinking the world is flat.
The issue is you make rae sound like the ultimate excuse for everything. Its not
Its something victim mentality parents key into because it makes quitting or not making the top team easier to justify/quantify.
I dont have a dog in the fight. My kid is a q4 and a top player on a top team and the age change is the worst thing possible for her. She doesnt want to play "down" but she is also on the smaller size so the idea of kids another 5 months older than her is not super appealing either. I am just pointing out RAE exists. We can argue over the actual impact by age but to say it doesnt exist is not accurate
And just for comparison, roster of 20 and 3 youngers.
Its just annoying reading about rae 24/7 when its really not that big of an issue.
Whats also annoying is reading about how switching from BY to SY will change rae in some form. It wont, rae is exactly as it was before only different players are lightly affected.
You dont get it.
Yes rae affects youngers and yes they might have a few more opportunities because of it. But, when they get older theres more Q4s on teams so things even out.
Its hard to explain this to some people but being on the top team isnt always the best way to develop a player. Second teams often allow players to try several different positions. First teams recruit specific players and pigeon hole them into that role. Here's a really good example of this. Often at 7v7 players that can kick it hard get put in defense and told to boot it up to the front. They get put in defense to keep the other team from scoring. The problem is players like this are ideal forwards. But they wont get trained for this role because coaches + parents want wins. When you get to 9v9 sometimes it makes sense to play on a second team if your kid gets to play forward every game to build up their confidense.
Parent ego and fomo makes you think that the rae boogeyman is stealing from your Q4 kids experience. But this isnt the case. When youre young being the best player on the team (1st team or 2nd team) is more important than wins.
Older teams actually to have more Q4s and many are much better than the Q1s because they had to battle for everything thay have. The trick to enable this is to provide quality 2nd teams. This is the one thing your rae vision isnt accounting for.
Anonymous
09/09/2025 14:29
Subject: ECNL moving to school year part 2
Anonymous wrote:It's the club coaches before the kids hit age 13 that have butchered things.Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Coaches being blind to RAE everywhere is a big Achilles heal for U.S. soccer. Judging based on size instead of talent not only rules out the bulk of the kids at the younger ages, it makes the play pinball like instead of linked.Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:My kid is on an olders top team of a top 20 nationally club. She's played on the same top club/team since she was 5.
There are 5 players currently on the team now that were on the team when they were 5 years old. There's currently 4-5 trapped players (one is out hurt). My daughter is a Sept birthday. Current roster is 22
What all this means is 17 of the players weren't with the team at 5 years old. It also means that 17-18 were born Jan 1st to Sept 1st. This means 23% are trapped players but Sept-Dec is 33% of a 12 month calendar. This means that theres 10% variance that can be attributed to RAE if you believe in that kind of thing. On a BY team!
The person that keeps posting about RAE is ridiculious. They're likely a professional victim that's latched onto an excuse that can be molded into whatever that want it to be. At some point thet need to step up and stop making excuses.
I like how the professional rae victim said that the biggest kids are always Jan birthdays. This can be true but it can also be false. Not every Jan birthday will be the biggest kid. I also like how the professional rae victim said that being on the top team means getting the best coachs and resources. This is not true, theres good 1st team coaches and really poor 1st team coaches. Also on a 2nd team players will get more opportunities to play multiple positions. This is important because positions players play when they're 5 most likely wont be what they play at 16. Then they bring up the confidence thing. Some of the most confident players Ive seen stayed on the 2nd team for a long time just to build up confidence.
The professional rae victim is mostly nonsense. Yes there are a large number of Jan birthdays. But this doesn't mean if your kid isnt doing private lessons and futsal 2-3 hours a week on top of regular practice that they cant be a top player. My daughter played soccer with the boys every lunch in elementary school. I've never seen a trapped player sept-dec birthday that puts in the extra work not get noticed and opportunities. I have seen parents talk about rae when their kid got cut. As a parent you humor them but everyone knew that the issue wasnt rae.
Because of my survey of 1 RAE doesn’t exist🙄
The Hawks, out of their ~120 kids on ECNL rosters, have virtually no youngers.
Now what?
A statistics course should be a high school requirement.
They have interviewed every person that jumped out of an airplane without a parachute. 100% of them lived. Therefore it is completely safe to jump out an airplane without a chute.
They gave you a real life example and you discount it.
This is exactly what a "professional rae victim" would do.
So if 100 teams have no youngers and 1 team has 5 youngers does RAE exist or not? You honestly cant be that stupid..........
You are this stupid.
You've also provided no proof for your statement. Unless your kid has been on 100 teams and you documented evey Q4 player.
Just because you see rae in everything doesnt mean its always there.
There's always one communist in the group looking for an excuse. Your kid will age out soon and you'll find some other excuse to talk about online 24/7.
Jesus, you really are this stupid. Your proof that RAE doesnt exist is that some random team, that is not documented either, is proof that RAE doesn't exist because it has 5 youngers.
I am not OP. I am just pointing out that taking a singular data point for anything (durr my team has 5 youngers so RAE must not exist) is just plain moronic. Read Gadwell, listen to the ECNL podcast, understand the makeup of the older USYNT roster. RAE is documented over and over and obviously real. Not that age change does anything but shift the curve, but to say it doesnt exist is akin to thinking the world is flat.
The issue is you make rae sound like the ultimate excuse for everything. Its not
Its something victim mentality parents key into because it makes quitting or not making the top team easier to justify/quantify.
I dont have a dog in the fight. My kid is a q4 and a top player on a top team and the age change is the worst thing possible for her. She doesnt want to play "down" but she is also on the smaller size so the idea of kids another 5 months older than her is not super appealing either. I am just pointing out RAE exists. We can argue over the actual impact by age but to say it doesnt exist is not accurate
And just for comparison, roster of 20 and 3 youngers.
It's not playing down.
