I am a first time poster so bear with me. Here is the story, hopefully I'm not too long winded.... My son is 5 & will be 6 in nov. He has played soccer for almost 2 years. He has good ball skills and is extremely quick for his age. Last season when he was 4, He played with a U6 academy team. They went thru 3 coaches by the end of the season. I was pleased with the first coach who focused on ball skills, fun, and really didnt care about keeping score or winning. The other 2 coaches seemed more concerned with the U8 and U10 girls teams they coached & barely spent 45mins a week on the little ones. So at that point I decided to pull my son & put him with a different team U6 spring season. A mutual friend referred me to a coach who had a team that played U6 (4v4) in the same league that the club team was in. Most of the kids on this team are age 5 and only 3 of them are age 6. After taking my son to a couple of practices, I was impressed with the time that the coach focused on individual ball skill with the kids. IMO they scrimmaged an awful lot, but he stood on the side and let the kids be creative so i didnt consider this to be an overly bad thing. Plus my son was having fun as well, so I decided to put my son on his team for this spring season. Five days before the season starts, the coach calls a meeting with the parents to let us know that he's moving the team up to U7 this season. I was caught off-guard because U7 in this league is 7v7 with a goalie and most of the kids on the team are only age 5. After the meeting I expressed my concern about the jump to U7 and told him I didnt think it was a good idea for my son and it was too late to switch teams. He re-assured me that the kids would be fine and that they still would get the practice time with the ball because the team practices for 1.5hrs x 2 days per week. The kids did their best during the games but they were overwhelmed for the most part by bigger & stronger kids and even though most of them, including my son, had as good or better ball skills than players on other teams, the sheer size intimidated them at times. My dilemna is that the fall season will start later this summer and my son is still only 5. The coach is going to put the team in U7 again for the fall. He has helped my son get better with handling the ball, spreading out & shooting, but i see these results in his scrimmages in practices alot more than i do in the games because of the size differential in the kids they play. I contacted a couple other clubs and once ive told them that he's played for 2 seasons already then they say they have spots open on their U7 teams (7V7). My gut is telling me to find a team for him that still plays U6 (4v4) and let him play back down for a full season. But he likes the kids on his team now and this coach is a good teacher, I just cant understand why he moved them up so soon. Help..........
[. But he likes the kids on his team now and this coach is a good teacher, I just cant understand why he moved them up so soon. Help..........[/quote] Go with your instincts- Sounds like a good coach but with the wrong idea about games. At such a young age, physical size sometimes trumps technique and skill, so you can have all the technical skill in the world but it is useless against bigger and faster kids at that age. There's no need to rush development.
Glad I found this thread. My son is 8, he'll be 9 in Sept. Same story as everyone else, super dominant at u5-u7 not because of size though, but he had/has superior skill. He's not overly big for his age. Not small, but thicker, muscular. We played him up 2 years starting a year ago, so he played u9 competitive as a 7 year old, when he was supposed to be in 2nd season of u7. He was good, but not great. Got challenged a lot, and had his confidence questioned. He fought through it, and towards the end of that season was scoring pretty much every game, and had improved to where he was one of the top 3 on a good if not great team for our area. The 2 that were better moved up to u11 themselves starting last fall. So this fall we went back to our local club (we had to leave to play up, academy director WILL NOT play up). He allowed us to go to the same U9 (because he knew we'd leave again) league he was in the previous season. Long story short, he's totally dominant in this age bracket (1 year up, he should be u8). He'll have over 60 goals in 15-16 games including festivals. Superior ball skills. Faster than most, but not necessarily all kids. Big leg for this age, two footed, scores with both feet with power. We have been told by some, including two paid coaches at his current club who don't have a say, to move him up. We inquired at our local club. This guy wont have any of it. Two other local clubs will take him. 1 of which we know and like, but not sure about the commute or quality of team. The other we don't know but from playing against them, but has a good rep. What would you do? Stay with same age, go to u10 and dominate again? Maybe not grow as much, but confidence is high. Go to one of the others at u11 level? Or even stay back a year to play with his grade level peers in u9 again?
