The idea of teams in the youngest age groups needs to be reconsidered for soccer. We evaluate kids in the summer before the start of the season for a couple hour sessions, and then decide what level they will play at and who they will play with for the following year. With the evaluation, kids can be misplaced and kids tend to change a lot over the course of the year. If one of the goals is to help each player develop, it does not make sense to lock kids in teams that in very little time can be inappropriate for them in one way or another. Think of it this way.. what if your child was tested for a reading group in school in June. Based on the test, they were placed in either Reading Group 1, Reading Group 2, or Reading Group 3. Now, this is going to be their group for the entire upcoming school year. Would that make a lot of sense? Probably not. Why? Based on the test, kids could have been placed in too high or low of a reading group, or over the course of the year, based on the progress or lack of progress of the kid or others in that group, the group can become either too high or too low of a level reading group for the kid. Either way, the kid is not in the best learning group. If it is too challenging, the child will become discouraged and will no longer enjoy reading, or if the group is not challenging enough, the kid gets a false elevated sense of his reading level and growth is slowed. You would hope over the course of the year, the teacher would move kids between groups based on their current level to give them the best environment possible to learn and challenge each one appropriately. Why would we not want the same when our kids play sports? Why lock young kids into a group, a team, for an entire year? Especially at the youngest age groups where there is so much growth and change over a short amount of time. I would not want my kid playing in an environment that is too hard and has no success, and I would not want my kid playing in an environment that success comes with little or no effort. Both stunt development and the ability to continue to play the game.
Posted on: Thu, 20 Nov 2014 22:45:00 +0000