Oct 28th Poll of the Week- To pool or not to pool in academy

To me it's more about how practices are run. In a pool they will all practice together, or at least 100% randomly mixed into different stations.

I voted for fixed line ups but I would be willing for pools or fixed...as long as it was uniform with all the clubs in these alliances doing this. NSA doesn't pool and year after year I witnessed the teams that pooled players have the same star players play every level of our club. There was a game in Fayetteville a few years ago that the club there (can't remember...help me out folks LOL) that did this. We were there for all 3 games as we brought players from each club to the game so we had to be there. The same 8 or 9 girls played all 3 of our levels with varying results. Close win against our 1st level team, slaughtered our 2nd level team and totally destroyed our 3rd level team. I don't see the benefit for either side when games like this happen. I say that if you have an alliance with other clubs and you play weekly friendlies with them then you all shape your teams the same way. Of course, what I am describing might not be classified as pooling as the same girls shouldn't play all 3 games even with teams that are pooled. Another negative to pooling is the lack of knowledge of when your child is going to play each week. When do those teams notify parents what team their child is playing on each week? Seems that lots of confusion could reign in that regard.

Jack,

This is not what I mean by pooling.

But just to comment on your scenario first. Under the assumption that a club has enough players to form three distinct teams, using the top players to play the A, B, and C matches is of course mercenary and sacrifices the development of a large segment of their constituency. This will get them in the end (at Select) unless they just recruit like mad and cast aside the less developed players after U12. Which I would argue will also catch up to them in the end (people will figure this out eventually). Another possibility for the situation you describe is that your NSA club, which has a giant academy system compared to the average georgia club (you have over 300 registered academy players! there are only 6 other clubs in the whole state with more and some of those are the huge conglomerates), might tell another club that they need three (or more) games because you have 3 (or more) teams per age group. The only option another smaller club has, if they want to play NSA but they really only have a first team, is to play their first team all 3 (or more) matches.

Now back to the type of pooling I support. Maybe this is a difficulty with the way Admin phrased the query, but the pooling I am talking about is across clubs in an alliance. How can this not be best for the most skilled and gifted kids at those clubs? Does anyone question that it is best for the top 10%ers to compete, both in training and in matches, against other such kids? I am not talking about having these kids beat the snot out of some other poor club's C team. I am talking about providing these kids with an enriched soccer environment. You have these players train together and play other top teams. Kind of like an alliance's own personal DA or ODP system. Small clubs cannot do that on their own, end up losing players to larger clubs, or provide a suboptimal training environment for their better players who stay because they do not have a deep enough talent pool to provide these players with optimal stimulation.

I do understand that some people might say most (almost all) of these kids won't end up being top shelf soccer players in the end anyway so why bother? Be realistic they might say. But who knows who will be great at age 16 when a kid is 10 or 11? "Being realistic" is a sure path to mediocrity. If you have some kids that show some degree of promise, give them the opportunity to flourish. If a kid shows enough potential, they get placed in AP math, but how many of these kids are going to end up being Einstein? That does not stop us from providing them with intellectual stimulation. Same with a kid who looks like they have a proclivity for playing piano or violin or cello. How many Van Cliburns or Hillary Hahns or Yo Yo Mas are out there? That does not stop us from providing them with an enriched musical environment if we think they could benefit. I mean look, don't do it to the exclusion of everything else. I am not talking about home schooling them and having them work on soccer technique all day or sending them to a soccer boarding school. I am talking about providing some kids with an enriched environment in an arena in which they could obviously benefit.

Okay. Now I have really become some sort of soapbox psycho parent! But this is also tied to my thinking about how Georgia soccer could improve what they do for the whole soccer scene in the state rather than inadvertently catering to large clubs which is what they do now (regardless of what Jacob Daniel, who seems to be a decent dude by the way, or the other people in charge would tell us).

Responding to the type of pooling as described by "socceradmin" a the younger academy ages - say 40 boys in a U10 age group are pooled to play say A, B, C teams from an equal sized club. This repeats itself and roster changes from week to week, with some players randomly assigned to play say on the A team and the B team for that particular weekend. Of course, this poses logistical challenges when playing smaller sized clubs who may have to field 3-teams with the same set of players since they may only have 15-20 kids in that same U10 age group.

Without a doubt, this setup can be an inconvenience for a good number of parents - uncomfortable since little Messi does not have the same set of friends this week as he had last week, as a parent I don't normally socialize well with the C team parents, little Messi likes to play midfield, but does not do well on defense, little Messi was on the A team last week, but since little Rooney is on his pool/team this week, it must be the C team this week - how could the Coach do this?, so on...I see this more as a developmental advantage for many reasons providing that Coach/Club is well organized, and publish this type of roster changes and schedule early enough from week to week to prevent some parents from blowing a gasket by mid-week.

Here are some advantages:

1. Develop Playing Different Positions - It is better to get comfortable with this on the small-sided game, and at the younger age group, then to be at set positions that early. As a player gets older, ODP, College, Pros, the position they like most or you are most comfortable with may be filled by someone else from another club or another State pool player who may be a lot better at it then you are. While clubs can do this w/o pooling, the idea of pooling I refer to may allow a Coach the ability to play little Messi on the A team as a defender this week, and on the B team as a midfielder next week to work on his distribution, and attacking on a somewhat slower paced game.

2. Develop via Different Speed of Play - Again, the pooling scenario described may give the Coach a lot more flexibility to take little Rooney who may otherwise be known as a 2nd team player and play him on the top team to measure progress in a faster paced game on a real-game scenario at U10 when the win "should not" matter as much as it does at U16, to develop and get rid of bad habits.

3. Develop Club, Team, Parent Chemistry - Prepare players in that "pooled age group" to get to know each other, work together, see how different groups of players fit together tactically, early as a team before requiring to pool together after select, say at U13 11v11. When done later than sooner, players have to quickly bond and build team chemistry which is more important/critical at older than younger aged groups. This may be more important for girls than it is boys, as well. In the pooling scenario described (larger sized clubs), pooling would help build that type of team/parent chemistry a lot sooner in the process.

Kudos to a club that is doing this the right way (somewhat foregoing winning) and Kudos to the parents who support this. Keeping in mind that it requires club education/partnership with parents, some patience on parents' parts. If not done properly, this may pose some logistical frustrations for family members who are on the hook to schedule, plan, and drive little Messi and little Rooney to constantly changing pooled games.

We've been part of the large club "pooling" setup a few years back, and have found it to be invaluable.

I am in favor of pool play. We started this a year ago. We have about 250 kids in Academy. About 32 in our age group. They all warmup together at practice then they split into 2-3 groups for drills/possession. We have 4 coaches. The teams are about 80% the same week to week but some at the top and bottom of each team will move up and down. We also don't release rosters until Sat. That way the players don't loaf or miss practice. Loaf in practice and you risk playing down. Have a great practice and coach might want to see what you can do on an upper team.