You again. Why do you care so much about how others describe moving from a team that is objectively better to one that is objectively worse as "down"? Bigger battles to fight than this one.
Its the same person that sees rae in everything.
Just annoying to be annoying
Complete Nonsense.
US Soccer recruiters put players into the funnel at u12-u13 and keep tabs on them. They look at players all day every day picking who might work out. Also clubs submit players to talent ids but these are bought and sold unfortunately.
You can complain that the players US Soccer chooses are questionable at best. But I've never seen them focus on biggest players born Jan 1st over everyone else. I personally think US Soccers choices for invites are crap.
More excuses
Anonymous
09/09/2025 14:28
Subject: ECNL moving to school year part 2
Anonymous wrote:Your house of cards falls on Sept-Dec kids reaching parity on older teams. It doesn't.Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Rae of course doesn't change in the aggregate with the change but for individual players calling them lightly affected us underselling it. Not just who is on what team but quality minutes on the field at stake here.Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:My kid is on an olders top team of a top 20 nationally club. She's played on the same top club/team since she was 5.
There are 5 players currently on the team now that were on the team when they were 5 years old. There's currently 4-5 trapped players (one is out hurt). My daughter is a Sept birthday. Current roster is 22
What all this means is 17 of the players weren't with the team at 5 years old. It also means that 17-18 were born Jan 1st to Sept 1st. This means 23% are trapped players but Sept-Dec is 33% of a 12 month calendar. This means that theres 10% variance that can be attributed to RAE if you believe in that kind of thing. On a BY team!
The person that keeps posting about RAE is ridiculious. They're likely a professional victim that's latched onto an excuse that can be molded into whatever that want it to be. At some point thet need to step up and stop making excuses.
I like how the professional rae victim said that the biggest kids are always Jan birthdays. This can be true but it can also be false. Not every Jan birthday will be the biggest kid. I also like how the professional rae victim said that being on the top team means getting the best coachs and resources. This is not true, theres good 1st team coaches and really poor 1st team coaches. Also on a 2nd team players will get more opportunities to play multiple positions. This is important because positions players play when they're 5 most likely wont be what they play at 16. Then they bring up the confidence thing. Some of the most confident players Ive seen stayed on the 2nd team for a long time just to build up confidence.
The professional rae victim is mostly nonsense. Yes there are a large number of Jan birthdays. But this doesn't mean if your kid isnt doing private lessons and futsal 2-3 hours a week on top of regular practice that they cant be a top player. My daughter played soccer with the boys every lunch in elementary school. I've never seen a trapped player sept-dec birthday that puts in the extra work not get noticed and opportunities. I have seen parents talk about rae when their kid got cut. As a parent you humor them but everyone knew that the issue wasnt rae.
Because of my survey of 1 RAE doesn’t exist🙄
The Hawks, out of their ~120 kids on ECNL rosters, have virtually no youngers.
Now what?
A statistics course should be a high school requirement.
They have interviewed every person that jumped out of an airplane without a parachute. 100% of them lived. Therefore it is completely safe to jump out an airplane without a chute.
They gave you a real life example and you discount it.
This is exactly what a "professional rae victim" would do.
So if 100 teams have no youngers and 1 team has 5 youngers does RAE exist or not? You honestly cant be that stupid..........
You are this stupid.
You've also provided no proof for your statement. Unless your kid has been on 100 teams and you documented evey Q4 player.
Just because you see rae in everything doesnt mean its always there.
There's always one communist in the group looking for an excuse. Your kid will age out soon and you'll find some other excuse to talk about online 24/7.
Jesus, you really are this stupid. Your proof that RAE doesnt exist is that some random team, that is not documented either, is proof that RAE doesn't exist because it has 5 youngers.
I am not OP. I am just pointing out that taking a singular data point for anything (durr my team has 5 youngers so RAE must not exist) is just plain moronic. Read Gadwell, listen to the ECNL podcast, understand the makeup of the older USYNT roster. RAE is documented over and over and obviously real. Not that age change does anything but shift the curve, but to say it doesnt exist is akin to thinking the world is flat.
The issue is you make rae sound like the ultimate excuse for everything. Its not
Its something victim mentality parents key into because it makes quitting or not making the top team easier to justify/quantify.
I dont have a dog in the fight. My kid is a q4 and a top player on a top team and the age change is the worst thing possible for her. She doesnt want to play "down" but she is also on the smaller size so the idea of kids another 5 months older than her is not super appealing either. I am just pointing out RAE exists. We can argue over the actual impact by age but to say it doesnt exist is not accurate
And just for comparison, roster of 20 and 3 youngers.
Its just annoying reading about rae 24/7 when its really not that big of an issue.
Whats also annoying is reading about how switching from BY to SY will change rae in some form. It wont, rae is exactly as it was before only different players are lightly affected.
You dont get it.
Yes rae affects youngers and yes they might have a few more opportunities because of it. But, when they get older theres more Q4s on teams so things even out.
Its hard to explain this to some people but being on the top team isnt always the best way to develop a player. Second teams often allow players to try several different positions. First teams recruit specific players and pigeon hole them into that role. Here's a really good example of this. Often at 7v7 players that can kick it hard get put in defense and told to boot it up to the front. They get put in defense to keep the other team from scoring. The problem is players like this are ideal forwards. But they wont get trained for this role because coaches + parents want wins. When you get to 9v9 sometimes it makes sense to play on a second team if your kid gets to play forward every game to build up their confidense.
Parent ego and fomo makes you think that the rae boogeyman is stealing from your Q4 kids experience. But this isnt the case. When youre young being the best player on the team (1st team or 2nd team) is more important than wins.
Older teams actually to have more Q4s and many are much better than the Q1s because they had to battle for everything thay have. The trick to enable this is to provide quality 2nd teams. This is the one thing your rae vision isnt accounting for.
