Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Our experience on a big club's B and C teams at U9-U11 is that during the year the big, strong fast kids and the defenders got noticeably more playing time and everyone else was mostly even.

Definitely agree re the defenders. My son is tiny-ish but is nevertheless a good defender, and gets a lot of playing time in that position. I've been told that the reason is that the defenders don't burn as much energy as forward players, so they can stay in longer. I have no idea if that's true.

I don't think it's the energy, but game awareness. My son gets more playing time because the better players don't follow the game plan. Without him or the center back, the defense falls apart.

Same here, my son played defense for two years and most of the games he was in the whole time. Coach felt defense was the key and put kids he could trust there.

Anonymous wrote:

Our experience on a big club's B and C teams at U9-U11 is that during the year the big, strong fast kids and the defenders got noticeably more playing time and everyone else was mostly even.

Definitely agree re the defenders. My son is tiny-ish but is nevertheless a good defender, and gets a lot of playing time in that position. I've been told that the reason is that the defenders don't burn as much energy as forward players, so they can stay in longer. I have no idea if that's true.

I don't think it's the energy, but game awareness. My son gets more playing time because the better players don't follow the game plan. Without him or the center back, the defense falls apart.

Once they hit puberty, get your kid on the juice. Speed, recovery, strength. It’ll all be worth it when they make the pros. A little extra hair on the upper lip and a jutted forehead is a small price to pay.

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, that drive will take him far. But he's only 10 and it isn't necessary just about size. It is more about size and physical development. For others reading this, your experience with this kid doesn't really offer much, because the physical development issue (not just size) issue hasn't manifested itself yet. No matter how technically skilled your player, if they are small and late to go through puberty, it is extremely difficult to find a place where they will receive good training and be able to earn playing time through hard work. Some clubs are more open to smaller and late developing players than others. Many late developing boys who loved soccer at age 10 wind up abandoning the sport because opportunities to develop and play at an appropriate level are few and far between, which is unfortunate.

Fair enough. There's nothing anyone can do about players going through puberty at different ages; or about being born on January 1st versus December 31st. There are always going to advantageous and disadvantageous ends of the spectrum. At the extreme -- say, a kid born on December 31st who is ALSO at the very late end of the spectrum in terms of how old he is at the onset of puberty will be at an undeniable disadvantage -- the disadvantage may be difficult to overcome. But those cases are, by definition, rare.

I know a December 31st birthday player who is one of the tallest and strongest players on his team. It's luck of the draw in some respects, like anything else in life. There is no real way to avoid it, unfortunately.

I suppose if there were height/weight exemptions it might be permissible to let some very small / late developing kids down a year. I wouldn't have a problem with that if the exceptions were designed to be narrow. Although I'm sure some people would complain because the older smaller kid has had an extra year to develop technical skills etc.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A technical player that is small, weak and slow will get destroyed by the fast/stronger defenders.

Hence, small skilled players needs to be moderately quick/fast, and somewhat strong too. Intelligence is important but having the skills and smarts without the speed/quickness/strength is very limiting.

Absolutely. But in real life, the smaller skilled player won't be encouraged to learn how to use his or her body and make intelligent choices because the player will be bumped down to the B or C team or remain on the A team and won't play at all. Trust me.

Not so; my son is definitely on the smaller end of the spectrum, but that just means he's forced to work harder on his technical skills and decision-making abilities to compete with the larger boys. In his case, he has the drive and the love of the game to work hard at it. Without that drive, and without those technical skills, he wouldn't be able to compete as well as he does.

PP here. I don't necessarily disagree, but it takes more drive and determination for a smaller player.

Out of curiosity, how old is your player?

He's 10. He has older brothers so that definitely accelerated his technical skills, and toughened him up to be able to handle playing with/against larger kids -- he's not phased by it. Still, to play as well as he does takes drive beyond just competing with your older brothers. Having gone through travel soccer with my older boys, I'm experienced now to understand now that *this* kid really loves soccer, whereas my other boys simply "like" soccer. Some of my kids play travel, some play rec, and some play for their school.

Yeah, that drive will take him far. But he's only 10 and it isn't necessary just about size. It is more about size and physical development. For others reading this, your experience with this kid doesn't really offer much, because the physical development issue (not just size) issue hasn't manifested itself yet. No matter how technically skilled your player, if they are small and late to go through puberty, it is extremely difficult to find a place where they will receive good training and be able to earn playing time through hard work. Some clubs are more open to smaller and late developing players than others. Many late developing boys who loved soccer at age 10 wind up abandoning the sport because opportunities to develop and play at an appropriate level are few and far between, which is unfortunate.