The only thing to consider is what team will make it most likely for your son to continue to develop his "love" for the game. He's 8 right now; he's on no one's radar but your own. There are thousands of eight year olds just like your son. There's nothing wrong with being the best player on a team or league. There's nothing wrong with developing confidence and individual flair against your own peers. Enjoy scoring four goals per game now while it lasts because I think it is safe to say that very few high school players can do this and I think no college players do this, and I know no pro players do this.
Kid loves the game. That is the last thing I'm worried about. He's got a ball on his foot for hours each day. I don't give a stroke about "being on radar". This isnt about me living through my son. I'm well aware there are thousands of other skilled kids his age. I want to make sure I do the right things to put him in situations to improve him as a player. I fail to see how using other kids as orange cones is going to make him, or others like him a better player. To me, the best solution would be to practice and occasionally play u11, but play most games u10. That wont happen with current club. It's the inflexibility that pisses me off more than anything.
Games at that age mean nothing. Using players as orange cones doesn't mean much either. At his age it is all about the dribbling/shooting, he can learn the team/tactical part of the game as he gets older, especially if he watches a lot of soccer. Don't worry about the team or quality of player, worry about finding a coach that will help him continue to grow. Too many big (read:winning) clubs spend more time poaching players and teaching a system. Find that one coach that makes your child crazy for the game. Go to practices, watch, find someone who will challenge your kid to be a better player.
In general the best thing is to be able to play at different levels - meaning some games the player controls the game and other games he struggles to keep up and much of the time the player is simply above average. Unfortunately youth sports in this country don't believe in this and instead want a player to play on a single team with other children their own "age." I use the term age in quotes because many youth league administrators will demonize parents for wanting kids to play "up" when playing up often means playing with kids sometimes a few days or weeks older who are on the other side of some arbitrary cut-off. If we want to create good players, changing this mentality should be one of the biggest priorities. The biggest problem however is that "age" is a poor metric to use since the level of athletic ability, training and experience vastly differ from kids the same chronological age. I had a child who was told to go into goal one game because he scored too many goals as a U7 player playing in a U9-U10 recreational league. Yet when he was a U10 player playing with one of the top local area U10 select teams he was not even considered to be one of the best players on the team. Therefore forget about age. Instead look for a place where he will have plenty of success but will be challenged to improve. Not only will this be the best environment for his development as a player, it will be the best environment for him to stay motivated to play and enjoy the sport. This holds true for school and other activities. Also when looking for a coach don't consider wins - especially if the wins are due to better players. Instead consider if he can teach technique and teach kids to think. If so, wins will come soon enough.
At this age I wouldn't be listening to what professional coaches tell you. They have a slanted view of soccer, and tend to prioritize the development of soccer in the child over the development of the child, and they tend to think that more coaching is better coaching.
Totally agree on overcoaching. If our kids did nothing but juggle for 2 hours a day, lord knows what kind of national team we'd put out.
Here is my sons personal situational twist to this classic debate: He is 9 with an Oct birthday. Academically he is gifted so he is a grade ahead of most others his age, although he only was born 9 days after the official grade deadline. He has been playing soccer since 4 y/o and has alternated between playing his age group and "up" with kids in his school grade. Add to this that he is thin and not tall. This past season he played with age group - ie U9 and while his skills improved some his enthusiasm dropped as well as his goal scoring. Coach put emphasis on passing and he has moved away from his previous role as primary goal scorer. I'm not necessarily against this development of sound team skills, but worried by the impact on his enthusiasm. In good part I think it's because of the other players that he's with - he will attire unlock the opposition with a great pass but then teammates are not adept enough to either score or get the ball back to him - the net result being that he does not get the positive reinforcement for good play. 4 or 5 of his school friends who are 10 and he has played with and is comfortable with both socially and athletically did the local competitive u11 tryouts. He wanted to "play with friends" in particular a classmate/buddy so we had him attend the tryouts. I watched the sessions and he competed well, although not one of the very top players he could IMO have contributed to their second team (where is buddy was placed) but they did not put him on a team due to his age and size. The chief club coach and I talked after and he admitted that my son competed with even the very best players on the field but size and age means they didn't want to play him up. So we're left with a couple issues / questions - at some point certainly by high school he WILL be playing with his grade level, so it's not a question of IF he plays up, but when he will. - socially he would prefer to play with his classmates so I'm worried that he is losing interest b/c - we could shop around for a more competitive u10 team but then AGAIN would mean that he can't play with friends but with new kids.