Anonymous
09/09/2025 14:26
Subject: ECNL moving to school year part 2
It's the club coaches before the kids hit age 13 that have butchered things.Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Coaches being blind to RAE everywhere is a big Achilles heal for U.S. soccer. Judging based on size instead of talent not only rules out the bulk of the kids at the younger ages, it makes the play pinball like instead of linked.Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:My kid is on an olders top team of a top 20 nationally club. She's played on the same top club/team since she was 5.
There are 5 players currently on the team now that were on the team when they were 5 years old. There's currently 4-5 trapped players (one is out hurt). My daughter is a Sept birthday. Current roster is 22
What all this means is 17 of the players weren't with the team at 5 years old. It also means that 17-18 were born Jan 1st to Sept 1st. This means 23% are trapped players but Sept-Dec is 33% of a 12 month calendar. This means that theres 10% variance that can be attributed to RAE if you believe in that kind of thing. On a BY team!
The person that keeps posting about RAE is ridiculious. They're likely a professional victim that's latched onto an excuse that can be molded into whatever that want it to be. At some point thet need to step up and stop making excuses.
I like how the professional rae victim said that the biggest kids are always Jan birthdays. This can be true but it can also be false. Not every Jan birthday will be the biggest kid. I also like how the professional rae victim said that being on the top team means getting the best coachs and resources. This is not true, theres good 1st team coaches and really poor 1st team coaches. Also on a 2nd team players will get more opportunities to play multiple positions. This is important because positions players play when they're 5 most likely wont be what they play at 16. Then they bring up the confidence thing. Some of the most confident players Ive seen stayed on the 2nd team for a long time just to build up confidence.
The professional rae victim is mostly nonsense. Yes there are a large number of Jan birthdays. But this doesn't mean if your kid isnt doing private lessons and futsal 2-3 hours a week on top of regular practice that they cant be a top player. My daughter played soccer with the boys every lunch in elementary school. I've never seen a trapped player sept-dec birthday that puts in the extra work not get noticed and opportunities. I have seen parents talk about rae when their kid got cut. As a parent you humor them but everyone knew that the issue wasnt rae.
Because of my survey of 1 RAE doesn’t exist🙄
The Hawks, out of their ~120 kids on ECNL rosters, have virtually no youngers.
Now what?
A statistics course should be a high school requirement.
They have interviewed every person that jumped out of an airplane without a parachute. 100% of them lived. Therefore it is completely safe to jump out an airplane without a chute.
They gave you a real life example and you discount it.
This is exactly what a "professional rae victim" would do.
So if 100 teams have no youngers and 1 team has 5 youngers does RAE exist or not? You honestly cant be that stupid..........
You are this stupid.
You've also provided no proof for your statement. Unless your kid has been on 100 teams and you documented evey Q4 player.
Just because you see rae in everything doesnt mean its always there.
There's always one communist in the group looking for an excuse. Your kid will age out soon and you'll find some other excuse to talk about online 24/7.
Jesus, you really are this stupid. Your proof that RAE doesnt exist is that some random team, that is not documented either, is proof that RAE doesn't exist because it has 5 youngers.
I am not OP. I am just pointing out that taking a singular data point for anything (durr my team has 5 youngers so RAE must not exist) is just plain moronic. Read Gadwell, listen to the ECNL podcast, understand the makeup of the older USYNT roster. RAE is documented over and over and obviously real. Not that age change does anything but shift the curve, but to say it doesnt exist is akin to thinking the world is flat.
The issue is you make rae sound like the ultimate excuse for everything. Its not
Its something victim mentality parents key into because it makes quitting or not making the top team easier to justify/quantify.
I dont have a dog in the fight. My kid is a q4 and a top player on a top team and the age change is the worst thing possible for her. She doesnt want to play "down" but she is also on the smaller size so the idea of kids another 5 months older than her is not super appealing either. I am just pointing out RAE exists. We can argue over the actual impact by age but to say it doesnt exist is not accurate
And just for comparison, roster of 20 and 3 youngers.
It's not playing down.
You again. Why do you care so much about how others describe moving from a team that is objectively better to one that is objectively worse as "down"? Bigger battles to fight than this one.
Its the same person that sees rae in everything.
Just annoying to be annoying
Complete Nonsense.
US Soccer recruiters put players into the funnel at u12-u13 and keep tabs on them. They look at players all day every day picking who might work out. Also clubs submit players to talent ids but these are bought and sold unfortunately.
You can complain that the players US Soccer chooses are questionable at best. But I've never seen them focus on biggest players born Jan 1st over everyone else. I personally think US Soccers choices for invites are crap.
Anonymous
09/09/2025 14:22
Subject: ECNL moving to school year part 2
Your house of cards falls on Sept-Dec kids reaching parity on older teams. It doesn't.Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Rae of course doesn't change in the aggregate with the change but for individual players calling them lightly affected us underselling it. Not just who is on what team but quality minutes on the field at stake here.Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:My kid is on an olders top team of a top 20 nationally club. She's played on the same top club/team since she was 5.
There are 5 players currently on the team now that were on the team when they were 5 years old. There's currently 4-5 trapped players (one is out hurt). My daughter is a Sept birthday. Current roster is 22
What all this means is 17 of the players weren't with the team at 5 years old. It also means that 17-18 were born Jan 1st to Sept 1st. This means 23% are trapped players but Sept-Dec is 33% of a 12 month calendar. This means that theres 10% variance that can be attributed to RAE if you believe in that kind of thing. On a BY team!
The person that keeps posting about RAE is ridiculious. They're likely a professional victim that's latched onto an excuse that can be molded into whatever that want it to be. At some point thet need to step up and stop making excuses.
I like how the professional rae victim said that the biggest kids are always Jan birthdays. This can be true but it can also be false. Not every Jan birthday will be the biggest kid. I also like how the professional rae victim said that being on the top team means getting the best coachs and resources. This is not true, theres good 1st team coaches and really poor 1st team coaches. Also on a 2nd team players will get more opportunities to play multiple positions. This is important because positions players play when they're 5 most likely wont be what they play at 16. Then they bring up the confidence thing. Some of the most confident players Ive seen stayed on the 2nd team for a long time just to build up confidence.
