Anonymous
Post 01/13/2020 16:20     Subject: US soccer rumors of changing back age groups?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Momentum is building to repeal birth year registration for a couple reasons.

1. Interest in youth soccer (ages 6-12) dropped 14 percent over the past 3 years. There are several reasons for this trend. Many believe it is in large part due to players wanting to play sports with classmates at younger ages. https://www.latimes.com/sports/soccer/la-sp-us-soccer-baxter-20180804-story.html

2. Birth year is not college recruiting friendly. College coaches organize recruiting activities by class. They prefer to compare players by graduating class to match the available talent pool graduating each year. The current system makes this more work. For example, the current system requires coaches to watch twice as many games at events to cover the Sophomore (2022) pool that is now spread between 2 age groups (U16 and U17). Beyond watching more games, they are now watching Sophomores competing versus large numbers of Juniors and Freshman in every game. Not ideal.


We're all for the change. Hopefully it happens soon.


October birthday, I get it.


January birthday and afraid of the fall kids coming back to play with your kid... I get it.
Anonymous
Post 01/13/2020 15:41     Subject: US soccer rumors of changing back age groups?
Anonymous wrote:Momentum is building to repeal birth year registration for a couple reasons.

1. Interest in youth soccer (ages 6-12) dropped 14 percent over the past 3 years. There are several reasons for this trend. Many believe it is in large part due to players wanting to play sports with classmates at younger ages. https://www.latimes.com/sports/soccer/la-sp-us-soccer-baxter-20180804-story.html

2. Birth year is not college recruiting friendly. College coaches organize recruiting activities by class. They prefer to compare players by graduating class to match the available talent pool graduating each year. The current system makes this more work. For example, the current system requires coaches to watch twice as many games at events to cover the Sophomore (2022) pool that is now spread between 2 age groups (U16 and U17). Beyond watching more games, they are now watching Sophomores competing versus large numbers of Juniors and Freshman in every game. Not ideal.


Number 1 is driven by demographics, not the age grouping. There was a significant drop off in US births after 2007.
Anonymous
Post 01/13/2020 15:18     Subject: US soccer rumors of changing back age groups?
To be honest, my DC has a June birthday. And we preferred it the othe way.
Anonymous
Post 01/13/2020 14:05     Subject: US soccer rumors of changing back age groups?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Momentum is building to repeal birth year registration for a couple reasons.

1. Interest in youth soccer (ages 6-12) dropped 14 percent over the past 3 years. There are several reasons for this trend. Many believe it is in large part due to players wanting to play sports with classmates at younger ages. https://www.latimes.com/sports/soccer/la-sp-us-soccer-baxter-20180804-story.html

2. Birth year is not college recruiting friendly. College coaches organize recruiting activities by class. They prefer to compare players by graduating class to match the available talent pool graduating each year. The current system makes this more work. For example, the current system requires coaches to watch twice as many games at events to cover the Sophomore (2022) pool that is now spread between 2 age groups (U16 and U17). Beyond watching more games, they are now watching Sophomores competing versus large numbers of Juniors and Freshman in every game. Not ideal.


We're all for the change. Hopefully it happens soon.


October birthday, I get it.
Anonymous
Post 01/13/2020 14:02     Subject: US soccer rumors of changing back age groups?
Anonymous wrote:Momentum is building to repeal birth year registration for a couple reasons.

1. Interest in youth soccer (ages 6-12) dropped 14 percent over the past 3 years. There are several reasons for this trend. Many believe it is in large part due to players wanting to play sports with classmates at younger ages. https://www.latimes.com/sports/soccer/la-sp-us-soccer-baxter-20180804-story.html

2. Birth year is not college recruiting friendly. College coaches organize recruiting activities by class. They prefer to compare players by graduating class to match the available talent pool graduating each year. The current system makes this more work. For example, the current system requires coaches to watch twice as many games at events to cover the Sophomore (2022) pool that is now spread between 2 age groups (U16 and U17). Beyond watching more games, they are now watching Sophomores competing versus large numbers of Juniors and Freshman in every game. Not ideal.


I can't access that link. What was the meat of it?
Anonymous
Post 01/13/2020 09:16     Subject: US soccer rumors of changing back age groups?
Anonymous wrote:Momentum is building to repeal birth year registration for a couple reasons.

