Underage football

[Pogue Mahone]

Bit of a shit-storm kicking off on in Dublin about our underage league this evening. The DDSL have just announced that from next season U12 league games (kids born in ‘09 - which happens to include my son) will be 11v11 on a full size pitch. Which comes straight after missing half a season of 7v7. Up until this announcement they were expecting to play 9v9. So there’s a desperate scramble to find new players and full-size pitches to play on.

I think this is absolute bullshit. Massive retrograde step after years of baby steps (no pun intended) in the right direction, emphasising technical skills on small pitches.

Useless fecking cnuts running the game in this country

What’s the approach in other countries? When do your kids start playing on full size pitches?

 

[Snafu17]

Starts with U15's here (Slovenia). I think U13's play 9v9 with smaller goals, 7v7 for categories younger than that and no table for U8's. They also get to play futsal up until U15's over the winter. I can't imagine the point in playing on full size pitches with kids younger than 12, most of them can't even reach the bar.

 

[DOTA]

All I know is there's been a lot of people from continental Europe arguing that the UK system throws kids in to full size pitches stupidly early and that having kids who aren't developed enough to kick a ball half the pitch they're playing on isn't helping them develop their skills.

 

[Stacks]

Bit of a shit-storm kicking off on in Dublin about our underage league this evening. The DDSL have just announced that from next season U12 league games (kids born in ‘09 - which happens to include my son) will be 11v11 on a full size pitch. Which comes straight after missing half a season of 7v7. Up until this announcement they were expecting to play 9v9. So there’s a desperate scramble to find new players and full-size pitches to play on.

I think this is absolute bullshit. Massive retrograde step after years of baby steps (no pun intended) in the right direction, emphasising technical skills on small pitches.

Useless fecking cnuts running the game in this country

What’s the approach in other countries? When do your kids start playing on full size pitches?

reminds me of my child days. I started football at 7 (under 8s) and we played on the same 11 a side pitches that the older lads played on. Keepers got lobbed from the half way line as the goals were too big. At 11 I played a game against Millwall on their full sized pitch. It's a joke.

EDIT: I live in Britain

 

[Pogue Mahone]

reminds me of my child days. I started football at 7 (under 8s) and we played on the same 11 a side pitches that the older lads played on. Keepers got lobbed from the half way line as the goals were too big. At 11 I played a game against Millwall on their full sized pitch. It's a joke.

EDIT: I live in Britain

It’s fecking ridiculous. His primary school team have been playing 11v11 from day one but the club league was a bit more enlightened. Until now.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

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[Ali Dia]

Irish poster here. I remember it well at that age on the full size pitches back in the 90s. The more physically developed players lobbing the keeper over and over and playing kick and run up the pitch. Useless for learning anything technical

 

[arthurka]

It starts at 13 here in Iceland..

 

[DOTA]

My memories are of being 9/10 and playing on a pitch that was probably 60 metres goal to goal. That was too big for us. Anyone with a strong boot could hugely effect the match. Goalkicks were a massive disadvantage.

 

[Drainy]

Got to produce that next Richard Dunne

 

[Pogue Mahone]

Got to produce that next Richard Dunne

The fecked up thing is that we switched to small sided games ages ago and that’s already bearing fruit. Our underage sides are good. Our U21s excellent. All playing proper football too. This is such a backwards step.

 

[MalcolmTucker]

Ridiculous - what is the reasoning for it? I'd be wound up too if I was Irish.

It's no surprise the England youth teams started doing well and producing technical footballers when they adopted the Dutch training model and youth teams were downsized about 15 years ago. The same happened in Germany prior to that too.

 

[LOIfan]

Bit of a shit-storm kicking off on in Dublin about our underage league this evening. The DDSL have just announced that from next season U12 league games (kids born in ‘09 - which happens to include my son) will be 11v11 on a full size pitch. Which comes straight after missing half a season of 7v7. Up until this announcement they were expecting to play 9v9. So there’s a desperate scramble to find new players and full-size pitches to play on.

I think this is absolute bullshit. Massive retrograde step after years of baby steps (no pun intended) in the right direction, emphasising technical skills on small pitches.

Useless fecking cnuts running the game in this country

What’s the approach in other countries? When do your kids start playing on full size pitches?

Dublin man here still playing football in Dublin and managing my brothers DDSL team and the news has completely rocked our team who up until now had a squad of 10 players. The club i manage is a relatively small club situated in a majority rugby/GAA stronghold of our area and it will now be near impossible to secure 15 players, which i feel is the minimum required of a squad due to other potential unforeseen commitments from players who rely on parents to arrive on match day, with every club now trying to as many players in as possible and the lure to play premier football for players who otherwise wouldn't have much of a chance playing that level will pretty much kill the side i manage unfortunately. It is also mental they consider U12 ready to play in full sized goals, i still remember not too long ago moving into full sized goals in under 11 and matches were simple won by having one player who could kick the ball high due to the fact keepers couldn't reach the crossbar until 13/14s. I suppose this is Irish football and you would often be left wondering if those left in charged shared a braincell between them unfortunately

 

[Pogue Mahone]

Ridiculous - what is the reasoning for it? I'd be wound up too if I was Irish.

It's no surprise the England youth teams started doing well and producing technical footballers when they adopted the Dutch training model and youth teams were downsized about 15 years ago. The same happened in Germany prior to that too.

We’ve been following the Dutch model for about 15 years too. With great results.

Rumours that this decision was influenced by the big Dublin clubs to give their U12s a year of 11v11 ahead of the U13 National League (which is another stupid initiative IMO)

 

[horsechoker]

People need to stop moaning, I bet Roy Keane would tell 'em to get on with it. Game's gone soft, I'd love to see Roy Keane lace up his boots and get stuck in, put in a few challenges on the kids, that'll toughen 'em up!

