Changing age groups to calendar year like ODP

[willowdale]

Has anyone heard that age groups may be changed to calendar year like ODP?  If so, how will it be implemented?

[rlb2024]

I'm not aware of anything like that. US Club Soccer formerly used calendar year, but I understand they are switching to August 1.  US Youth Soccer (which includes LSA) is August 1.

[Timbertwin]

US Soccer, which sanctions all youth soccer affiliates, is considering mandating that at the youth level.

[usfgk]

Very interesting
When will the decision be made?

[Timbertwin]

They have not indicated a timeframe. We have the US Soccer AGM on Mardi Gras weekend when we may learn more specifics. They are also expected to mandate small-sided games (numbers on field, field sizes, goal sizes, etc.) for U12 and below for all youth affiliates.

[stmparent]

Any idea if this will affect existing teams, or only the new ones coming up?

[stmparent]

Is there any more information on this, yet?

[Deleted]

I'm against going to a Jan thru December format. I understand that this is how ODP and the Development Academy teams are structured.

It's important that DA age groups are essentially a "year behind". Example U17/18 teams are comprised of players born in 96/97. So, a 96 year player born before August 1 would be a u19 player on a typical club team.

Before the DA, ODP was the main feeder system into the youth national teams. Definitely not the case anymore. Now it is essentially just another pay-to-play program. At least on the boys side.

With the traditional club August thru July calendar you are close to mirroring the school year calendar. So by U18 the vast majority of club players in that group are high school seniors.

Every now and then you will find a player born in September that graduates high school as a u17 club player. But not common.

[Timbertwin]

Nothing new has been shared with us. Will spread the word the minute we are informed by US Soccer.

[lafutbolplaya07]

Coach Goodwin mentioned something about this being to come in line with the rest of the world? I also think that ODP is realistically more about college recruitment especially for LA players. How many players are going to play for the national team from LA? When I did ODP we had several players recruited from there and definitely not their club teams. Lots of college coaches at region camp and all from our schools that are close to LA.

[Deleted]

Feb 17, 2015 8:01:52 GMT -6 lafutbolplaya07 said:

Coach Goodwin mentioned something about this being to come in line with the rest of the world? I also think that ODP is realistically more about college recruitment especially for LA players. How many players are going to play for the national team from LA? When I did ODP we had several players recruited from there and definitely not their club teams. Lots of college coaches at region camp and all from our schools that are close to LA.

Youth national teams have always been formed along pure calendar birth year lines. However not all youth academy teams are. England is an example. Their academy team age groups are closer to what we have in the states. (Last time I checked anyway.)

ODP is still an option for college recruiting. But it certainly isn't the only way. A lot of players use college showcase tournaments and college id camps.

ODP still attracts some quality players. But certainly not all of them. I'd say that is certainly true in La. And North Texas. Safe to say all state ODP teams are not created and have varying degrees of success and credibility.

 

[coachray40]

I had heard a little about this a month or so ago, and then I was asked about what I knew about it again at the Dutchtown/Mandeville game by a parent of a player who my son used to play ODP with. She is knowledgeable parent, and informed me that they were told about this by Coach Godwin. I would say that if it isnt about to happen, that it IS gaining some groundswell of support.

Interesting that we have seen what amounts to significant change with LSA and ODP in the last few months, and how this coincides with a new LSA President and Executive director. SCORE is gone as a corporate sponsor (thank God) and we now have a new agreement with NIKE. We can now call our teams ODP teams again (with the SCORE deal we had refer to them as "STATE SELECT TEAM")--NIKE is an official partner with ODP.

Does this matter? It will for the initial implementation year, as teams would have to reform, but from there it wouldnt make a difference. I personally am more happy with the current set up as it mimics school grades and keeps kids more consistently with a peer group, but developmentally we wont see any real changes. The only other concern I would have is that there wouldnt be consistency with all other states in our region. It would have to be a national mandate.

I grew up playing in a calendar year system. I was a '63. Now you know how ancient I have become. Only problem I ever had was I have a Dec 29 b-day, so many times I played against kids almost a year older than me. Same thing happens now though--my sons U13 team has a kid with a Aug 15 birthday, as well as a kid with a July 31 birthday on it. No matter what system you use, there are the same issues with age, just a change of the location of the dividing line

[lafutbolplaya07]

All very interesting and positive moves on the LSA part with Nike.

I know when I heard about the new rules it was mentioned it was coming from US Soccer Federation so I'm guessing this would be Nationwide. Coach Godwin also said some other changes were coming as well but couldn't quite hear all of it.

[Timbertwin]

Yes, this would not be an LSA initiative but one undertaken by US Soccer and mandated of all affiliates.

Small-sided games would also be mandatory, along with specified field and goal sizes. That is supposed to be one of the details being worked out before it is unveiled.

Coach Klinsmann's deal with US Soccer elevated him to Technical Director, and many of the proposed changes come from his vision for the direction of US Soccer.

[Ronaldinho]

Feb 17, 2015 19:21:49 GMT -6 Timbertwin said:

Yes, this would not be an LSA initiative but one undertaken by US Soccer and mandated of all affiliates.

Small-sided games would also be mandatory, along with specified field and goal sizes. That is supposed to be one of the details being worked out before it is unveiled.

Coach Klinsmann's deal with US Soccer elevated him to Technical Director, and many of the proposed changes come from his vision for the direction of US Soccer.

Very interesting about the ideas coming from Klinsmann, glad to see the thought he's giving to the youth game and general American setup.

I would be in favor of standardizing small sided games in younger age groups along with field and goal sizes. No reason or advantage in the inconsistency.

However I agree with Hall and Coach Ray about age groups, I'd rather keep more in line with school year cutoffs. I think it's a good thing that, for the most part, classmates play on the same club team, which can make it more socially comfortable for kids to stay in the game and enjoy playing on their teams.

[laffysoccermom]

It doesn't bother me one way or another. I don't think the August lines up that well with school year but nothing perfect.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using proboards

[stmparent]

I have 5 children born in August. None of them have been in the same school year as most of the rest of the team. Really hasn't been a problem.

[kevin]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relative_age_effect

If you do some digging online, you can see that this is a pretty big issue across the world, not just in the US. Where possible, I think we need six-month groups, not year groups.

[itsallgood]

Any updates on this issue?

[usfgk]

Feb 20, 2015 14:02:47 GMT -6 itsallgood said:

Any updates on this issue?

Anything new from US Youth soccer?