MOVING BACK TO THIRD DIVISION IN CLASSIC LEAGUE

My BB played in 1st div. classic league last season and his team will stay there for the next year. He is (personal opinion) a great player. Do you think is a bad idea that my bb play in 3rd div. next season? Do you think that his development will be affected?I would like to hear some opinions.

peregrino wrote:My BB played in 1st div. classic league last season and his team will stay there for the next year. He is (personal opinion) a great player. Do you think is a bad idea that my bb play in 3rd div. next season? Do you think that his development will be affected?I would like to hear some opinions.

did he start and play much? if he didnt play at least 50% of the game then NO it will not hurt him as long as he starts and plays more than 50% on the D3 team, how good is the coach of the D3 team?

Why is he moving down to D3 if team is staying put? Your choice or coach to move him?

I had a BB do the same thing. All I can say is DON'T DO IT!!! he was playing 60% of the game in D1 but we decided to move him down to play more, build confidence, bottomline - what I have seen the coaching is not nearly as good nor is the competition in practice. He went backwards instead of improving and sadly is no longer playing.

TxHunter wrote:I had a BB do the same thing. All I can say is DON'T DO IT!!! he was playing 60% of the game in D1 but we decided to move him down to play more, build confidence, bottomline - what I have seen the coaching is not nearly as good nor is the competition in practice. He went backwards instead of improving and sadly is no longer playing.

I have to disagree with this. It is not division specific, but coach and player specific. My bb did this and it was the best thing we could've done. His skills dropped a bit but that is due to 2 sports. We were promoted to d2 and have attracted good players fr next year.

TxHunter wrote:I had a BB do the same thing. All I can say is DON'T DO IT!!! he was playing 60% of the game in D1 but we decided to move him down to play more, build confidence, bottomline - what I have seen the coaching is not nearly as good nor is the competition in practice. He went backwards instead of improving and sadly is no longer playing.

I would agree 100% with this, with the only caveat being the coach at issue. The games are only an hour a week and very few play all 60 minutes (and usually there is even more substitution in tourneys given the Texas heat and multiple games on the same day). But your son gets 2/3/4 hours a week at practice with, generally speaking, a high level group of players. To me, that's more important for my son's development than moving from 60% playing time on a top 10 team to 80 or even 100% on D3 team.
As I said, though, the only caveat is the coach. If you really think the change provides a substantially superior coach, then it's a tougher call. Even then, I probably wouldn't do it just because that superior coach has to divide his time between 14-18 kids and not just focus on your son.

How much playing time is he getting? If he isn't getting any playing time then it really doesn't matter how great the training is. If he is only getting 5-10 minutes a game it may be worthwile to shop a team where you think his playing time will increase.

After all the whole point of getting the training during the week is to be able to use it in games. If he isn't getting any game time then it can't be whole lot of fun for your BB.

If he is currently D1 then why wouldn't you look for a D2 team? No need to go to D3.

Moving “down” is always more painful to the parents than to the boys; just find a good coach that wants to develop the team players. But do your homework too, take your bb to the fields as often as possible and have fun with him.

To me, it shouldn't matter much.

However, it also depends on position.

A forward/striker (or any pure attacking player) needs a lot of confidence building.

I'd also base it on physical traits.

If he is physically mature within the age group...then maybe try to stay at a higher level.

If he can handle it emotionally.

Then again, if he is physically mature he should be an impact player. If not, I'd double up on the technical work.

The big differences between the d1 teams and d3 (u11-14/15) is that the d1 players seem to be more physically mature. Probably most of the roster has August/Sept./Oct. birthdays.

This is a great question that has no defined answers. I too have done the same but am not committing to any D2-D3 teams. I think my kid played well mostly but sat on the bench more than he was used to, which depleted his confidence some. I think the parents are more concerned with D1 than the player also, so I've struggled with it.

Between the distance of training and playing time in the games and other sports thrown in, I feel it is too much to keep up. The fun stops when there's not enough playing time to go around. 11 year old soccer is only fun to watch if you're watching your child progress and there are other ways to develop a good player than being in D1, at this age. It's always good to see winning and moving up in the standings but you want to be able to see that your kid is helping the team. I had to take a step back and think, how would I feel. Is this for me or for him and the ultimate answer is for him to have fun with no pressure. Yet. We will re-visit this when I see the end of the year grades and look forward to changing schools and moving to middle school. Childhood is too short and I want him to take a bite of everything and see what he likes the best.

To me there are only a handful of players that are playing in a way that it takes to stay in D1. Was my kid one of them? Sometimes, and that's OK. There's still time to become a real athlete and create habits that will stay with him so, taking a breather for now.

The last post said it best. It's more difficult for the parents then the kids. We all know this is a business and they need players to fill those roster spots. That means your son may be warming the bench a lot but hey at least you can say your son is on a D1 team. Talking from experience at this age your son should play a lot and confidence is important. They may not be the dribbling superstar but in a couple of years they will be the better player. Too many dads push their sons right now when it's not necessary. Let it happen naturally with a little bit of assistance from the parents. So take your son down a level if you feel it may help him. In my opinion it will help him in the long run.

I have multiple BB's playing and I have done different things with different kids. My recommendation, they need to play alot at the young ages and if they perform they will move to where they "need" to be. Our best experience was with my BB who we started low and his team played 2nd weekend of QT and made it into classic. He has experienced alot as a player promotion, relegation, short end of goal differential, winning classic, et cetera. He has alot of confidence and passion as the work put in he has seen the benefits and he has the respect of his peers.

If I were to do it all over again, I would try to get with the absolute best skills coach I could find in U11 and U12 on a team where my BB could be a key contributor. The kids with this foundation are so superior IMO to the players who try to outmuscle, outrun, and outathlete the others. You will learn something new every year, but do not underestimate the quality of the players on your team and the competition/level of committment in practice. The D1 kids compete so much harder at practice than the D3 and D2 kids, plus they are so much more passionate. These are my observations over the last 6 years.

Thanks a lot folks!! Im impressive for the quality of all your comments.