 

[Pogue Mahone]

Dublin man here still playing football in Dublin and managing my brothers DDSL team and the news has completely rocked our team who up until now had a squad of 10 players. The club i manage is a relatively small club situated in a majority rugby/GAA stronghold of our area and it will now be near impossible to secure 15 players, which i feel is the minimum required of a squad due to other potential unforeseen commitments from players who rely on parents to arrive on match day, with every club now trying to as many players in as possible and the lure to play premier football for players who otherwise wouldn't have much of a chance playing that level will pretty much kill the side i manage unfortunately. It is also mental they consider U12 ready to play in full sized goals, i still remember not too long ago moving into full sized goals in under 11 and matches were simple won by having one player who could kick the ball high due to the fact keepers couldn't reach the crossbar until 13/14s. I suppose this is Irish football and you would often be left wondering if those left in charged shared a braincell between them unfortunately

We’re in the exact same situation as you. Trying to find 5 new players to increase our squad from 10 to 15 or fold the team completely. Over the course of a summer where it’s really tough to get any kind of proper training going. Plus our club is going to have a nightmare finding extra full-sized pitches to play on every weekend. It’s such bullshit.

 

[Gio]

I think it's 13 in Scotland.

 

[André Dominguez]

This used to be the norm many years ago since younger ages, but then science explained that until they become teens (hence 13) they are not yet athletic enough for a full size pitch, not to mention the comedy goals that will happen due to having a tiny keeper to cover so much space.

 

[Lynty]

Very poor decision.

At that age they'd develop better playing football in the street than chasing loose balls on a full size pitch.

I'm not sure how funding works in DDSL but i'd speak with the teams and threaten to break away. Surely they'll back down.

 

[Chipper]

Primary school was a mix, at home we played with size 4 balls and smaller goals but I think the pitch was normal-sized. I remember another school having a narrow pitch with the full-sized markings and the touchline wasn't that far away from the left/right edge of the penalty area. They had full sized goals. High school (aged 11-12+) we went onto full sized everything.

Was only good enough to play one match for a non-school team when I was about 10, that was on full-sized everything with a size 4 ball.

What's the theory behind small-sided games? Not sure I completely understand the point if you reduce the pitch size which I'd have thought would be priority. I understand you can learn different skills, and that's great, it's why teams will often incorporate small-sided games and drills into training and I think it should be part of practice at any age. I'd have thought there'd be a danger that if you only play 7 or 9 a side that when it comes to stepping up to 11-a-side a kid might have learned tactics/formations/roles that simply don't exist in 11-a side and would find adjusting very hard.Is there anything specifically wrong with 11-a side on smaller pitches with smaller goals/balls? They'd be learning the same game with all the same positions just scaled down to appropriate size.

 

[DFreshKing]

That's a shocking step backwards. One of the best things I've seen since getting back into grass roots coaching with my lad is how much more technical ball time players get with small sided games. We often train 3v3 for this very reason. Player development will suffer for this i would imagine.

 

[RobinLFC]

Belgium is:

5v5 for U8 and U9
8v8 for U10 to U13
11v11 from U14 onwards

U12 playing on a full-sized pitch makes zero sense whatsoever. Size of the pitch for U10-U13 here is as follows:

So it's quite a big step to go from that to full-sized at U12 already.

 

[DFreshKing]

Primary school was a mix, at home we played with size 4 balls and smaller goals but I think the pitch was normal-sized. I remember another school having a narrow pitch with the full-sized markings and the touchline wasn't that far away from the left/right edge of the penalty area. They had full sized goals. High school (aged 11-12+) we went onto full sized everything.

Was only good enough to play one match for a non-school team when I was about 10, that was on full-sized everything with a size 4 ball.

What's the theory behind small-sided games? Not sure I completely understand the point if you reduce the pitch size which I'd have thought would be priority. I understand you can learn different skills, and that's great, it's why teams will often incorporate small-sided games and drills into training and I think it should be part of practice at any age. I'd have thought there'd be a danger that if you only play 7 or 9 a side that when it comes to stepping up to 11-a-side a kid might have learned tactics/formations/roles that simply don't exist in 11-a side and would find adjusting very hard.Is there anything specifically wrong with 11-a side on smaller pitches with smaller goals/balls? They'd be learning the same game with all the same positions just scaled down to appropriate size.

The main benefit the players get is much more time on the ball. All of the team is involved much more so the theory is players develop more than they would keeping position but not actually touching the ball.

It's all about player development at young ages so simply having less players in your team means you spend more time on the ball. I.E 5v5 you get a 5th of your teams possession compared to 11th in full sized games.

 

[T00lsh3d]

Bit of a shit-storm kicking off on in Dublin about our underage league this evening. The DDSL have just announced that from next season U12 league games (kids born in ‘09 - which happens to include my son) will be 11v11 on a full size pitch. Which comes straight after missing half a season of 7v7. Up until this announcement they were expecting to play 9v9. So there’s a desperate scramble to find new players and full-size pitches to play on.

I think this is absolute bullshit. Massive retrograde step after years of baby steps (no pun intended) in the right direction, emphasising technical skills on small pitches.

Useless fecking cnuts running the game in this country

What’s the approach in other countries? When do your kids start playing on full size pitches?

In England you move to 9v9 at U11, and it’s a big jump. My team really struggled with it and we were really good on the 7vs7 pitches. Moving straight to 11vs11 is fecking crazy and no good for development at all

 

[Tiber]

It's the goalkeepers I feel bad for. Huge nets, tiny keepers.