The professional rae victim is mostly nonsense. Yes there are a large number of Jan birthdays. But this doesn't mean if your kid isnt doing private lessons and futsal 2-3 hours a week on top of regular practice that they cant be a top player. My daughter played soccer with the boys every lunch in elementary school. I've never seen a trapped player sept-dec birthday that puts in the extra work not get noticed and opportunities. I have seen parents talk about rae when their kid got cut. As a parent you humor them but everyone knew that the issue wasnt rae.
Because of my survey of 1 RAE doesn’t exist🙄
The Hawks, out of their ~120 kids on ECNL rosters, have virtually no youngers.
Now what?
A statistics course should be a high school requirement.
They have interviewed every person that jumped out of an airplane without a parachute. 100% of them lived. Therefore it is completely safe to jump out an airplane without a chute.
They gave you a real life example and you discount it.
This is exactly what a "professional rae victim" would do.
So if 100 teams have no youngers and 1 team has 5 youngers does RAE exist or not? You honestly cant be that stupid..........
You are this stupid.
You've also provided no proof for your statement. Unless your kid has been on 100 teams and you documented evey Q4 player.
Just because you see rae in everything doesnt mean its always there.
There's always one communist in the group looking for an excuse. Your kid will age out soon and you'll find some other excuse to talk about online 24/7.
Jesus, you really are this stupid. Your proof that RAE doesnt exist is that some random team, that is not documented either, is proof that RAE doesn't exist because it has 5 youngers.
I am not OP. I am just pointing out that taking a singular data point for anything (durr my team has 5 youngers so RAE must not exist) is just plain moronic. Read Gadwell, listen to the ECNL podcast, understand the makeup of the older USYNT roster. RAE is documented over and over and obviously real. Not that age change does anything but shift the curve, but to say it doesnt exist is akin to thinking the world is flat.
The issue is you make rae sound like the ultimate excuse for everything. Its not
Its something victim mentality parents key into because it makes quitting or not making the top team easier to justify/quantify.
I dont have a dog in the fight. My kid is a q4 and a top player on a top team and the age change is the worst thing possible for her. She doesnt want to play "down" but she is also on the smaller size so the idea of kids another 5 months older than her is not super appealing either. I am just pointing out RAE exists. We can argue over the actual impact by age but to say it doesnt exist is not accurate
And just for comparison, roster of 20 and 3 youngers.
Its just annoying reading about rae 24/7 when its really not that big of an issue.
Whats also annoying is reading about how switching from BY to SY will change rae in some form. It wont, rae is exactly as it was before only different players are lightly affected.
You dont get it.
Yes rae affects youngers and yes they might have a few more opportunities because of it. But, when they get older theres more Q4s on teams so things even out.
Its hard to explain this to some people but being on the top team isnt always the best way to develop a player. Second teams often allow players to try several different positions. First teams recruit specific players and pigeon hole them into that role. Here's a really good example of this. Often at 7v7 players that can kick it hard get put in defense and told to boot it up to the front. They get put in defense to keep the other team from scoring. The problem is players like this are ideal forwards. But they wont get trained for this role because coaches + parents want wins. When you get to 9v9 sometimes it makes sense to play on a second team if your kid gets to play forward every game to build up their confidense.
Parent ego and fomo makes you think that the rae boogeyman is stealing from your Q4 kids experience. But this isnt the case. When youre young being the best player on the team (1st team or 2nd team) is more important than wins.
Anonymous
09/09/2025 14:21
Subject: ECNL moving to school year part 2
Anonymous wrote:Coaches being blind to RAE everywhere is a big Achilles heal for U.S. soccer. Judging based on size instead of talent not only rules out the bulk of the kids at the younger ages, it makes the play pinball like instead of linked.Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:My kid is on an olders top team of a top 20 nationally club. She's played on the same top club/team since she was 5.
There are 5 players currently on the team now that were on the team when they were 5 years old. There's currently 4-5 trapped players (one is out hurt). My daughter is a Sept birthday. Current roster is 22
What all this means is 17 of the players weren't with the team at 5 years old. It also means that 17-18 were born Jan 1st to Sept 1st. This means 23% are trapped players but Sept-Dec is 33% of a 12 month calendar. This means that theres 10% variance that can be attributed to RAE if you believe in that kind of thing. On a BY team!
The person that keeps posting about RAE is ridiculious. They're likely a professional victim that's latched onto an excuse that can be molded into whatever that want it to be. At some point thet need to step up and stop making excuses.
I like how the professional rae victim said that the biggest kids are always Jan birthdays. This can be true but it can also be false. Not every Jan birthday will be the biggest kid. I also like how the professional rae victim said that being on the top team means getting the best coachs and resources. This is not true, theres good 1st team coaches and really poor 1st team coaches. Also on a 2nd team players will get more opportunities to play multiple positions. This is important because positions players play when they're 5 most likely wont be what they play at 16. Then they bring up the confidence thing. Some of the most confident players Ive seen stayed on the 2nd team for a long time just to build up confidence.
The professional rae victim is mostly nonsense. Yes there are a large number of Jan birthdays. But this doesn't mean if your kid isnt doing private lessons and futsal 2-3 hours a week on top of regular practice that they cant be a top player. My daughter played soccer with the boys every lunch in elementary school. I've never seen a trapped player sept-dec birthday that puts in the extra work not get noticed and opportunities. I have seen parents talk about rae when their kid got cut. As a parent you humor them but everyone knew that the issue wasnt rae.
Because of my survey of 1 RAE doesn’t exist🙄
The Hawks, out of their ~120 kids on ECNL rosters, have virtually no youngers.
