The changes:
1. Focus on the small sided games more. 4v4 and 5v5 until u8 or u9. I remember for my daughter that she was playing 6v6 and 7v7 as early as 7. This was not really needed and it focused on kids that had more physical ability to run long distances than focusing on touches on the ball. This change is all about more ball touches. Less players, smaller fields equals more touches. Like it.
2. Change from school year to differentiate players to birth year. So before, an August child was the gold standard since they were the older players on the team and now it will be January as the gold standard as they will be the older kids. Apparently Canada and the US were the only two countries to use this system. So we are going to be able to compare apples to apples with respect to international play eventually.
3. At the local level, the club closest to home is going to kick ins instead of throw ins for everything under u10. Promotes more touches again and eliminates the throw ins that are not as strategic until later.
Anything that promotes more touches is the gold standard right now. I think it will work and hope that it makes older age soccer better and more competitive is a good thing. I hope that it proves to be the right strategy.
