Birth Year Advantages

Then the third reason why going by birth year rather than graduation year is not beneficial for youth soccer because of the emotional toll it has on being with kids that are a year older or younger. It’s a social divide between grades and friends, for example my little sister was born in 2002, and some of the players on her team birth year is 2001. She has to play with the year younger team and not with her friends that are in the same grade as her. It’s emotionally hard when you have been playing with your close friends for years on the same team, and then have to play with the year younger class because you birth years is a year “younger” than your friends. I was born in 1999 and should be playing with some sophomores, when tryouts came …show more content…
He is looking at which could be inconvenient for him and the players, because he could just be recruiting for the class of 2017, but half of that class is on an younger team which would be mostly girls of class 2018. He is only looking at small portions of player that stand out to him or her.Usually the ones who stand out are the bigger and stronger kids who can be very physical and win the ball more. Then also players who are fast get noticed because they can win the ball more. Kids who are smaller get beat or pushed off of the ball more, but have way better touch or technical skills. Overall more difficult for colleges to pick out eligible players in a fair way “Early maturers who focused on strength over technique find they can't compete with more balanced players”(Para.15 Faraway). More balanced players are the ones who are tall, quicker, stronger, and have good technical skills. When you start assuming and thinking oh this player is fast and strong they will just become a better soccer player over time. Then the ones who aren’t as fast or haven’t fully reached puberty won’t get seen. Those players have to work harder with having good footwork on the ball, good technical work to get noticed by college coaches. I’m one of those kids where i’m an average player, i’m not the fastest, strongest kid on the team. I have to rely on my technical …show more content…
In some cases playing a year up is a good choice, you can either learn and get better or not try and become a good soccer player. If you truly love the sport, you’ll go through hell to get better and go further in life with it. No matter where you go there will always be relative age advantage, only because someone will be a few months older and have had a few more months experience then you will. With anything that you can compete in will have relative age advantage. “Maddux, Stacy, and Scott (1981) observed that, in a group of children who were classified as gifted, 61% were advantaged by a late entry to Grade 1 and thus by a relative age advantage”(Para. 4 Musch). Even though this sounds very unfair, it’s the way of life. It how things have been for many years, some kids can pull ahead by working hard and practicing. “Bio-banding is not new. It was first trialled in US high schools as far back as 1908. For years, New Zealand schools have grouped rugby teams according to weight rather than age because Maori and Polynesian children tend to develop faster than their white counterparts”(Para.6 Doward). Sometimes kids are just gifted and can be the best even though they are two years younger than you