1. Interest in youth soccer (ages 6-12) dropped 14 percent over the past 3 years. There are several reasons for this trend. Many believe it is in large part due to players wanting to play sports with classmates at younger ages. https://www.latimes.com/sports/soccer/la-sp-us-soccer-baxter-20180804-story.html

2. Birth year is not college recruiting friendly. College coaches organize recruiting activities by class. They prefer to compare players by graduating class to match the available talent pool graduating each year. The current system makes this more work. For example, the current system requires coaches to watch twice as many games at events to cover the Sophomore (2022) pool that is now spread between 2 age groups (U16 and U17). Beyond watching more games, they are now watching Sophomores competing versus large numbers of Juniors and Freshman in every game. Not ideal.


We're all for the change. Hopefully it happens soon.
Anonymous
Post 01/13/2020 08:55     Subject: US soccer rumors of changing back age groups?
Momentum is building to repeal birth year registration for a couple reasons.

1. Interest in youth soccer (ages 6-12) dropped 14 percent over the past 3 years. There are several reasons for this trend. Many believe it is in large part due to players wanting to play sports with classmates at younger ages. https://www.latimes.com/sports/soccer/la-sp-us-soccer-baxter-20180804-story.html

2. Birth year is not college recruiting friendly. College coaches organize recruiting activities by class. They prefer to compare players by graduating class to match the available talent pool graduating each year. The current system makes this more work. For example, the current system requires coaches to watch twice as many games at events to cover the Sophomore (2022) pool that is now spread between 2 age groups (U16 and U17). Beyond watching more games, they are now watching Sophomores competing versus large numbers of Juniors and Freshman in every game. Not ideal.
Anonymous
Post 01/10/2020 18:38     Subject: US soccer rumors of changing back age groups?
Biobanding. Sounds overly complicated but maybe it can work. We’ll see.

https://www.soccerwire.com/resources/what-is-bio-banding-and-what-does-in-mean-for-soccer-in-the-usa/
Anonymous
Post 01/10/2020 16:14     Subject: US soccer rumors of changing back age groups?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Premier League sides have been experimenting with this as they don't want to miss out on talented kids simply because they haven't grown as much as their peers, yet.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/dec/19/biobanding-scientists-skinny-kids-sporting-superstars

From our own experiences, our top player at U11 had a hard time at U12 when they went to a larger field and some of the kids had already hit puberty. The extra space and distance advantaged some kids more than others. Once he hit his growth spurt he was back in his main role once again, but for a year or so it was pretty tough.



So imagine what it is like for the kids who don’t hit that growth spurt for 2, 3, or even 4 years. They are on the bench and many drop out.


Any idea at what point this would be announced if happening? Is there a meeting where stuff like this is decided? Have a December 2012 player. Wondering if we will be going to tryouts in a few months.


LOL. It isn’t happening and it certainly is t happening this year. Such a change would require far more notice than January.


ok good to know. Thanks!
Anonymous
Post 01/10/2020 16:07     Subject: US soccer rumors of changing back age groups?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Premier League sides have been experimenting with this as they don't want to miss out on talented kids simply because they haven't grown as much as their peers, yet.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/dec/19/biobanding-scientists-skinny-kids-sporting-superstars

From our own experiences, our top player at U11 had a hard time at U12 when they went to a larger field and some of the kids had already hit puberty. The extra space and distance advantaged some kids more than others. Once he hit his growth spurt he was back in his main role once again, but for a year or so it was pretty tough.



So imagine what it is like for the kids who don’t hit that growth spurt for 2, 3, or even 4 years. They are on the bench and many drop out.


Any idea at what point this would be announced if happening? Is there a meeting where stuff like this is decided? Have a December 2012 player. Wondering if we will be going to tryouts in a few months.


It was being trialed in some states but we are years away from it being implemented nationwide. Years.
Anonymous
Post 01/10/2020 15:35     Subject: US soccer rumors of changing back age groups?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Premier League sides have been experimenting with this as they don't want to miss out on talented kids simply because they haven't grown as much as their peers, yet.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/dec/19/biobanding-scientists-skinny-kids-sporting-superstars

From our own experiences, our top player at U11 had a hard time at U12 when they went to a larger field and some of the kids had already hit puberty. The extra space and distance advantaged some kids more than others. Once he hit his growth spurt he was back in his main role once again, but for a year or so it was pretty tough.



