SC Soccer Forums SCSoccer.com Forums Club Soccer & ODP Club Comparison at Younger Ages

I have a question for those of you more familiar with the organization of other clubs and the more 'recent' changes in the youth development programs in the state as I haven't exactly been in a position to pay attention to them as I was a youth player myself.

I was one of the last products of the Hungryneck-Era Mount Pleasant teams, but back when I was pre-select in the league, the format was very different than it is now. Ten years ago, U10 players played in an organized coastal league and played 11v11. One year later, all interested parties would try out for the select U11 teams which would play in a state-wide league, again 11v11.

So my first question is does anyone know the reasoning behind changing the developmental leagues in the state and moving to 6v6 and then 8v8, using pool play rather than formed teams, and eliminating state-wide leagues for U11/U12 select and what kind of effect has it had on player/team development?

From the Mount Pleasant standpoint, all the changes since Hungryneck merged with the Rec Dept seem to have sent it on a downward curve in regards to performance. When I played, at least early on, it was a well-regarded club with teams like the Lady Ice (many of whose players I graduated with) and the Fury, with many of the teams winning or taking second place in state cups.

I've recently been involed with the U10 developmental program and it seems too that the changes there are doing little to develop the girls as in competition with like-aged girls of other big clubs, they fall short skill and experience-wise. The developmental teams also typically rely solely on the Coerver training that the club has mandated of their players.

They've also recently decided to move to Academy format for the girls, however, the teams won't have a typical coach, but rather use Coerver for all practices, which, every time I have observed them, consist of some relatively stationary technical movements and then some small drills with a Pugg goal on, say, a 20x10 field and 3/4 v 3/4 games without instruction.

That said, I'm wondering how other clubs handle their U10 developmental programs. I think I remember reading that Mount Pleasant is the only one that uses Coerver, but I'm interested in how the big clubs handle their programs and the benefits/faults of them.

Be Happy the are getting that type of skill development. Soccer is about 1v1 battles and being able to handle the ball in tight space. Alot of players at that age struggle with this and never make it to the next level. At some clubs they are not even doing a lot of skill but drills and playing but if you cant handle the ball it does not do you much good. U-10 is still young and they get more touches on the ball at 8v8 then they would at 11 v 11. That is the reason for smaller numbers of players. This is state wide. This is what USYSA wants. Give it time and you will see it will work.

I think it is too early to tell. Both of my children are a product of the new developmental style at CESA. My oldest is a U-12 Premier and the youngest is on the U-10.

For the oldest her first year the most talented girls were placed on a team (Which has now become the 93 Premier) and the remaining children were placed in a pool of about 24 players. There was a wide diversity of talent. Today two of the 24 are on Hyslop's team (93 Premier) and some are on U-11 Pool 2. We focused primarily on foot skills and played 8 v 8. There was very little emphasis on where to be on the field. We split up into 2 teams on the weekend and generally got clobbered. The 2 teams were randomly picked, especially in the fall. Come Spring they would try not to put all the forwards on one team. Due to our talent diversity there was a good bit of parent conflict.

The next year she was placed on U-11 Pool 1 (the top U-11 team)They were a 12 girl team rather than a pool. We still spent a lot of time on foot skills, but added in positioning. We liked being on a team rather than in a pool. Both years winning and losing was not emphasized. This year she is on the 94 Premier (11 v 11) we are playing in the U-13 Classic League this fall. The biggest thing you could hear the girls saying when they moved onto the large field is that they had so much more room to manuever and they were really able to utilize their speed and foot skills. You can see our results over on the PMSL website.

On a personal note, my daughter has improved tremendously. She was one of the weakest player in the original 24 pool. If they had cut the 4 weakest children, we would not have been in the big pool. To play soccer at an elite level is her dream and she works very hard at attaining it. She cross trains with other teams, does speed and strength training, trains indoors with "Speedy", and attends a couple of camps in the Summer.

My youngest is 8 and is playing on the U-10 team at CESA. We are playing up into the U-11 division. There are twelve 8 and 9 year olds. We have some serious speed on the team, however 80% of the players played forward in rec. and have never passed a ball in their life. My daughter is one of those girls. They dribble until they lose it. "Why on earth would you pass a ball" and "Why not go right down the middle" Their coach, Mina, is working very hard with them on both foot skills and positioning. Coach is doing very good and there is steady improvement. We've now played teams that we lost to early in the season that the second time we have beaten. We played MPSC at the U-10 level in friendlies and in the RBC tournament. The first time they dominatexd the second it was pretty close.

The boys side is a whole different matter. It is much more competitive and the boys frankly just have more foot skills. I would love to hear what one of their parents perspective is.

Not having children play when we went straight to 11 v 11 it is hard for me to compare. I think in the next year or so we will be able to judge more accurately whether the academy system of development is going to work.

Thanks for the reply, Bamr. I'm just trying to get a broader perspective on the new developmental methods because, admittedly, I have not been in any position to view the changes past these last two seasons and am also not naive enough to consider one club a microcosm of the totality. My main interest was just to consider the differences and benefits, etc. of the new methods due to the large disparity between the old and new systems overall, rather than just in one club.

On another note, the groups from MPSC who went to the RBC were two evenly mixed cherry-picked teams (if I remember correctly) who hadn't practiced together or really played 8v8 at all. The MPSC tournament and upcoming Charlotte tournaments had/will have an Elite cherry-picked team and the club's goal next season is to put all of those players together in a pool to practice in the spring and either evenly mix them or rank them Elite and Maroon/White as necessary. So it will definitely be interesting to see their development as they actually get to practice with each other and also how the three original teams integrate into the sole Coerver training method.

Kitten:

"two evenly mixed cherry-picked teams"

I not sure I understand this method. Two coaches cherry-picked the players one at a time. Or one coach split the group into two equally talented teams?

The DoC and some Coerver coaches split the girls into two equally talented teams for the tournament rather than using the LSYSA teams or splitting them according to skill.

Sorry for the confusion =).

the one complaint I have heard about the academy system is "cherry picking". I have not witnessed it personally, but I have heard complaints that some clubs use their academys to field "all star" teams from game to game. I guess it's just the academy permutation of the "A" team "B" team system which some clubs use. I don't think this kind of segregation is useful at the u9-u11 level, as the kids can really learn from one another. Academy may work best for clubs that are big enough to play their weekend games internally. That way coaches can get together and decide on with match ups they want to try.

I have a son at this level as well. I like 8v8. Don't like 6v6 for this age(u9,u10).
As for cherry-picking a team, I don't see a problem with that. We have a pool of 20 players. The coach picks two teams and they usually play 2 or 3 weeks together then rotate. But if they are going to a strong tournament, I don't see the problem with having a better team in the A division and a weaker team in a lower division (though our coach has not done this).
Pigeonholing a player still happens, though I think that is really based on each individual coach. My son played a whole year on a team where he played one position. Already this year he has played everything but keeper.

"Cherry Picking" My experience when my oldest was on a pool team, was that for the vast majority of the year it was purely random. Come very late Spring or when we went to a bigger tournament they would put the kids into an "A" and "B" team by ability. I was not a big fan of the big pool team, but my perspective is biased by the large diversity in talent that my daughter's pool team had and the difficulties that resulted from same. I think the pool concept works so long as you have children on a given pool team with very similar talant. The year my daughter's team struggled with the pool the parents that I talked to on the boys side of the equation did not face the same problems. The hard part for kids and parents is that first game when they know that the coaches has divided the team into "A" team and "B" team. It's almost like tryouts all over again.