Not only 9v9 but 7v7, 4v4, and Birth Year changes

Was passed along an email sent out to update coaches on Dallas Classic changes.
We were not in the meeting so you could say this is "not confirmed"...but since it was sent out via email to a large number of coaches, it might have some legs.

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Subject: Classic League Meeting information
All,

I hope your summer is going well.  I trust that your teams are taking shape and looking forward to the coming season.

From the most recent Classic League meeting I have a few items to pass along.  Specifically, the new mandates from USSF regarding age groups and the number of players involved.

u11/u12 ages will play 9v9
u9/u10  ages will play 7v7
u6/u8 ages will play 4v4

Classic League plans to implement these rules beginning in Fall 2016

As per mandate, age group divisions will move to calendar year on January 1, 2017.  Read this as 07s will be the first group impacted by the adjustment.  Prior to that date, players will still be grouped under the current guidelines (which coincide more with school classification than calendar).  Hopefully, this advance notice will allow you to make adjustments to Juniors teams as seamlessly as possible.  

All players/teams that enter the Classic League under current guidelines will be "grandfathered".  Example...a u11 team entering Classic League Fall 2015 will play 11v11 in Fall 2016 as a u12 team (despite the fact that the new guidelines will take effect at that point).  


David Hoffmann
Chairman-Representatives Committee Classic League
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So I would imagine all associations will follow suit with these changes (recreational, Academy and competitive). My question is if you currently have an 07B team (Aug 06-June 07 birth year), will those Aug 06-Dec 06 players have an option of playing with 07s until they reach U11, then have to make a jump to U12 and forgo U11 season? Or will they be forced to forgo their U10 season and go straight from U9 to U11???

It is tough to say at this point.
Recreational might stay school year...

But to the question on the 07B, the Aug 06-Dec 06 birthdate players are going to be tricky and very possibly put into a difficult position.
They either miss their U10 Academy year and try and find a team next summer for qualifying or they miss their U11 year completely and be forced to find a new team that had qualified the year before...hoping that the squad has room.
Likely not getting to stay together.
Being forced to fight for a position at some point with calendar year 2006 players PLUS "grandfathered" in Fall '05 boys who played for the '06 squad prior to a change.

And then, the fact that the '06 age bracket would composed of 17 months worth of players versus the 12 months that all other age brackets have.
If this is the case, the fall '06 birthdate players would be Galdwell's ultimate 'Outliers'

I think for the age group changes they should grandfather in all teams down to what the "newest" academy age group is which looks like it is U6 most places at the time of the switch. Otherwise they are going to disrupt most teams that have been together and make parents scramble to find new teams for their son's who have to move up because their age group just changed.

This is great news for raising the standard. Smaller sided will mean more touches and more development of skills. It will obviously be quite an adjustment but it will be worth it in my opinion.

Clubs/coaches will need to adjust their teams and financial models. For example it could become the norm for all coaches to have pairs of teams (A and B) at 4v4 and 7v7. Leagues could schedule back to back games for the coaches. AvA followed by BvB. Back to back games on the same field would be very efficient.

Leagues and facilities are going to need to come up with a lot more fields and goals of a smaller size.

solarchelsea07boys wrote:It is tough to say at this point.  
Recreational might stay school year...

But to the question on the 07B, the Aug 06-Dec 06 birthdate players are going to be tricky and very possibly put into a difficult position.  
They either miss their U10 Academy year and try and find a team next summer for qualifying or they miss their U11 year completely and be forced to find a new team that had qualified the year before...hoping that the squad has room.
Likely not getting to stay together.  
Being forced to fight for a position at some point with calendar year 2006 players PLUS "grandfathered" in Fall '05 boys who played for the '06 squad prior to a change.

And then, the fact that the '06 age bracket would composed of 17 months worth of players versus the 12 months that all other age brackets have.
If this is the case, the fall '06 birthdate players would be Galdwell's ultimate 'Outliers'

What is your team doing with the late 06 calendar month players (Aug 06 - Dec 06) that are on your 07 team? What is Solar doing in general with this players that are in this situation?