Now what?
A statistics course should be a high school requirement.
They have interviewed every person that jumped out of an airplane without a parachute. 100% of them lived. Therefore it is completely safe to jump out an airplane without a chute.
They gave you a real life example and you discount it.
This is exactly what a "professional rae victim" would do.
So if 100 teams have no youngers and 1 team has 5 youngers does RAE exist or not? You honestly cant be that stupid..........
You are this stupid.
You've also provided no proof for your statement. Unless your kid has been on 100 teams and you documented evey Q4 player.
Just because you see rae in everything doesnt mean its always there.
There's always one communist in the group looking for an excuse. Your kid will age out soon and you'll find some other excuse to talk about online 24/7.
Jesus, you really are this stupid. Your proof that RAE doesnt exist is that some random team, that is not documented either, is proof that RAE doesn't exist because it has 5 youngers.
I am not OP. I am just pointing out that taking a singular data point for anything (durr my team has 5 youngers so RAE must not exist) is just plain moronic. Read Gadwell, listen to the ECNL podcast, understand the makeup of the older USYNT roster. RAE is documented over and over and obviously real. Not that age change does anything but shift the curve, but to say it doesnt exist is akin to thinking the world is flat.
The issue is you make rae sound like the ultimate excuse for everything. Its not
Its something victim mentality parents key into because it makes quitting or not making the top team easier to justify/quantify.
I dont have a dog in the fight. My kid is a q4 and a top player on a top team and the age change is the worst thing possible for her. She doesnt want to play "down" but she is also on the smaller size so the idea of kids another 5 months older than her is not super appealing either. I am just pointing out RAE exists. We can argue over the actual impact by age but to say it doesnt exist is not accurate
And just for comparison, roster of 20 and 3 youngers.
It's not playing down.
You again. Why do you care so much about how others describe moving from a team that is objectively better to one that is objectively worse as "down"? Bigger battles to fight than this one.
Its the same person that sees rae in everything.
Just annoying to be annoying
Complete Nonsense.
US Soccer recruiters put players into the funnel at u12-u13 and keep tabs on them. They look at players all day every day picking who might work out. Also clubs submit players to talent ids but these are bought and sold unfortunately.
You can complain that the players US Soccer chooses are questionable at best. But I've never seen them focus on biggest players born Jan 1st over everyone else. I personally think US Soccers choices for invites are crap.
Anonymous
09/09/2025 14:15
Subject: ECNL moving to school year part 2
Anonymous wrote:Rae of course doesn't change in the aggregate with the change but for individual players calling them lightly affected us underselling it. Not just who is on what team but quality minutes on the field at stake here.Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:My kid is on an olders top team of a top 20 nationally club. She's played on the same top club/team since she was 5.
There are 5 players currently on the team now that were on the team when they were 5 years old. There's currently 4-5 trapped players (one is out hurt). My daughter is a Sept birthday. Current roster is 22
What all this means is 17 of the players weren't with the team at 5 years old. It also means that 17-18 were born Jan 1st to Sept 1st. This means 23% are trapped players but Sept-Dec is 33% of a 12 month calendar. This means that theres 10% variance that can be attributed to RAE if you believe in that kind of thing. On a BY team!
The person that keeps posting about RAE is ridiculious. They're likely a professional victim that's latched onto an excuse that can be molded into whatever that want it to be. At some point thet need to step up and stop making excuses.
I like how the professional rae victim said that the biggest kids are always Jan birthdays. This can be true but it can also be false. Not every Jan birthday will be the biggest kid. I also like how the professional rae victim said that being on the top team means getting the best coachs and resources. This is not true, theres good 1st team coaches and really poor 1st team coaches. Also on a 2nd team players will get more opportunities to play multiple positions. This is important because positions players play when they're 5 most likely wont be what they play at 16. Then they bring up the confidence thing. Some of the most confident players Ive seen stayed on the 2nd team for a long time just to build up confidence.
The professional rae victim is mostly nonsense. Yes there are a large number of Jan birthdays. But this doesn't mean if your kid isnt doing private lessons and futsal 2-3 hours a week on top of regular practice that they cant be a top player. My daughter played soccer with the boys every lunch in elementary school. I've never seen a trapped player sept-dec birthday that puts in the extra work not get noticed and opportunities. I have seen parents talk about rae when their kid got cut. As a parent you humor them but everyone knew that the issue wasnt rae.
Because of my survey of 1 RAE doesn’t exist🙄
The Hawks, out of their ~120 kids on ECNL rosters, have virtually no youngers.
Now what?
A statistics course should be a high school requirement.
They have interviewed every person that jumped out of an airplane without a parachute. 100% of them lived. Therefore it is completely safe to jump out an airplane without a chute.
They gave you a real life example and you discount it.
This is exactly what a "professional rae victim" would do.
So if 100 teams have no youngers and 1 team has 5 youngers does RAE exist or not? You honestly cant be that stupid..........
You are this stupid.
You've also provided no proof for your statement. Unless your kid has been on 100 teams and you documented evey Q4 player.
Just because you see rae in everything doesnt mean its always there.
There's always one communist in the group looking for an excuse. Your kid will age out soon and you'll find some other excuse to talk about online 24/7.
Jesus, you really are this stupid. Your proof that RAE doesnt exist is that some random team, that is not documented either, is proof that RAE doesn't exist because it has 5 youngers.
I am not OP. I am just pointing out that taking a singular data point for anything (durr my team has 5 youngers so RAE must not exist) is just plain moronic. Read Gadwell, listen to the ECNL podcast, understand the makeup of the older USYNT roster. RAE is documented over and over and obviously real. Not that age change does anything but shift the curve, but to say it doesnt exist is akin to thinking the world is flat.
The issue is you make rae sound like the ultimate excuse for everything. Its not
Its something victim mentality parents key into because it makes quitting or not making the top team easier to justify/quantify.
