US Soccer changes ( Age Pure)

Booya22 wrote:Training coaches to run quality practices. Practice should be all about quality touches.

I think this is where the focus should really be.
The top coaches have already incorporated small sided scrimmages into their practice routines.
They are the top coaches because they found a way to teach both technical and tactical/strategic.
They produce players who are not only skilled, but also have a high soccer IQ at a young age.

The sad thing is this grand experiment will not prove to be right or wrong for quite a few years, if not a decade.
By that time, you could have have poisoned a generation of future players.
The US National team will not have a player that has come up through this system for another 5 or 6 years.
The folks coming up the next 3 years will be kids who came up the "old way".
After that you have the kids forced into the transition but started out in the "old way".
Only after all that will you see any kids brought up using this system.
What happens if the current progress we've seen with the USNT starts going to crap in the next 8 years?
The current leadership would have came and went and the new leadership will vow to "make it better" and change the system yet again.

The best approach would have been to work with the clubs to change how the kids are coached and trained.
Education programs for the coaches/parents/kids, Certifications with incentives, etc.
Other sports have gone this direction but why couldn't soccer?
As it seems with most governing organizations these days, it is easier to mandate something rather than address the real issue...

What a mess.

earbucket wrote:"The influence of Futsal isn’t restricted to the current set-up at the Camp Nou, either; their fierce rivals in Madrid count on a graduate of the game in Cristiano Ronaldo, and all-time greats including Pelé, Zico, Socrates and Diego Maradona all hail it’s development prowess. This is underlined by the fact that any youngsters who join Barça’s infamous La Masia “Football Factory” play nothing but Futsal before progressing to 11-a-side."

This may not qualify as planet football, but you can read the rest of the article here: http://www.futsaluk.net/2015-06-08/the-role-of-futsal-in-barcelonas-5th-european-cup

I am a big fan of futsal as a tool to help a player become more skilled when younger so no debate about that point, but do question the folks that think Futsal is the "key" to soccer development. I haven't seen hard stats that show that and the factual information is somewhat limited. The article you cite above appears to be written by a guy that is trying to sell Futsal to the English market and stands to make money if they do. Could be wrong, but it looks that way. That is largely irrelevant if his facts are correct, but don't know if they are. I have seen and heard from people that La Masia is not ALL Futsal until 11 a side. You can look up youtube videos of kids at La Masia playing on turf courts with regular balls at ages as young as 7 and 8. I am pretty sure there is a kid that used to be in the NTX area that went to La Masia and have seen pictures of him on my kids instagram showing him playing games outdoors with a real ball at less than 11 a side, so automatically, I question the article above.

There is a NTX coach that went to La Masia on one of the trips the clubs take over there and he said during the time he got to ask a La Masia coach anything he wanted, he asked about the role of Futsal at La Masia. The coach said they don't play futsal in the soccer portion of the program, that is for the kids in the Futsal portion of the Barcelona program.

All this to say, it seems hard to find out how much futsal really is played at these large academies. Clearly I agree it has a large role to play at younger ages, but not sure how much as they get older.

Education programs for the coaches/parents/kids, Certifications with incentives, etc.

F license available for anyone over 16.  In just 2 hours you sir, yes you, can be a USSF licensed coach!

http://www.ussoccer.com/coaching-education/licenses/national-f

Sprint wrote:

earbucket wrote:"The influence of Futsal isn’t restricted to the current set-up at the Camp Nou, either; their fierce rivals in Madrid count on a graduate of the game in Cristiano Ronaldo, and all-time greats including Pelé, Zico, Socrates and Diego Maradona all hail it’s development prowess. This is underlined by the fact that any youngsters who join Barça’s infamous La Masia “Football Factory” play nothing but Futsal before progressing to 11-a-side."

This may not qualify as planet football, but you can read the rest of the article here: http://www.futsaluk.net/2015-06-08/the-role-of-futsal-in-barcelonas-5th-european-cup

I am a big fan of futsal as a tool to help a player become more skilled when younger so no debate about that point, but do question the folks that think Futsal is the "key" to soccer development.  I haven't seen hard stats that show that and the factual information is somewhat limited.  The article you cite above appears to be written by a guy that is trying to sell Futsal to the English market and stands to make money if they do.  Could be wrong, but it looks that way.  That is largely irrelevant if his facts are correct, but don't know if they are.  I have seen and heard from people that La Masia is not ALL Futsal until 11 a side.  You can look up youtube videos of kids at La Masia playing on turf courts with regular balls at ages as young as 7 and 8.  I am pretty sure there is a kid that used to be in the NTX area that went to La Masia and have seen pictures of him on my kids instagram showing him playing games outdoors with a real ball at less than 11 a side, so automatically, I question the article above.  