Does anyone know whether UAL or Primetime move exclusively to 9x9 format for U10 this year? Also, what about the upcoming tournaments?

solarchelsea07boys wrote:But to the question on the 07B, the Aug 06-Dec 06 birthdate players are going to be tricky and very possibly put into a difficult position.  
They either miss their U10 Academy year and try and find a team next summer for qualifying or they miss their U11 year completely and be forced to find a new team that had qualified the year before...hoping that the squad has room.
Likely not getting to stay together.

Seems like this will also be the case for 08B with Aug 07 to Dec 07 birthdates. They play u8 (2015 fall / 2016 spring) this coming season then on to u10 the following season ( 2016 fall / 2017 spring - since these boys will all turn 10 during the fall of 2017) along with preparation for the Qualifying tournament.

So 08B teams, do they decide to play up to 07B this coming season in order to prepare? Do they replace their natural 08 boys with older natural 07's, do they split into two teams (one 08 playing 4v4 as u8's the other 07 playing 7v7 as u9's?)?

Do stronger teams move up and have a few boys playing up? Do weaker teams move down and cast off their older boys?

Seems a lot of coaches are going to need to make some quick decisions and communicate those decisions very clearly to their parents so reasoned decisions can be made.

allentexan wrote:Does anyone know whether UAL or Primetime move exclusively to 9x9 format for U10 this year?  Also, what about the upcoming tournaments?

Primetime and UAL both offering 9v9 for U10 this upcoming season. The tourneys prior to Labor Day all seem to be having 9v9 for U10, but both Plano and Arlington Labor Day events are only providing 11v11.

As a dad of an 07, (Dec 06 birthday) this really sucks. My son has been playing with the same team/coach since he was 4yrs old. If we end up having to switch teams because of this he will be heartbroken. For you more experienced soccer minds, what is the purpose of the age change? I'm not really clear on the purpose.

I would have hoped USSF would have dipped to a younger age group, say 10s, as they are just starting to form academy teams. It would have been a much cleaner break. At the 07 age group, you have kids/teams that have been playing together for 3-4 years...

The age pureness was bound to take place at some point to align better with the international community and it makes sense to not have some arbitrary date that is the cut off. Unfortunately it means classmates won't be playing with each other because of the arbitrary school date, and it's obviously disruptive to currently formed teams.

I honestly like the current age splits and difference between club and ODP because it meant my son gets to play with a larger variety a boys.

Unfortunately there is no good age group to make a hard split, if you ask me you shouldn't force anyone to play against opponents that could be over a year older, I think the only way this could be done right would be to have two 06 age groups. One based off the current split and one age pure. This is the only thing that sounds fair to me to the boys that fall in the gap.

Personally, I think the Classic League "memo" was premature and leads to more questions than answers. If they aren't going to enforce it until the 07 group in 2017, what happens to the 06 group? What about the Aug-Dec 06 kids...can they find 06 teams now and go ahead and play their U-11 season next year?

We've heard that there will not be the opportunity to grandfather, and that the age change will be across the board. I would suspect that the bigger clubs are already planning how to handle this.

The part that sucks is that the late 05/06/07 boys are caught in the crossfire--potentially for two years or more (depending on if we grandfather older kids and create a supergroup at one age). "Suggested for 2016 but mandatory for 2017" puts alot of player in a bad position. Coaches are paying more attention to player age now, and I would suspect will start positioning their rosters based on their individual interpretation of what will probably happen. Some teams are trying to go more age pure now, while some are pushing it off--a bad position for alot of young players.

The age pure change should apply to all age groups. Otherwise how is a team of mixed ages (i.e. a grand fathered team), going to play in tournaments when they will require age pure teams? I guess the mixed age teams would be required to play up in tournaments. Meaning an 05 grandfathered team (with players who have August 04 to July 05 birthdays) would then be required to play in an 04 group for age pure events. Seems like it would be easiest and fastest to just go age pure across the board for everyone and not have any grandfathering.

