Our club doesn't fully tier their players until U12. They basically use an academy style approach and field multiple A and B teams in U9 and U10. It basically works like this. 50 boys. 5 teams of 10. 3 x A Teams - Top 30 players, evenly distributed to make balanced teams. 2 x B Teams - Bottom 20 players, same. U11 it goes to 2 x A Teams and 2 x B Teams U12 is when it pairs downs to one A team, one B, and one C. My son's A-team U10 regular season is competitive. The travel is minimal since we live in a fairly populated region, but tournaments are another story. Our young age groups get hammered by the bigger clubs from other parts of the state. Scores like 7-0, 10-2, etc. The problem is where all our best players are spread out over three teams, the other clubs are sending their best 10-12 players on one team. Their teams have also been playing together for longer since ours re-balance every season. We also enter the highest bracket for these tournaments. So what I'm getting at is does anyone else use this kind of structure? They say it's a bottom - up approach. I don' t really have a problem with it except for the tournament part. We have a lot of skilled kids and I do see the results even out at the later age groups. The U12s and up win or place in their fair share of these tournaments, but do these really matter at U10? What are the negatives to doing it this way?
Seems like a pretty solid approach….I agree the getting hammered in every tournament might be a little concerning, but not overly…if your teams are consistently being placed in the highest bracket, I would assume it enjoys a good reputation for fielding quality teams, even if the scores seem lopsided… The only negative is this system probably loses a few talented players, who's parents, only care about being on a “wins all the time” team…even if those wins are distorted and meaningless… I think if I were you, I’d count my blessing and grin and bear these few earlier tournaments…
A little communication from the club about the tournaments might go a long way. If the parents know that the club is taking this approach and one of the byproducts will be some ugly tournament losses early on, most will probably be cool with it.
Yeah, I have seen that kind of stuff from a few parents already. I am definitely not one of those win at all costs type of person. I don't mind the losing in the tournament. It's more if we should be playing in that division? Maybe they just do it for motivational reasons? See who keeps fighting and who folds.
It depends… IF they are making the other team work hard for their goals, and your team is working hard for the few goals they get, then yeah, they are probably getting something out of it… If they are getting easily and effortlessly smoked and everyone “gives up” fairly early on, then maybe not so much… I hope and trust, its the former? Remember as they get older, not everyone will be expected to be a scoring machine, but everyone will be expected to play defense…at least on most quality sides (imho)…
Don’t do it in tournament play. The US did it and are out of the WC. What I mean by that was some of our starters in a one game elimination did not start this game. In tournament play you start your best players they don’t sit them on the bench until the second half. Think of it in baseball terms you don’t save your best pitcher for the last game. You start them in the first game because your best pitcher my not get into the later games if you lose the first game.
I like the concept of your club's approach. From what I've seen over the decades, it's fairly rare. Most clubs, even the academy/elite types, start segregating all the kids into tiers from U8 and U9, so if you have enough for 5 teams, it becomes A, B, C, D, E from the get-go. And interactions and cooperative training/guesting between teams is also rare. As long as your son is growing and learning and having fun attending training and games, then you are in a good place. Don't worry about losing some of the rat-race families.