There is a NTX coach that went to La Masia on one of the trips the clubs take over there and he said during the time he got to ask a La Masia coach anything he wanted, he asked about the role of Futsal at La Masia.  The coach said they don't play futsal in the soccer portion of the program, that is for the kids in the Futsal portion of the Barcelona program.  

All this to say, it seems hard to find out how much futsal really is played at these large academies.  Clearly I agree it has a large role to play at younger ages, but not sure how much as they get older.  

You are correct on the author's agenda of the article I posted. After posting that, I did review La Masia and did not find support for the author's assertion. My bad in posting a slanted article, but I do appreciate the discussion that followed.

There was another article that discussing the book The Talent Code where a Brazilian professor stressed the number of touches that a futsal player gets versus soccer.

I am an unabashed fan of futsal and I think it has done a lot for my son's development on the soccer field and I would recommend it as a component of developing a soccer player here in the U.S.

On Futsal. In Brazil, the vast majority of kids grow up playing Futsal. Specially in schools since most schools do not own enough land (or have enough money) to be able to have a soccer field. I can tell you that the vast majority of Brazilian pros started with Futsal. Most never even played on a real grass field until their teenage years. Whether the above average skills of these Brazilian players (dribbling on close quarters) are directly related to their Futsal backgrounds can be debatable....but it surely looks like a pretty high correlation to me.......    my brother is a very good example.... never played soccer on a soccer field in Brazil. He played Futsal from ages 5 to 17.

At 17, he went to the US to showcase his skills to college coaches....he was offered 8 D1 scholarships and played for 3 years (prior to a MCL injury in the end of his Junior Year) without ever stepping foot on a real soccer field growing up.

allen04 wrote:

Education programs for the coaches/parents/kids, Certifications with incentives, etc.

F license available for anyone over 16.  In just 2 hours you sir, yes you, can be a USSF licensed coach!

http://www.ussoccer.com/coaching-education/licenses/national-f

Exactly!
In 2 short hours you can be deemed a licensed coach, ready to coach all of the budding Messi's/Ronaldo's/Ramos' of the world.
Horrible...

I would love to see clubs implement an apprenticeship program where you have to work under a knowledgeable, seasoned, successful coach for at least 1 season before an F license is granted.
Want a higher license? Assessment by a next level coach and apprenticeship.
You fail an assessment, drop down a level.

Create a system like that and you will have US Soccer on the right track...in the hands of the best coaches.

Hi friends,

Kids could start at 11, 12. Some pro club apply this to look for players.

Discover much soccer secrets that help your kids to improve skills fast at http://youthsoccerdrills.gr8.com/

USSF coach licensing process stresses small sided and extended small sided games and ball mastery up to 13 years. They really emphasize the technical brilliance over everything so it's definitely a step in the right direction.

Weird. US Soccer has redone (again) the license system. The National Youth License License is now a 'course' run by US Youth soccer and the National F (which had been elminated altogether) is now back in an almost silly form. What a mess.

Every team plays up 1 year - you keep your teams intact and when the U-18's play up to U-19 they are there for two years - they are the young team the first year then they are the older team the 2nd year. Everyone gets what they want.

I heard that the 04 age pure group (mostly on the current 05 teams) will drop back to 9v9 next year; after playing 1 season of 11v11 (which doesn't make sense to me). Classic League will be expanding the Richland College complex to include smaller fields (the wasteland by the tennis courts) and likely adding more divisions for the two youngest age groups. '05 birth year kids can stay on their current Classic League teams and 'play up' or join an '05 birth year team and go through qualifying again.

I think at some point Classic will have to reset and switch the seasons to start in January. Otherwise; every year the U12's will play 2nd half of their seasons (when they will now be U13's) 9v9 and not 11v11.

Hi Everyone –

It’s been a long time for me.  I hope everyone is doing well.  I’ve been out of the loop for a while.  I heard about this change and realized I needed to catch back up.

I’m guessing that you’re either happy or disappointed with this change based on your kids’ birth dates.  I don’t envy the folks that have sons with November or December birth dates.  While this change might be inconvenient at first, I believe this change will have minimal long-term impact.  Existing families will be inconvenienced for the months before and after the change, but after that things will go back to normal.  And 99% of us will stop discussing it after the end of that first year.  

For that short time, attrition for some of the kids may be negatively impacted more than usual, but those are the same players that would have fallen out eventually anyway.

For me… I wish this had happened years ago.  My daughter, a late June birth date, was a skilled player but quit the game right before the ‘03s went to select.  She had the skills but would get knocked all over the place by larger girls.  She’s petite but that was exaggerated when playing against more mature girls that were almost a full year older.  When it came time to make the decision to go to select and sign that first contract, we were forced to acknowledge that physically she wasn’t large enough to keep enduring those beatings game-in-and-game-out.  (Now though, with this change, she would have fallen somewhere in the middle on size.  I think she was destined to leave soccer behind regardless, but she might have had a longer career if this change was made sooner.)