Neymar11 wrote:The age pure change should apply to all age groups. Otherwise how is a team of mixed ages (i.e. a grand fathered team), going to play in tournaments when they will require age pure teams? I guess the mixed age teams would be required to play up in tournaments. Meaning an 05 grandfathered team (with players who have August 04 to July 05 birthdays) would then be required to play in an 04 group for age pure events. Seems like it would be easiest and fastest to just go age pure across the board for everyone and not have any grandfathering.

Suspect the older age groups will never go age pure.

If the current 06B are the first age group affected, we'll likely have two sets of 05B teams. Age Pure and School Year. Age Pure 05B pulled from the 05's currently playing on 06B teams and 05's currently playing on 05B teams should be the first to qualify under the new set of guidelines I suspect.

2015 - 05B School Year Qualify
2016 - 05B Age Pure Qualify
2017 - 06B Age Pure Qualify
2018 - 07B Age Pure Qualify
etc. etc. etc.

No one has to skip an age group in this scenario. And the younger kids in the current set up (Jan-Aug birthdays) get an extra year to prep for qualifying.

Confusion will come in if in 2016 they allow the 06B Age Pure teams to qualify. The question in that scenario is where do the 05B's that are on current 06B teams go?

Copied from a similar thread on the girls site:

I'm assuming this went out to everyone.

I wanted to update you on the changes that are underway with the USSF Player Development Initiatives.This is what we believe to be true at this point in time.  We are still verifying some aspects of this and will let you know if changes take place. This will affect all:


- North Texas Member Associations' registration of players and formation of teams
- North Texas Competitive Club team formation
- North Texas league playing rules and field layouts
- All other Federation organizations

I have attached some documents to help you understand the initiatives.

The Player Development Initiatives presentation was provided to us by the Federation to help explain the small sided game plan.  It outlines their recommendations on field size as well as the number of players on the field, game length, etc.

The highlights of the small sided formats are:

U8 and below - 4 v 4, no goal keeper
U9, U10 - 7 v 7, goal keeper, but no punting
U11, U12 - 9 v 9

We are expecting some lattitude on the sizes of fields as associations and playing leagues are working with any field modifications necessary.

I have also attached a spreadsheet that has two tabs.  One tab compares where we are now with where we need to be by 2017 on small sided soccer.  The key differences for NTX are the U7/U8 age group, where we will need to move down to 4 v 4 and the U11/U12 age group where we need to move down to 9 v 9.  We are recommending that we move the U7 to 4 v 4 and the U11 to 9 v 9 next year, so that when they move up to U8 and U12 the following year, they will be keeping the same playing format. Then going into 2017, everyone will have transititioned to the desired format.

There is another tab on the calendar year age groups.  North Texas Soccer is planning to make this change for the 2016/2017 playing year. We are in the process of confirming with USSF that these are the correct birth years for the correct age groups for 2016/17 and that all of the other programs that we interact with are changing at the same time.  It will mean that half of each current age group will repeat their age group, if they decide to play within their calendar birth year age group.  

We will be extensively revising the North Texas rules, submitting them to the membership for approval at the mid-year AGM in January.  To minimize the disruption to already formed teams, we are recommending changes to the rules regarding playing up.  Keeping in mind that a team is always designated by the age of their oldest player, we are recommending that players be permitted to play up at any age group.  Then teams with half of their players with one calendar year birthdate and half with another can continue to play together, just designated as the older age.  Associations and clubs could then begin at the youngest age groups with players all from the same calendar birth year and phase into age pure teams.  In addition, any new players added to teams could be added to their own calendar year age group.  If a club or association wanted to go ahead and make adjustment to existing teams, hopefully with minimal upset to players and parents, they
would
have the ability to do that.

We will plan time at the AGM to discuss the implementation of these changes, so we are all ready to start with registration in next summer. I will also be working with the Competitive Committee to make any rules recommendations necessary to help make this a smooth transition. This is a lot of changes in a very short period of time and we are very fortunate to be working with a great group of associations and clubs that I am sure will work together and get this done.

Thank you for all you do for the players and your organizations.

Sincerely,


Youth Commissioner
NTX Soccer

[quote="DragonStryker"]

Neymar11 wrote:

No one has to skip an age group in this scenario.  And the younger kids in the current set up (Jan-Aug birthdays) get an extra year to prep for qualifying.