I dont have a dog in the fight. My kid is a q4 and a top player on a top team and the age change is the worst thing possible for her. She doesnt want to play "down" but she is also on the smaller size so the idea of kids another 5 months older than her is not super appealing either. I am just pointing out RAE exists. We can argue over the actual impact by age but to say it doesnt exist is not accurate
And just for comparison, roster of 20 and 3 youngers.
Its just annoying reading about rae 24/7 when its really not that big of an issue.
Whats also annoying is reading about how switching from BY to SY will change rae in some form. It wont, rae is exactly as it was before only different players are lightly affected.
You dont get it.
Yes rae affects youngers and yes they might have a few more opportunities because of it. But, when they get older theres more Q4s on teams so things even out.
Its hard to explain this to some people but being on the top team isnt always the best way to develop a player. Second teams often allow players to try several different positions. First teams recruit specific players and pigeon hole them into that role. Here's a really good example of this. Often at 7v7 players that can kick it hard get put in defense and told to boot it up to the front. They get put in defense to keep the other team from scoring. The problem is players like this are ideal forwards. But they wont get trained for this role because coaches + parents want wins. When you get to 9v9 sometimes it makes sense to play on a second team if your kid gets to play forward every game to build up their confidense.
Parent ego and fomo makes you think that the rae boogeyman is stealing from your Q4 kids experience. But this isnt the case. When youre young being the best player on the team (1st team or 2nd team) is more important than wins.
Anonymous
09/09/2025 14:08
Subject: ECNL moving to school year part 2
Coaches being blind to RAE everywhere is a big Achilles heal for U.S. soccer. Judging based on size instead of talent not only rules out the bulk of the kids at the younger ages, it makes the play pinball like instead of linked.Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:My kid is on an olders top team of a top 20 nationally club. She's played on the same top club/team since she was 5.
There are 5 players currently on the team now that were on the team when they were 5 years old. There's currently 4-5 trapped players (one is out hurt). My daughter is a Sept birthday. Current roster is 22
What all this means is 17 of the players weren't with the team at 5 years old. It also means that 17-18 were born Jan 1st to Sept 1st. This means 23% are trapped players but Sept-Dec is 33% of a 12 month calendar. This means that theres 10% variance that can be attributed to RAE if you believe in that kind of thing. On a BY team!
The person that keeps posting about RAE is ridiculious. They're likely a professional victim that's latched onto an excuse that can be molded into whatever that want it to be. At some point thet need to step up and stop making excuses.
I like how the professional rae victim said that the biggest kids are always Jan birthdays. This can be true but it can also be false. Not every Jan birthday will be the biggest kid. I also like how the professional rae victim said that being on the top team means getting the best coachs and resources. This is not true, theres good 1st team coaches and really poor 1st team coaches. Also on a 2nd team players will get more opportunities to play multiple positions. This is important because positions players play when they're 5 most likely wont be what they play at 16. Then they bring up the confidence thing. Some of the most confident players Ive seen stayed on the 2nd team for a long time just to build up confidence.
The professional rae victim is mostly nonsense. Yes there are a large number of Jan birthdays. But this doesn't mean if your kid isnt doing private lessons and futsal 2-3 hours a week on top of regular practice that they cant be a top player. My daughter played soccer with the boys every lunch in elementary school. I've never seen a trapped player sept-dec birthday that puts in the extra work not get noticed and opportunities. I have seen parents talk about rae when their kid got cut. As a parent you humor them but everyone knew that the issue wasnt rae.
Because of my survey of 1 RAE doesn’t exist🙄
The Hawks, out of their ~120 kids on ECNL rosters, have virtually no youngers.
Now what?
A statistics course should be a high school requirement.
They have interviewed every person that jumped out of an airplane without a parachute. 100% of them lived. Therefore it is completely safe to jump out an airplane without a chute.
They gave you a real life example and you discount it.
This is exactly what a "professional rae victim" would do.
So if 100 teams have no youngers and 1 team has 5 youngers does RAE exist or not? You honestly cant be that stupid..........
You are this stupid.
You've also provided no proof for your statement. Unless your kid has been on 100 teams and you documented evey Q4 player.
Just because you see rae in everything doesnt mean its always there.
There's always one communist in the group looking for an excuse. Your kid will age out soon and you'll find some other excuse to talk about online 24/7.
Jesus, you really are this stupid. Your proof that RAE doesnt exist is that some random team, that is not documented either, is proof that RAE doesn't exist because it has 5 youngers.
I am not OP. I am just pointing out that taking a singular data point for anything (durr my team has 5 youngers so RAE must not exist) is just plain moronic. Read Gadwell, listen to the ECNL podcast, understand the makeup of the older USYNT roster. RAE is documented over and over and obviously real. Not that age change does anything but shift the curve, but to say it doesnt exist is akin to thinking the world is flat.
The issue is you make rae sound like the ultimate excuse for everything. Its not
Its something victim mentality parents key into because it makes quitting or not making the top team easier to justify/quantify.
I dont have a dog in the fight. My kid is a q4 and a top player on a top team and the age change is the worst thing possible for her. She doesnt want to play "down" but she is also on the smaller size so the idea of kids another 5 months older than her is not super appealing either. I am just pointing out RAE exists. We can argue over the actual impact by age but to say it doesnt exist is not accurate
And just for comparison, roster of 20 and 3 youngers.
It's not playing down.
You again. Why do you care so much about how others describe moving from a team that is objectively better to one that is objectively worse as "down"? Bigger battles to fight than this one.
Its the same person that sees rae in everything.
Just annoying to be annoying
Anonymous
09/09/2025 14:02
Subject: ECNL moving to school year part 2
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:My kid is on an olders top team of a top 20 nationally club. She's played on the same top club/team since she was 5.