When social aspects are an issue, I think you're better off addressing those first in any way you can. Generally a kid (or adult for that matter) will perform better, and learn more if they're doing it with people they enjoy. Tough spot if the coach wont allow him to be around his peers. Will he let him practice with them, but play games down? Then it begs the question, does the kid really want to play the game, or is he just there for a social experience? He can get that outside soccer. Maybe his heart isn't in it?
My take: my son who is 7 is staying in his normal grade for as long as I can keep him there. My son is one of those (tiny) gifted talents that is a natural runner with the ball - he can run with the ball just as fast as without it, is faster than elites 2-3 years his senior, and I've had many regional football staff say he's the biggest talent they have ever seen at his age. He currently trains with the elite 9/10 yo's group for our district for his skill development twice a week, but also trains with his team and plays in U8. Obviously his team does well (they have never lost a game) but the main point is that he is having fun and playing against his physical peers. We have no plans to move him up to play due to his size. He's at least a head smaller than the average 9/10yo and once they realise he'll run rings around them they resort to pushing, pulling and kicking. I don't blame them - no one likes to lose - but it's such a huge risk of injury. There's no need to subject him to that in my opinion. My advice on playing up would simply be that if he is big enough then you might consider it, otherwise train up and play at their age. They will have more fun and get far more touches, have the freedom to try the tricks they learn and get the praise that propels them to practice even more. If, after another ten years of enjoying football and a smattering of good luck not getting injured they might have a chance. But ruining the love by playing against older kids just has too much risk in my opinion. Becoming great is a long game - so keep it fun.
In order of priority, for a very talented player who is not challenged on his current on-age team: - find a new team that is on-age that has similar level teammates and opponents - find a new team that is older that has similar level teammates and opponents The problem is that many of us end up settling for a third option - an older team that has a better level of teammates and opponents, but still not at the level of your child. The question is whether the tradeoff of better opponents vs. increased potential of injury/lack of socialization with older players is worth it. The ideal situation would be to find a good coach that knows how to find and keep the best players available. The problem is that too many coaches think they can make a purse out of a sow's ear, that they are miracle workers. I agree that by high school, most players have found a team of their level that is on-age. But remember, DA programs have two years worth of players on their teams, and HS teams have four years worth of players on their teams. So your son will be playing up when he reaches 14 or so no matter what. My son has played up occasionally, and one of the best ways to do this is to play futsal, which is supposed to be non-contact (refs vary unfortunately). Futsal tends to attract more skilled players as well, so supplementing an on-age team with a great coach but middling teammates and opponents with a futsal team would be a great idea. As for size, my son has always been small, as my family has late puberty (boys reach full height in 12th grade or later). Some of his teammates are over 6' and have not grown an inch in three years, at U16. He is now 5'7" at 16, and we expect him to be 6' tall like his uncles based on his shoe size, or even taller. Being strong and short works out very well towards skill development. Yet the BNT focuses too much on players who are 6' tall at age 12 or 13.
If the boy isn't enjoying playing up an age group then he should not be doing it. At 7, he should be falling in love with playing football, not getting frustrated. Let him love what he plays and everything else will fall into place.