The NC Youth Soccer Association recently eliminated the use of promotion and relegation to form U11 through U13 divisions for the state’s top travel teams. Soccer Dad takes a look at why this decision may have been very short sighted.
Entries Tagged ‘competition’
Don’t Even TALK About Your Wins!
A few months ago we mentioned that the UK’s Football Association had banned leagues from keeping scores or standings for 7 and 8 year old players. This wasn’t a surprise and US Soccer recommends this as well, though many leagues continue to do so.
But now it seems to have gotten a bit extreme. A proud [...]
FA: No Competitive Leagues for U8’s
In an ironic twist, the UK’s national football association has just banned competitive leagues for U8 players, something US Soccer has been pushing for a while. Scores and standings cannot be kept or published. Over at Two Footed Tackle, they cheer the decision:
The benefits of scrapping competitive football for under-8s are plentiful, as are the [...]
Creating Motivation
A while back I alluded to the challenges we had faced with our U11 girls in terms of getting them motivated in practice, but hadn’t had a chance to expand on that until now.
Our U11 team is a great group of girls, but it’s also on a steep learning curve. Very diverse personalities, varying levels [...]
Why Coaches REALLY Want The Hardware
In the endless debates about competition in youth sports, you’ll often hear that the kids don’t care about trophies, only the parents and coaches do. While there may be some truth to that with people who lose sight of why we all do what we do in youth soccer, most coaches I’ve met care about [...]
Let ‘Em Play – And Compete!
For those of you involved in travel soccer in North Carolina, there are two very important proposals coming up for a vote at the next NCYSA Challenge Council meeting (June 9th, 2007). One of them proposes the elimination of the NCYSA Challenge Cup for U10, U11, and U12 and replacing it with a festival, similar [...]
NCYSA Rec State Cup – R.I.P.
At the recent NCYSA Annual General Meeting, the VP of Tournaments noted during his annual report that he felt the existence of a ‘State Cup’ for recreational soccer below U13 was inappropriate and felt it needed to be done away with. At the Recreation Council meeting the day before, it was noted that attendance at [...]
NCYSA Soccer Academy Proposal
The North Carolina Youth Soccer Association is considering the formation of a new ‘Academy’ division to go along with the existing Recreational, Challenge and Classic divisions. It is a significant addition to the state soccer organization and while it is nothing revolutionary, it will likely result in a contentious debate during this weekend’s Annual General [...]
Team Disparity and Fairness
Building on the post I recently put up regarding a mercy rule, our league decided to email our parents some further explanations as to why some teams aren’t competing well, why they got the players they did, and what the league hopes to do in the future to ensure more competitive divisions. The background on [...]
USSF Advocating No Results For U12 And Below
A recent position paper from US Soccer advocates non-result competition for U12 on down. What is it about soccer that makes everyone NOT want to keep score. No other sport does this.