There are 5 players currently on the team now that were on the team when they were 5 years old. There's currently 4-5 trapped players (one is out hurt). My daughter is a Sept birthday. Current roster is 22
What all this means is 17 of the players weren't with the team at 5 years old. It also means that 17-18 were born Jan 1st to Sept 1st. This means 23% are trapped players but Sept-Dec is 33% of a 12 month calendar. This means that theres 10% variance that can be attributed to RAE if you believe in that kind of thing. On a BY team!
The person that keeps posting about RAE is ridiculious. They're likely a professional victim that's latched onto an excuse that can be molded into whatever that want it to be. At some point thet need to step up and stop making excuses.
I like how the professional rae victim said that the biggest kids are always Jan birthdays. This can be true but it can also be false. Not every Jan birthday will be the biggest kid. I also like how the professional rae victim said that being on the top team means getting the best coachs and resources. This is not true, theres good 1st team coaches and really poor 1st team coaches. Also on a 2nd team players will get more opportunities to play multiple positions. This is important because positions players play when they're 5 most likely wont be what they play at 16. Then they bring up the confidence thing. Some of the most confident players Ive seen stayed on the 2nd team for a long time just to build up confidence.
The professional rae victim is mostly nonsense. Yes there are a large number of Jan birthdays. But this doesn't mean if your kid isnt doing private lessons and futsal 2-3 hours a week on top of regular practice that they cant be a top player. My daughter played soccer with the boys every lunch in elementary school. I've never seen a trapped player sept-dec birthday that puts in the extra work not get noticed and opportunities. I have seen parents talk about rae when their kid got cut. As a parent you humor them but everyone knew that the issue wasnt rae.
Because of my survey of 1 RAE doesn’t exist🙄
The Hawks, out of their ~120 kids on ECNL rosters, have virtually no youngers.
Now what?
A statistics course should be a high school requirement.
They have interviewed every person that jumped out of an airplane without a parachute. 100% of them lived. Therefore it is completely safe to jump out an airplane without a chute.
They gave you a real life example and you discount it.
This is exactly what a "professional rae victim" would do.
So if 100 teams have no youngers and 1 team has 5 youngers does RAE exist or not? You honestly cant be that stupid..........
You are this stupid.
You've also provided no proof for your statement. Unless your kid has been on 100 teams and you documented evey Q4 player.
Just because you see rae in everything doesnt mean its always there.
There's always one communist in the group looking for an excuse. Your kid will age out soon and you'll find some other excuse to talk about online 24/7.
Jesus, you really are this stupid. Your proof that RAE doesnt exist is that some random team, that is not documented either, is proof that RAE doesn't exist because it has 5 youngers.
I am not OP. I am just pointing out that taking a singular data point for anything (durr my team has 5 youngers so RAE must not exist) is just plain moronic. Read Gadwell, listen to the ECNL podcast, understand the makeup of the older USYNT roster. RAE is documented over and over and obviously real. Not that age change does anything but shift the curve, but to say it doesnt exist is akin to thinking the world is flat.
The issue is you make rae sound like the ultimate excuse for everything. Its not
Its something victim mentality parents key into because it makes quitting or not making the top team easier to justify/quantify.
I dont have a dog in the fight. My kid is a q4 and a top player on a top team and the age change is the worst thing possible for her. She doesnt want to play "down" but she is also on the smaller size so the idea of kids another 5 months older than her is not super appealing either. I am just pointing out RAE exists. We can argue over the actual impact by age but to say it doesnt exist is not accurate
And just for comparison, roster of 20 and 3 youngers.
It's not playing down.
You again. Why do you care so much about how others describe moving from a team that is objectively better to one that is objectively worse as "down"? Bigger battles to fight than this one.
Its the same person that sees rae in everything.
Just annoying to be annoying
Anonymous
09/09/2025 13:49
Subject: ECNL moving to school year part 2
Because it's not moving down, it is being reassigned to a different group based on birthdays. It is more like Jan-July moving up and Aug-Dec being aligned properly.Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:My kid is on an olders top team of a top 20 nationally club. She's played on the same top club/team since she was 5.
There are 5 players currently on the team now that were on the team when they were 5 years old. There's currently 4-5 trapped players (one is out hurt). My daughter is a Sept birthday. Current roster is 22
What all this means is 17 of the players weren't with the team at 5 years old. It also means that 17-18 were born Jan 1st to Sept 1st. This means 23% are trapped players but Sept-Dec is 33% of a 12 month calendar. This means that theres 10% variance that can be attributed to RAE if you believe in that kind of thing. On a BY team!
The person that keeps posting about RAE is ridiculious. They're likely a professional victim that's latched onto an excuse that can be molded into whatever that want it to be. At some point thet need to step up and stop making excuses.
I like how the professional rae victim said that the biggest kids are always Jan birthdays. This can be true but it can also be false. Not every Jan birthday will be the biggest kid. I also like how the professional rae victim said that being on the top team means getting the best coachs and resources. This is not true, theres good 1st team coaches and really poor 1st team coaches. Also on a 2nd team players will get more opportunities to play multiple positions. This is important because positions players play when they're 5 most likely wont be what they play at 16. Then they bring up the confidence thing. Some of the most confident players Ive seen stayed on the 2nd team for a long time just to build up confidence.
The professional rae victim is mostly nonsense. Yes there are a large number of Jan birthdays. But this doesn't mean if your kid isnt doing private lessons and futsal 2-3 hours a week on top of regular practice that they cant be a top player. My daughter played soccer with the boys every lunch in elementary school. I've never seen a trapped player sept-dec birthday that puts in the extra work not get noticed and opportunities. I have seen parents talk about rae when their kid got cut. As a parent you humor them but everyone knew that the issue wasnt rae.
Because of my survey of 1 RAE doesn’t exist🙄
The Hawks, out of their ~120 kids on ECNL rosters, have virtually no youngers.
Now what?
A statistics course should be a high school requirement.
