I am told that the best way to develop young players is to have them PLAY IN THE SAME AGE GROUP. I believe that it is more important for them to PLAY IN THE SAME SKILL GROUP. Who is correct?
We believe soccer is based on four pillars, at the individual AND at the team level:
- Technical Skills
- Tactical Understanding
- Physical Conditioning and Game Readiness
- Mental Understanding and Game Readiness
- They split boys and girls at a very early age, some as early as age 4/5 - U5.
- They group them in single age groups, not combining ages. The difference between a young three year old and an older 4 year old in a combined U5 team could be huge.
- They asses the abilities of players in pre-season evaluation sessions and identify the exceptionally talented players - the ones that would be good enough to control the ball most of the time in a game. They then selectively put these exceptional kids in an older age group to level the playing field. Messi was such a kid - playing 2-3 age groups up.
- Finally, at age 10 and up they split their teams into recreational and competitive/travel.