easydoesit
BRONZE
There are many ranking systems but it seemed like people like YSR so I’m taking a stab at remaking it. I took all the feedback in the thread about YSR. Email me at poolpartybellyflop@gmail.com if you want to weigh in on it.
Youth Soccer Ratings - Remaking it.
- Thread starter easydoesit
- Start date
If the goal is to identify has many potential players as possible there needs to be some kind of diminishing returns for high level teams that only play each other.
This is the benefit (if youre on the inside) and annoyance (if youre on the outside looking in) of closed leagues. It creates a system where it doesnt matter if players are good or poor the only thing that matters is playing on the right team in the right league. (which is what clubs want)
easydoesit
BRONZE
Help me understand this more. My personal exposure to this is limited my son is too young. It sounds like clubs want to play in the league or event that will give them the best record. Which is ultimately for marketing.
easydoesit
BRONZE
Would tournaments be a better judge of team quality?
RandomSoccerFan
PREMIER
One of the main goals of any league has to start with attracting the best players. Valid opinions can vary on what exactly "best" means, but there's much more agreement than disagreement in most cases. Better players attract additional better players, which causes the teams to continue to improve against peers, who are also doing many of the same things to attract better players. The better the league can be perceived, the stronger it gets in local, regional, and national recognition - which feeds in to college recruiting. The more attractive it continues to get by parents/kids who are angling to join. Ultimately, it translates in to more dollars for the league and its member clubs. To see an example of what competitive branding can do MLS N snapped their fingers and had 40,000 parents lining up to pay for their "newly offered" second tier - made up of teams that a short while ago would have a hard time competing well in any of the other secondary/tertiary leagues.
From a club/team standpoint, having a decent winning record is part of it, but it's certainly not the primary goal. The record doesn't matter if the competition is hopeless.
The unfortunate (to some) reality is that over and over again this set of incentives has resulted in closed leagues obtaining and maintaining superiority. It seems to be unavoidable.
From a club/team standpoint, having a decent winning record is part of it, but it's certainly not the primary goal. The record doesn't matter if the competition is hopeless.
The unfortunate (to some) reality is that over and over again this set of incentives has resulted in closed leagues obtaining and maintaining superiority. It seems to be unavoidable.
easydoesit
BRONZE
What you'll find the longer you kid plays is higher level competition becomes more and more gated. Either you're on the teams that play the best teams or you're not. Which is unfortunate if your kid plays on a team thats looking to get noticed. But, also justified if your kid is on a really good team. You dont want to risk getting hurt playing against a team that "doesnt matter".
This is what Im describing. There needs to be some kind of justification to bring up deserving clubs/teams. At least thats my opinion. I understand both sides of the coin. But, if the end goal is to identify talent there needs to be viable pathways outside of the chosen clubs.
RandomSoccerFan
PREMIER
Every one of the top ones, on both the boys and girls side. (MLS N, ECNL, GA, and a whole pile of leagues that sit lower however someone draws the hierarchy). "Open" would generally mean that a group of kids could put a team together at age 10 in a rec league somewhere, and as they improved over time, that team would be able to join harder / more competitive leagues all the way up as long as they continued to succeed. But many of the upper leagues, and all of them near the top, don't really work like that. They can be considered "closed". The league has to decide to accept new clubs, and it's not all about how talented the proposed entry may be, it has everything to do with the health and $ of the league (not putting too many teams in same geography, a handful of people deciding the future for many, and other pitfalls that can be imagined). You can't just win your way in.
socalgoalkeeperdad
BRONZE
I'll give you an overview of San Diego teams from a boys perspective. Fight 1/NPL is roughly the same across the board in San Diego. ECRL So cal and ECRL are one level above that. Now, depending on the team that you are in, their is a drastic difference. San Diego Surf ECRL teams are usually just as good as most ECNL teams. Legends ECRL team plays like flight 1. The difference between coaching, talent level differs greatly from club to club. ECNL teams have top tier (their are only 5-6 good teams), the rest would most likely be competitive with the best ECRL teams. MLS is a different animal. The MLS teams in south west are good. Their are about 5 teams that are head and above better than everyone else except 1-2 ECNL teams. The other MLS teams ranging from 6-12 are good teams that would compete with all ECNL teams. The bottom MLS tier is ECRL level competition. The ideal situation would be to take the TOP ECNL teams (5-6), top MLS teams (6-10) and 4 other teams and play against each other without too much travel. Southern California has about 20 teams that would play each other and be very competitive. That should be Tier 1. After that, ECRL/NPL/Flight 1 teams should have a relegation as the other 4 teams who can enter Tier 1 on a yearly basis.
Combine MLS/ECNL to create top 20 to lessen travel and have more competition. 2 teams should have relegation.
Combine ECRL/NPL/Flight 1 to create top 20 teams with 2 teams able to move up at end of the year.
This would save money, time, travel while creating a more competitive environment in southern california (Greater Los angeles, temecula, San Diego)
Combine MLS/ECNL to create top 20 to lessen travel and have more competition. 2 teams should have relegation.
Combine ECRL/NPL/Flight 1 to create top 20 teams with 2 teams able to move up at end of the year.
This would save money, time, travel while creating a more competitive environment in southern california (Greater Los angeles, temecula, San Diego)
I can break it down way more simply than that. Before last summer I hadn't been at a littles combined boys/girls tournament in over 6 years. The differences I noticed for boys teams between then and now was black and white. Clubs with MLS had 3-4 boys teams at what seemed like every age group. Clubs with ECNL had 1-2 boys teams at each age group. No need to get into the details because its not needed. Bigger funnels when younger means more players to choose from and better teams when older.