They have interviewed every person that jumped out of an airplane without a parachute. 100% of them lived. Therefore it is completely safe to jump out an airplane without a chute.
They gave you a real life example and you discount it.
This is exactly what a "professional rae victim" would do.
So if 100 teams have no youngers and 1 team has 5 youngers does RAE exist or not? You honestly cant be that stupid..........
You are this stupid.
You've also provided no proof for your statement. Unless your kid has been on 100 teams and you documented evey Q4 player.
Just because you see rae in everything doesnt mean its always there.
There's always one communist in the group looking for an excuse. Your kid will age out soon and you'll find some other excuse to talk about online 24/7.
Jesus, you really are this stupid. Your proof that RAE doesnt exist is that some random team, that is not documented either, is proof that RAE doesn't exist because it has 5 youngers.
I am not OP. I am just pointing out that taking a singular data point for anything (durr my team has 5 youngers so RAE must not exist) is just plain moronic. Read Gadwell, listen to the ECNL podcast, understand the makeup of the older USYNT roster. RAE is documented over and over and obviously real. Not that age change does anything but shift the curve, but to say it doesnt exist is akin to thinking the world is flat.
The issue is you make rae sound like the ultimate excuse for everything. Its not
Its something victim mentality parents key into because it makes quitting or not making the top team easier to justify/quantify.
I dont have a dog in the fight. My kid is a q4 and a top player on a top team and the age change is the worst thing possible for her. She doesnt want to play "down" but she is also on the smaller size so the idea of kids another 5 months older than her is not super appealing either. I am just pointing out RAE exists. We can argue over the actual impact by age but to say it doesnt exist is not accurate
And just for comparison, roster of 20 and 3 youngers.
It's not playing down.
You again. Why do you care so much about how others describe moving from a team that is objectively better to one that is objectively worse as "down"? Bigger battles to fight than this one.
Anonymous
09/09/2025 13:46
Subject: ECNL moving to school year part 2
Rae of course doesn't change in the aggregate with the change but for individual players calling them lightly affected us underselling it. Not just who is on what team but quality minutes on the field at stake here.Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:My kid is on an olders top team of a top 20 nationally club. She's played on the same top club/team since she was 5.
There are 5 players currently on the team now that were on the team when they were 5 years old. There's currently 4-5 trapped players (one is out hurt). My daughter is a Sept birthday. Current roster is 22
What all this means is 17 of the players weren't with the team at 5 years old. It also means that 17-18 were born Jan 1st to Sept 1st. This means 23% are trapped players but Sept-Dec is 33% of a 12 month calendar. This means that theres 10% variance that can be attributed to RAE if you believe in that kind of thing. On a BY team!
The person that keeps posting about RAE is ridiculious. They're likely a professional victim that's latched onto an excuse that can be molded into whatever that want it to be. At some point thet need to step up and stop making excuses.
I like how the professional rae victim said that the biggest kids are always Jan birthdays. This can be true but it can also be false. Not every Jan birthday will be the biggest kid. I also like how the professional rae victim said that being on the top team means getting the best coachs and resources. This is not true, theres good 1st team coaches and really poor 1st team coaches. Also on a 2nd team players will get more opportunities to play multiple positions. This is important because positions players play when they're 5 most likely wont be what they play at 16. Then they bring up the confidence thing. Some of the most confident players Ive seen stayed on the 2nd team for a long time just to build up confidence.
The professional rae victim is mostly nonsense. Yes there are a large number of Jan birthdays. But this doesn't mean if your kid isnt doing private lessons and futsal 2-3 hours a week on top of regular practice that they cant be a top player. My daughter played soccer with the boys every lunch in elementary school. I've never seen a trapped player sept-dec birthday that puts in the extra work not get noticed and opportunities. I have seen parents talk about rae when their kid got cut. As a parent you humor them but everyone knew that the issue wasnt rae.
Because of my survey of 1 RAE doesn’t exist🙄
The Hawks, out of their ~120 kids on ECNL rosters, have virtually no youngers.
Now what?
A statistics course should be a high school requirement.
They have interviewed every person that jumped out of an airplane without a parachute. 100% of them lived. Therefore it is completely safe to jump out an airplane without a chute.
They gave you a real life example and you discount it.
This is exactly what a "professional rae victim" would do.
So if 100 teams have no youngers and 1 team has 5 youngers does RAE exist or not? You honestly cant be that stupid..........
You are this stupid.
You've also provided no proof for your statement. Unless your kid has been on 100 teams and you documented evey Q4 player.
Just because you see rae in everything doesnt mean its always there.
There's always one communist in the group looking for an excuse. Your kid will age out soon and you'll find some other excuse to talk about online 24/7.
Jesus, you really are this stupid. Your proof that RAE doesnt exist is that some random team, that is not documented either, is proof that RAE doesn't exist because it has 5 youngers.
I am not OP. I am just pointing out that taking a singular data point for anything (durr my team has 5 youngers so RAE must not exist) is just plain moronic. Read Gadwell, listen to the ECNL podcast, understand the makeup of the older USYNT roster. RAE is documented over and over and obviously real. Not that age change does anything but shift the curve, but to say it doesnt exist is akin to thinking the world is flat.
The issue is you make rae sound like the ultimate excuse for everything. Its not
Its something victim mentality parents key into because it makes quitting or not making the top team easier to justify/quantify.
I dont have a dog in the fight. My kid is a q4 and a top player on a top team and the age change is the worst thing possible for her. She doesnt want to play "down" but she is also on the smaller size so the idea of kids another 5 months older than her is not super appealing either. I am just pointing out RAE exists. We can argue over the actual impact by age but to say it doesnt exist is not accurate
And just for comparison, roster of 20 and 3 youngers.
Its just annoying reading about rae 24/7 when its really not that big of an issue.
Whats also annoying is reading about how switching from BY to SY will change rae in some form. It wont, rae is exactly as it was before only different players are lightly affected.