Get ready folks

[sandiegofutbolguy]

I just heard a rumor that our club is going to reposition late birthday kids within the club way before the official tryout dates. Kids will know if they are getting dropped or promoted before the end of this year. Half of our roster (7-8 players) is likely to be upgraded with late birthday kids. Late birthday kids are coming from both A and B teams.

Our club also does this. WE only have "external tryouts". Other offers are always given prior to those.

 

[DeaconSoccer12]

I just heard a rumor that our club is going to reposition late birthday kids within the club way before the official tryout dates. Kids will know if they are getting dropped or promoted before the end of this year. Half of our roster (7-8 players) is likely to be upgraded with late birthday kids. Late birthday kids are coming from both A and B teams.

This is what our club is doing. They already did "age group training" and next kids are going to be sent to practices with their new teams I guess for parents and coaches to see what the makeup of the new team will be. Our current team looks like it is being split up into 5 different teams. Very sad for girls who want to stay with their friends.

 

[Socal-Soccer-Dad]

And how is it possible that Greece produces Giannis, Serbia produces Jokic and France produces Wembanyama?

Passion for the sport is important but there is a systemic failure in US player development.
Pulisic is developed in Europe.

Giannis Jokic and Wembanyama are genetic freaks of nature. Almost like mutants, not really "developed" by Greece, Serbia, or France.

Though, Serbia has had its share of great big men in the NBA. Grew up watching NBA in the 90s/00s so I love me some Peja and Vlade (that Kings team should've won some championships... they got cheated in 2002...)

Back to the topic: I don't think it's a systemic failure in that there is no system... I guess you can call that a failure... but I think the lack of it is because as I stated, it's such a niche sport here in the US. If soccer in US is as big as American football, we are winning the World Cup...

Imagine 300+ teams across the nation - all with fully funded youth academies - and best of the world wanting to come here to play... We will never get that...

 

[Socal-Soccer-Dad]

The other thing is that basketball occupies a middle ground on the skill v athleticism track. It is a moderately skilled sport that you can make up a lot with raw athleticism and body build so the track is much easier to catch up. Gridiron football (outside of the qb position) is a very high athleticism sport (if you don’t have the build and innate power you just aren’t going to be good no matter how much training you have) but much lower skill relative to other sports (esp on the line) so a kid can jump in at high school and still have a shot at playing pro if they are a great athlete. Soccer is high skilled moderate athleticism: yes you need to be a great athlete but someone shorter like Messi can make it but the ramp to get skilled just takes ages.

I was recently having a deep dive research into "what sport can you start late and still be elite" because after the World Series I'm currently in love with Yamamoto and maybe my kids should give baseball a try LOL

I was using research mode in various AI platforms and I asked "if a kid is starting at 12 years old, can you rank which ones are the hardest to make d1/pro and which ones are easiest".

In summary, they're all hard obv but comparatively:

VERY POSSIBLE: American football, Track, Volleyball
>> Raw athleticism can bridge A LOT OF gaps - plenty of examples of kids starting in HS and reaching elite levels

MODERATELY POSSIBLE: Basketball, Golf, MMA/Wrestling
>> Natural athletes can catch up in Basketball in teens, Natural strength can bridge gap in MMA, Golf has a good number of examples of late bloomers

VERY HARD: Baseball, Swimming
>> Baseball - early reps matter, Swimming - early neuromuscular technique dev req

EXTREMELY HARD: Soccer, Hockey
>> Soccer - can't get in enough touches later, Hockey - hard to catch up with skating mechanics

ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE: Tennis
>> Peaks super early, many in elite academies by 12

A lot of is obvious and makes sense but it was an interesting deep dive nonetheless.

 

[soccerdadlight]

Almost certain: Curling, Draughts, Darts, Bowling, Billiards

 

[Grace T.]

I was recently having a deep dive research into "what sport can you start late and still be elite" because after the World Series I'm currently in love with Yamamoto and maybe my kids should give baseball a try LOL

I was using research mode in various AI platforms and I asked "if a kid is starting at 12 years old, can you rank which ones are the hardest to make d1/pro and which ones are easiest".

In summary, they're all hard obv but comparatively:

VERY POSSIBLE: American football, Track, Volleyball
>> Raw athleticism can bridge A LOT OF gaps - plenty of examples of kids starting in HS and reaching elite levels

MODERATELY POSSIBLE: Basketball, Golf, MMA/Wrestling
>> Natural athletes can catch up in Basketball in teens, Natural strength can bridge gap in MMA, Golf has a good number of examples of late bloomers

VERY HARD: Baseball, Swimming
>> Baseball - early reps matter, Swimming - early neuromuscular technique dev req

EXTREMELY HARD: Soccer, Hockey
>> Soccer - can't get in enough touches later, Hockey - hard to catch up with skating mechanics

ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE: Tennis
>> Peaks super early, many in elite academies by 12

A lot of is obvious and makes sense but it was an interesting deep dive nonetheless.

Gymnastics and figure skating careers are 1/2 way over by 12 too so group that in with tennis.

Giannis Jokic and Wembanyama are genetic freaks of nature. Almost like mutants, not really "developed" by Greece, Serbia, or France.

Though, Serbia has had its share of great big men in the NBA. Grew up watching NBA in the 90s/00s so I love me some Peja and Vlade (that Kings team should've won some championships... they got cheated in 2002...)

Back to the topic: I don't think it's a systemic failure in that there is no system... I guess you can call that a failure... but I think the lack of it is because as I stated, it's such a niche sport here in the US. If soccer in US is as big as American football, we are winning the World Cup...

Imagine 300+ teams across the nation - all with fully funded youth academies - and best of the world wanting to come here to play... We will never get that...

The Hispanic population in the us is greater than Peru, Venezuela, Argentina and Uruguay. There’s some drop off because of gridiron football and baseball in youth sport but soccer remains the no 1 sport among expat families (not a whole lot of Hispanics are tall enough for basketball). This explains why we might lose to European teams (but again our u17s and below if not beat Europe play at the equivalent of Latin America). It does not explain why we at the older ages drop to Panama, Costa Rica and even Canada.