My son though is still playing.  He’s a January '06 birth date.  He’ll benefit more than most from this change.  So I’m happy about that!

My son is a Sept 01 playing on a very good U14 (02') team. Will definitely be following this closely. I'd hate to see him have to switch teams after all they have accomplished together. Heck, he might even decide to quit playing altogether depending on the impact...He loves his teammates. Sigh

CCM wrote:My son is a Sept 01 playing on a very good U14 (02') team.  Will definitely be following this closely.  I'd hate to see him have to switch teams after all they have accomplished together.  Heck, he might even decide to quit playing altogether depending on the impact...He loves his teammates.   Sigh

Sorry for that.

I guess it'll all depend on what the majority of the team decides to do... Either break it up or play up in Aug 2016 and skip U15 altogether.  Or perhaps wait until mandated and skip U16 altogether.  So basically, the older kids lose a full year of eligibility in youth sport? It doesn't seem right to me.  Should be grandfathered IMHO. Of course, they don't care...

Quick question that some of you might already know the answer to... With this change, will Select continue to begin at u11?

I ask because, based on the age chart shown in the US Soccer article http://www.ussoccer.com/stories/2015/08/24/18/07/150824-coaching-player-development-initiatives-rel, the 06 Boys that are considered u10 right now (like my son) will still be considered u10 in 2016.

Does that mean my son will ultimately get an "extra year" of the Academy format?  I had expected to sign his first contract this upcoming August.  Now with this information, I believe that his first contract signing will not need to happen until 2 years from now. Would someone tell me if I'm wrong or right?

forward thinker wrote:What a mess.

Amen

05 birth year go select 2016; 06 birth year go select 2017

bigtex75081 wrote:Quick question that some of you might already know the answer to... With this change, will Select continue to begin at u11?

I ask because, based on the age chart shown in the US Soccer article http://www.ussoccer.com/stories/2015/08/24/18/07/150824-coaching-player-development-initiatives-rel, the 06 Boys that are considered u10 right now (like my son) will still be considered u10 in 2016.

Does that mean my son will ultimately get an "extra year" of the Academy format?  I had expected to sign his first contract this upcoming August.  Now with this information, I believe that his first contract signing will not need to happen until 2 years from now.  Would someone tell me if I'm wrong or right?

If your sons plays on an age pure 06 team next year then yes you guys will have to wait another year. If your son plays on a current 06 team under the current format (with Aug-Dec 05's) then you'll go select next year. An early 05 (Jan-July), would have to re-qualify for Classic if he moves to an age pure 05 team next year or if he stays with his current 05 team he would essentially be playing up but retain whatever their bye is after the spring season.

So you're telling me that we're currently a D1 Classic 02' team that has been a top 5 D1 team the entire time....yet when this goes in effect and we decide to "play up" just to stay together, we have to re-qualify for Classic and get moved to D3. That is utter BS. I'm sufficiently PO'd right now.

but i thought "whats wrong with american soccer" is that we are NOT like the rest of the world? those spouting those arguments can't pick and choose the similarities. there is a reason they call it "international birth year". i do understand the frustration to those parents and kids caught up in the change though

Grandfathering in at certain ages should be a way around this.  Just stating "Up yours" is shameful.  What about all these kids that have worked so hard to accomplish their rankings, play in D1, develop a strong team and lasting friendships?  Apparently, that doesn't matter... I can see a whole slew of players jumping ship and on to other sports with this firm kick in the crotch.

CCM wrote:So you're telling me that we're currently a D1 Classic 02' team that has been a top 5 D1 team the entire time....yet when this goes in effect and we decide to "play up" just to stay together, we have to re-qualify for Classic and get moved to D3.  That is utter BS.  I'm sufficiently PO'd right now.

No, the team will not need to re-qualify for Classic League.

^ What?

Current D1 Classic '02 team next year (if they are still D1) will become a D1 Classic '01 team; no re-qualifying.

CCM wrote:So you're telling me that we're currently a D1 Classic 02' team that has been a top 5 D1 team the entire time....yet when this goes in effect and we decide to "play up" just to stay together, we have to re-qualify for Classic and get moved to D3.  That is utter BS.  I'm sufficiently PO'd right now.

If you are D1 02 team, you currently have a U14 bye. Next year you will have a U15 bye from CL, in D1 or D2 depending on your results. Which means that everyone on your team has to be born after Jan 1, 2001. Which includes all of your current players. So you can all stay together, with the boys born after Jan 1, 2002 "playing up".

That will be the case for ALL current CL teams.