Someone born in 2013 is a U8 player currently. Here's the chart... https://www.soccerwire.com/news/youth-soccer-age-groups/ If you KNOW someone born in 2012 (or 2011) is currently playing on a U8 team, complain to the league for allowing it. If you are GUESSING the age based on size or something else, I suggest not listening to your gut.
Kids don’t always turn age group age during the season. My daughter is a U13, aka 2008, and with an October birthday she doesn’t turn 13 until after the season starts August 1. In fact, she’ll still be 12 when she starts as a U14. In no way should a U9 be playing on a U8 team unless it’s some sort of Rec league.
I'm curious if any parents are looking to have their kids filmed? Either for keeping great memories, kids getting scouted, etc. http://replay-19575772.hs-sites.com/replay-book-your-game-footage-date Happy to answer any questions.
Beginning with U15 (next year, for us), yes---if only because my daughter has brought it up on several occasions recently. The great-memories reason isn't necessarily a bad one, although due to the expense/inconvenience (as noted by NewDadaCoach), I've chosen to wait until my daughter began to exhibit obvious curiosity about video analysis and use of footage to improve tactical knowledge. Use of video for recruiting purposes (if that becomes a reality for her) can come later (U16, etc.).
It kind of makes me sad. The teammates that my kid clowns around with the most are not very good at soccer. They eat bad diets and don't practice at home. The kids that are more competitive - they do not seem to be having as much fun. My kid is both competitive and really silly and fun. It makes me sad that he'll have to move on soon to a more competitive environment and leave his fun friends. Why can't the fun kids just take soccer more seriously? sigh. Does taking soccer seriously make one less fun? idk. I hope not. Maybe it's the higher pressure from the parents that put a damper on kids' dispositions.
Don't forget, he does not HAVE to move on to more competitive. I think you're overthinking this. Competitive kids CAN BE fun also. If you're only seeing them on the pitch, that might be when they're serious (and there's nothing wrong with that).
I think if he does not move on to more competitive, then I feel I will be shortchanging him. I feel he would not be getting good enough instruction. Yes I'm sure some of them are. I was over-generalizing. I myself am serious and boring, so who am I to talk? Although when I was a kid I was a class clown. Not sure what happened.
I'm very proud of my kids. I taught them a technique to do a free kick. In our league they are all indirect. So one kid must touch it before the other shoots on goal. So I had one tap the ball while the other shoots. It has worked several times. It's neat to see U8 doing this. It's very basic but a good start and is effective.
Just to clarify... I hope by "tap the ball", you're actually having them kick the ball, not just step on it. The rule says "The ball... is in play when it is kicked and clearly moves... " And if every restart is indirect, how is this not taught by the second game (if not the first)?
Oh, well I mean tap as in step on it. The ref has always allowed this. The ref just says 2 players must touch it, ie you can't shoot it on goal unless someone else touches it. But we could start having them move it too. That would be a good thing to work on. Most teams will pass it to a teammate a ways away. Usually they won't just shoot it. Or they'll shoot it not knowing it's indirect and turnover the ball. I copied this technique from another team. They were a great team. They did the tap and shoot thing, so I copied it.
As long as you know what the rule actually says. I guarantee you'll run into a ref at some point that disallows the goal because the ball didn't move. And saying "All the other refs allowed it" won't get you very far.
"The ball...is in play when it is kicked and clearly moves" doesn't say the ball has to roll any particular distance.
So if someone simply steps on the ball, does that mean it moves? Yes, some refs probably allow it. Just don't be surprised if you run into a ref who doesn't.
Probably this venue has it's own rules. I think the rule they have for indirect free kick is simply that 2 people must touch it before it goes into the goal. It could even be that the shooter shoots on goal and the opponent touches its (deflects off opponent) and goes in and that counts.
That's always been part of the rule - if anyone touches the ball after it's shot, it's legal. A smart goalie will let the ball go into the goal on an indirect kick if he knows nobody else touched it.
If you step on a ball with any weight at all, it will visibly sink into the grass/turf and rebound a bit. I’m sure you’re right, and it could be possible to get a ref who didn’t feel a tap was sufficient. The rules don’t say how the ref should judge “moved,” but neither do they say how the ref should measure that player was offside, etc.
Really? https://www.thefa.com/football-rules-governance/lawsandrules/laws/football-11-11/law-11---offside
Yes, really. The rules say any part of the body. They also say if the ball moves. They don’t say there is a 1 mm minimum or anything like that.
I asked a ref who seemed to be a senior ref and he said the ball just has to move. So yeah you can tap it as long as it moves at least a little, but it has to move otherwise the ref can't really tell that it was touched.
This is from 2017, but as you can see, there's no definitive answer on what constitutes "move". Which is my point... you don't know whether a ref will allow the "step on top of the ball" or not. So, why not play it safe and actually move it? https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/if-a-ball-wobbles-is-it-moving.2070867/
The other thing I asked about was how much space the other team has to give on a free kick. He said 5 yards for indoor (10 for outdoor). But he also said if the kicking team wants a quick kick (ie they just take it immediately) and the other team hasn't given space then the play goes on. In other words, the kicking team has to ask for the space, but if they'd rather just kick quickly sans space then that's ok too. We are U8 so this is all new to our kids and a bit too much for them to digest but it's good to know how the refs think. I have told our kids to ask for space but kids this age, may take more time for them to get the confidence to do so.
Actually the kicking team does NOT "have to ask" for the space. If, after a foul, an opponent goes right up to the ball and "statues" (and yes, you'll see it), the ref can immediately give a card (delaying the restart or failing to respect the distance). That's another penalty you won't see much. Usually the ref will just tell them to back away without the kicking team asking for it. Repeated "statues" could piss off the referee however and lead to a card. This has also been talked about on the referee section here. Yes, the kicking team can take a "quick kick" (assuming it's not a carded foul) if they so choose. If you want to learn, I suggest going to referee section here and just reading.