06 Aggressive Soccer Players

Some kids are advanced mentally and physically and excel against older players. Some may have the foot skill etc., but the speed and physical play of older girls is too much for others. I think you are making the right move placing her back in her own age group. If she is going to overcome it, it will be there. It should allow her to build confidence and progress. Playing up is great for some kids, but its not for everyone.

Booked again wrote:Some kids are advanced mentally and physically and excel against older players. Some may have the foot skill etc., but the speed and physical play of older girls is too much for others. I think you are making the right move placing her back in her own age group. If she is going to overcome it, it will be there. It should allow her to build confidence and progress. Playing up is great for some kids, but its not for everyone.

Along with that, it's important to also realize that as our children develop physically that their brains are also developing as well. My wife and I refer to these changes in their thinking as "phases". As the kids get older and their brains develop more and more, they will start thinking differently. They will start processing information differently, they may start changing their decision making patterns, be more in tune with new situations, etc.

USA203 wrote:

but all of a suddent its as though she has acquired her own thinking and has decided its best to "wait" for the ball to come out of the "bunching up" that the girls tend to do

Perhaps she is just plain smart and needs a team where her teammates are also smart and don't bunch so much!

@USA203 – For whatever reason her team coach doesn’t like it when she does not get in the “bunching up” that her teammates will do. They will yell at her from the sidelines to “Help your teammates!”. To them it looks like she is taking the easy way out by waiting for the ball to roll out of the all chaos. Go figure.

Booked again wrote:Some kids are advanced mentally and physically and excel against older players. Some may have the foot skill etc., but the speed and physical play of older girls is too much for others. I think you are making the right move placing her back in her own age group. If she is going to overcome it, it will be there. It should allow her to build confidence and progress. Playing up is great for some kids, but its not for everyone.

Thanks, I think you are right. We will with a doubt be moving down to first grade (As the YMCA would call it) next season. We only have one game in left in our season and we will let her finish the last game before moving on. Thanks for the advice.

@USA203 – For whatever reason her team coach doesn’t like it when she does not get in the “bunching up” that her teammates will do. They will yell at her from the sidelines to “Help your teammates!”. To them it looks like she is taking the easy way out by waiting for the ball to roll out of the all chaos. Go figure.

Well, at the Academy level "2nd grade" (and also "1st grade") they most certainly would (should) be spreading out and passing. There, your dd would be doing exactly what she is supposed to do. After playing where everyone is expected and told to spread out and pass, when my dd goes back to a situation where they are all playing "bunch ball" she just stands at the outside of the bunch and eventually the ball pops out and then she takes it and scores if she is near goal. I hate bunch ball. I don't even sign her up for camps or things where I know they will do that--dd gets nothing out of it. Most good rec coaches will work on spreading them a little even at young ages......telling all of them at 2nd grade to "get in there and help"...not so good.

One other thought for you--in my opinion for this younger age you want them in small-sided games. You don't want her "moving up" to a bigger U8 field at this age--she needs touches on the ball and smaller field/smaller sided games will get that for her. That's probably the #1 reason I would keep a younger player from playing up.

USA203 wrote:

@USA203 – For whatever reason her team coach doesn’t like it when she does not get in the “bunching up” that her teammates will do. They will yell at her from the sidelines to “Help your teammates!”. To them it looks like she is taking the easy way out by waiting for the ball to roll out of the all chaos. Go figure.

Well, at the Academy level "2nd grade" (and also "1st grade") they most certainly would (should) be spreading out and passing. There, your dd would be doing exactly what she is supposed to do. After playing where everyone is expected and told to spread out and pass, when my dd goes back to a situation where they are all playing "bunch ball" she just stands at the outside of the bunch and eventually the ball pops out and then she takes it and scores if she is near goal. I hate bunch ball. I don't even sign her up for camps or things where I know they will do that--dd gets nothing out of it. Most good rec coaches will work on spreading them a little even at young ages......telling all of them at 2nd grade to "get in there and help"...not so good.

One other thought for you--in my opinion for this younger age you want them in small-sided games. You don't want her "moving up" to a bigger U8 field at this age--she needs touches on the ball and smaller field/smaller sided games will get that for her. That's probably the #1 reason I would keep a younger player from playing up.

I have seen academy teams play and you're right they do not bunch up, they pass and create space. My daughter likes that way of playing a lot better (she even ask the kids on her team during a game to make space) than playing bunch ball. Currently she is also playing organized pick up 3v3 soccer with younger kids to get multiple touches on the ball, and in the summer she will play in a 3v3 league with her age group. Also in the fall she will return to her age group and stay there. I have read a lot about 3v3 recently and we were one of those parents that thought that playing on a big field with goalies was the best way to go to prepare her. This was just due to our lack of knowledge about soccer. We know better now, and hopefully we are on the right track this time.

You are ahead of the game already, 06 Plenty of big field experience ahead of her.

Does her academy coach stress passing? Passing at young ages decreases aggression... In rec games the culture is running wild. in academy Games coaches stress using skills, and keeping a shape. maybe your child is afraid to make mistakes at this point. Sounds to me like she's thinking about the game just little bit.

skills wrote:Does her academy coach stress passing? Passing at young ages decreases aggression... In rec games the culture is running wild. in academy Games coaches stress using skills, and keeping a shape. maybe your child is afraid to make mistakes at this point. Sounds to me like she's thinking about the game just little bit.

My child does not play on an academy team, but on a rec team. He does not stress passing to the kids, my kid actually learned how to pass through an academy program she goes to and tried to do it in a game once and b/c the other player doesn't know how to receive a pass, it didn't go well. Needless to say, her coach told her not to pass anymore..just go score.I do think she does think about situations in the game too much.