Confusion will come in if in 2016 they allow the 06B Age Pure teams to qualify.  The question in that scenario is where do the 05B's that are on current 06B teams go?

they have an option to play up!!!!!

http://www.calsouth.com/data/Root/CSGEmailBlasts/PlayerDevelopmentInitiatives-Approved07052015.pdf?utm_source=website+list&udm_medium=email&utm_term=email-link&utm_content=html&utm_campaign=USSF+Player+Development+Initiatives

allen04 wrote:http://www.calsouth.com/data/Root/CSGEmailBlasts/PlayerDevelopmentInitiatives-Approved07052015.pdf?utm_source=website+list&udm_medium=email&utm_term=email-link&utm_content=html&utm_campaign=USSF+Player+Development+Initiatives

6v6 and 8v8....did they receive a different set of initiatives than the rest of the country?

"What is your team doing with the late 06 calendar month players (Aug 06 - Dec 06) that are on your 07 team? What is Solar doing in general with this players that are in this situation?"

Because there is still uncertainty as to where fall birth-date players and fall rosters are pretty close to set, we are waiting until January to push U9 &U10 age groups to move towards Birth Year Pure squads.  (Although a few have already started the transition)

We are recommending new U7 and below to form Birth Year Pure squads and existing U7 and below consider moving to Birth Year Pure for the spring.

Seems a meeting with North Texas will be happening in August that will give more information to coaches and clubs in September.  From the Dallas Chamber Classic side of things, we've been told similar information.

If, as posted, spring birthdate players play an additional year in the same age group, the fall birthdate players would be able to catch up...if not, the fall birthdate players will get caught in the crossfire and be scrambling at some point.

6v6 and 8v8

All I see on the slides is 4v4, 7v7, 9v9 and 11v11.

My bad...was a similar post in another forum for California where they are going 4v4, 6v6, and 8v8.

Let's continue this discussion shall we!
So the announcement was made yesterday...even more changes than previously thought.
US Soccer Player Development Initiative

Lots to talk over....big adjustment in Age Pure...but it appears the method for determining Age Classification will be smoother than thought.

Favorite part, "Note that the 'U' listed before the number can sometimes be misleading. When you see U6, remember that it means 6 and younger, and the same applies for all age groups."

So you are saying the U stands for "Under and Equal to"?!
(This actually makes it incredibly easier transition so no complaints here)

Baffling how you determine that the "Relative Age Effect" will be somehow different with Calendar Birth Years.
The paragraph on Relative Age Effect is true and applicable.

The authors only confuse the issue by packaging it under the heading "Calendar Birth Years" as if shifting a the cut off date will somehow change selection bias regarding older players... It only changes who is the older players.

(while aligning with international standards is true, it still doesn't eliminate the Relative Age Effect and Selection Bias)

Best news/change they made...Implementation moved from the middle of a playing year (January) to in between playing years (August).

And based on the new meaning of "U" it appears that the fall birthdate players would not get cross-cut when implemented. The fall birthdate players would continue to progress to the next age classification over the implementation summer.

However, their current "Winter/Spring" birthdate teammates would be afforded the opportunity to play another season in the same age classification or continue with their current teammates into the next age classification, "Playing Up". (which leagues would seem to need to allow based on this US Soccer Initiative)

I'm amazed at how low-key this discussion is on the boys side in comparison to the girls...LOL.

Without going into the semantics of what the "u" means, I am pleased that they have set the age groups so that no one really misses a year of soccer--especially those at the U-10/u-11 thresshold. I am curious about how they will handle "playing up" at this age group--will the 06 boys with early 06 birthday's be allowed to stay on their current teams (that will go select and become 05 teams) , or will the powers that be force them back to u-10.....and what will the coach's take on this be.

It looks like some teams in the bigger clubs have already started working toward implementing AP teams, and I would suspect that many (maybe most) teams will work toward having AP teams by spring, especially those in the U-10/U-11 window who will be getting more focused on qualifying for next year.