So imagine what it is like for the kids who don’t hit that growth spurt for 2, 3, or even 4 years. They are on the bench and many drop out.


Yep. My kid is just going through his growth spurt just now at 14 (U15). We had to move around to keep him on teams that looked beyond physical size.

We definitely saw teammates that had a huge growth spurt early benefit from it, regardless of skill. We saw one kid jump from 4th team to DA after the summer and 6+ inches. We also saw some truly talented kids that were able to hang in regardless of size—but most were eclipsed or overlooked.

Btw, U12 is VERY early for that kind of growth spurt in boys. Most of the boys on my younger son’s team/U12 are tiny. I saw it more U13/14.
Anonymous
Post 01/10/2020 14:48     Subject: US soccer rumors of changing back age groups?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Premier League sides have been experimenting with this as they don't want to miss out on talented kids simply because they haven't grown as much as their peers, yet.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/dec/19/biobanding-scientists-skinny-kids-sporting-superstars

From our own experiences, our top player at U11 had a hard time at U12 when they went to a larger field and some of the kids had already hit puberty. The extra space and distance advantaged some kids more than others. Once he hit his growth spurt he was back in his main role once again, but for a year or so it was pretty tough.



So imagine what it is like for the kids who don’t hit that growth spurt for 2, 3, or even 4 years. They are on the bench and many drop out.


Any idea at what point this would be announced if happening? Is there a meeting where stuff like this is decided? Have a December 2012 player. Wondering if we will be going to tryouts in a few months.


LOL. It isn’t happening and it certainly is t happening this year. Such a change would require far more notice than January.
Anonymous
Post 01/10/2020 14:44     Subject: US soccer rumors of changing back age groups?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Premier League sides have been experimenting with this as they don't want to miss out on talented kids simply because they haven't grown as much as their peers, yet.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/dec/19/biobanding-scientists-skinny-kids-sporting-superstars

From our own experiences, our top player at U11 had a hard time at U12 when they went to a larger field and some of the kids had already hit puberty. The extra space and distance advantaged some kids more than others. Once he hit his growth spurt he was back in his main role once again, but for a year or so it was pretty tough.



So imagine what it is like for the kids who don’t hit that growth spurt for 2, 3, or even 4 years. They are on the bench and many drop out.


Any idea at what point this would be announced if happening? Is there a meeting where stuff like this is decided? Have a December 2012 player. Wondering if we will be going to tryouts in a few months.
Anonymous
Post 01/06/2020 18:44     Subject: US soccer rumors of changing back age groups?
Anonymous wrote:Premier League sides have been experimenting with this as they don't want to miss out on talented kids simply because they haven't grown as much as their peers, yet.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/dec/19/biobanding-scientists-skinny-kids-sporting-superstars

From our own experiences, our top player at U11 had a hard time at U12 when they went to a larger field and some of the kids had already hit puberty. The extra space and distance advantaged some kids more than others. Once he hit his growth spurt he was back in his main role once again, but for a year or so it was pretty tough.



So imagine what it is like for the kids who don’t hit that growth spurt for 2, 3, or even 4 years. They are on the bench and many drop out.
Anonymous
Post 01/06/2020 18:14     Subject: US soccer rumors of changing back age groups?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:What ever happened to bio-banding, where they did tests on how far developed a kid was vs. their parents vs. other kids, etc. Did US Soccer give up on that? I saw the English FA was looking at it too.

https://www.ussoccer.com/stories/2018/04/us-soccer-introduces-bio-banding-initiative


Great question. Saw some lip service about it, but nothing much more than that.


Bio Banding is being utilized but currently it is pretty metric driven and since it is really intended for kids in the 10th-20th percentile (just pulling the specific numbers out of my butt) in size it is obviously dealing with teh small band of kids on the left side of the Bell Curve. Kids in the 90th percentile have always essentially been bio banded by playing up but there has been no real option for small kids being allowed to play a year younger to even out the size.

Inherently, this is a small group so not really something you would notice much of anyways. And, socially, most parents or players are not bragging "hey my kid is Bio banned down a year!!" in the same way that parents would brag about their kids playing up a year.