Super Y League and injuries?

Wondering whether anyone here who knows anything about Super Y League play (or any other, similar off-season program) has any thoughts on or information about the likelihood that organized training and games through the summer adds any significant concern about injuries, over-training, ...

My son's club more or less takes the summer off (some of oldest teams play into the summer, but for the most part there are some just tryouts and optional, for-fun programs -- no practices, no games, ...). I'm curious about whether adding organized play in the summer creates potential problems.

 

Appreciate the feedback. This would be a first for our club, I believe. We're a little more geographically isolated than metro-area teams, so even if the quality isn't as high as it might have been in the past, for us it could be chance for some of our better players to play against relatively high-level competition that isn't always part of the league we play in (our kids do go to strong tournaments; the DOC and his staff seem to do a good job of pushing our stronger teams into tougher competitions).

Part of the discussion about whether we do this is stressing to parents that, for kids who add these games, parents really ought to cut back on the winter indoor schedule most of our kids play.

MWulf, yes, the same. This one came up last minute for us and we're making decisions on it today. It sounds like you probably know more than I do. Four clubs participating, I believe? You and I have talked previously here about the limits of our league that I mentioned above.

Volk, my son is a 2005, too. I think he'll be interested in this and might have a shot at making a team (this would be a collective team comprising players from more than one club), but I also don't want to push him toward injury from over training in one thing, playing too many games, ... (I'm already frustrated that at this age he's effectively being pushed into playing one sport only because of time demands and inflexibility on the part of his middle school where its sports are concerned -- but that's a another discussion). Our club does an outdoor "street soccer" session once a week that's just play -- no coach, no refs, ... It draws well for kids 10 and younger but not for older kids (which makes my 12-year-old pretty reluctant to go since he's playing on teams that include much younger kids).

 

Forgot that one of the Peoria clubs is part of it, too.

I agree on the potential upside, but you're likely right re drama -- is it possible to do anything in youth sports without it?

I'll be curious to see what our interest level is. Some parents on a couple of our stronger teams have already registered kids for university-based soccer camps in the region that fall in the middle of this season. We also have some pretty talented players who might struggle with the additional expense.

 

Thought I'd follow up here with an end-of-summer summary on Super Y, at least my son's team's experience.

The team was a mix of u12 kids (about to be u13) pulled together from five different midsize clubs from downstate Illinois, playing 9 v 9 in the A bracket (there's also a lower team playing in the B group made up of kids from the same clubs).

My two biggest doubts going in were the possibility of injury from overuse and whether this team would be able to compete reasonably against regular club teams coming straight from their spring seasons.

The team generally did fine -- 2 wins, 2 draws in nine games (competitive losses, which most were, I'm OK with, but not a bunch of lopsided Ls). They quickly gelled, played fairly well together and had a nice level of across-the-board skill (and seriousness about training, good attitude when they fell behind that meant they didn't quit, ...) that allowed them to stay in games against more-skilled teams and teams that play together all the time.

The extra practices were nice, the coaching was pretty good (CC: mwulf, your DOC was my son's head coach -- I liked his approach) and the level of competition was mostly pretty strong -- my son had never played against any of the teams he faced this summer, Chicago-area clubs that for whatever reason his club team hasn't faced and some Michigan competition. It ranged from a team or two that were good enough that our kids had to fight to keep losses close to one team that our kids were clearly better than, held possession, ..., but didn't blow out.

Some games were pretty chippy, but not all -- a mixed bag, just like we typically see at tournaments.

Not sure how this works for all teams, but my son's group also became pretty tight in a hurry. He came away with friends he enjoyed spending time with. Parents were good to be around, as well.

On the injury side, in the final game my son showed some signs of having played too much recently. I attribute that to the way the schedule fell -- half the season's games were over four days at the end. If we did this again, I might hold him out of a practice or two around those tightly compressed game dates (which actually were nice from the travel/expense end of things -- we only had two overnight road trips).

And one note on a bit of sportsmanship that went well beyond anything I expected. My son's last game was against a Chicago Inferno team. Neither team was playing for a trip to the nationals, as far as I know, so maybe this works differently if more was on the line. But with my son's team down 4-3 and a lot of time left to play, he was whistled for a PK, apparently with the ref thinking he tripped an attacker as he cleared a ball from his team's box. I didn't have a good look at it, so I can't say whether it was a good call or not, but it's the only thing his coach argued about all summer, asking the ref for an explanation about how it could be a foul (other parents seemed to agree with the coach, and my son certainly did -- though he thankfully kept quiet on the field).

Apparently the Inferno coach, who was close to the spot where it happened, agreed. So when his player stepped up to take the PK, instead of trying to blast the ball home for a two-goal lead, he tapped it to our keeper. Parents on our sideline were stunned, and impressed. So that coach and team have our respect, for sure (they were the stronger team, and went on to win 6-3).

Bottom line, we'd do this again. My son enjoyed it, and the level of soccer forced him to play hard and smart. If I had a development academy-level player, I probably wouldn't -- I assume those kids are at least a step above the best of what we saw this summer.

If there are other parents on here whose kids did this this summer, I'd be curious to get your thoughts.

 

Sorry, Wulf. Sounds like your son had the experience I was afraid might be how things would work. And I hope that injury is or soon will be completely behind him.

From what I can tell, my son's team had one of the better experiences among the CIE teams (I know one of the older girls teams did well, and maybe one older boys' teams, too). I watched a couple of our teams last weekend in Michigan that struggled.

My son's team had a similarly compressed schedule -- including four games right out of the gate after just two practices together. Like I said, from a travel perspective, that was great. But the kids handled what was not ideal from a competitive point of view better than I would have expected -- a win and a draw in those four games, both against strong teams.

I talked to one coach who said she had a team with a similar opening weekend and just called opposing coaches and negotiated a better schedule for her team. So I guess, provided the coach wants to, that's an option.

 

Is that 22 games plus four tournaments, or 22, including four tournaments? My son's club team typically plays 15-18 games a season, including tourneys.

What's a typical fall or spring schedule for most teams between, say, u12 and u16? I had thought we were in the mainstream on that (at least for areas where weather is a limiting factor -- field conditions limit when we start in the spring and finish in the fall before heading indoors for low-key winter leagues).