Age-Appropriate Match Formats

The right game at the right time is essential for player development. The choices we, as soccer coaches and administrators, make regarding the formats of the competitions for our players profoundly effect the way they develop as players. Here are a few notes on what is appropriate, with help from publications of the US Soccer Federation and player-development guru, Horst Wein.

Link Between Training and Competition

The types of activities we choose to teach players how to play a game depends on the game we want to teach. The link between what the players get in training and the formats of the official competitions in which they participate is essential to consider. Orienting our training activities around the wrong game, specifically one for which the players are not ready, is inefficient to say the least. Our training games and official competitions both need to conform to level-appropriate standards.

Early Graduation - A Real Problem

The placing of players into soccer situations and formats for which they are not properly prepared is a real problem in our soccer culture. We have leagues marketing 11v11 competitions for u11s (that's 10-year-old children playing the adult game). We have clubs & coaches marketing "head start" programs for 8-year-olds to play 8v8 competitions. We have 7-8-9-year-old children dictating to the adults the training content, and even the match formats, by lobbying the parent-coaches for "real games" with more players and with GKs, for example. And we have parents who are willing consumers of the offers and temptations of "early graduation" for their kids. We have to ask ourselves, why are we doing this if the knowledge in developmental psychology, in physiology, and in decades of player development in soccer all argue against pushing children into situations for which they are not ready?

US Soccer Federation - Recommended Match Formats for Player Development

The recommendations of our own federation were published for the following stated reasons: 1) To promote the implementation of small-sided games as the vehicle for match play for players under the age of twelve throughout the United States. 2) To promote and encourage an appropriate developmental environment for players that is based on both age and ability characteristics.

Age	Format	Duration	Substitution	GKs
u6	3v3, 4v4	4 x 8 min	Free	No GKs
u8	4v4, 5v5	2 x 20 min	Free	4v4 (No GKs)
				5v5 (Last Def as GK)
u10	6v6, 7v7	2 x 25 min	Free	Players rotate as GK
u12	8v8, 9v9	2 x 30 min	Free	GKs share time
u14	11v11	3 x 35 min	No re-entry in half	GK based on ability
u16	11v11	3 x 40 min	No re-entry	GK based on ability
u18	11v11	3 x 45 min	No re-entry	GK based on ability

Horst Wein - Logical Progression of Youth Competitions

The recommendations promoted by Horst Wein are based on the premise that soccer competitions should be tailored to match a child's gradual physical and intellectual development.

Age	Format	Duration	Substitution	GKs
U8	Training up to 2v2 (No Formal Competitions)
U9	3 v 3	3 x 10 min	Rolling, 1 Sub	No GKs
U10	4 v 4	3 x 10 min	Rolling, 1 Sub	No GKs
U12	7 v 7	2 x 25 min	Rolling, 3 Subs	GKs
U14	8 v 8	2 x 30 min	Rolling, 3 Subs	GKs
14+	11 v 11	2 x 45 min	No re-entry, 5 Subs	GKs

Levels of Progression in Training

Naturally, the content of training should follow the games for which the players are being prepared. Horst Wein summarized 5 levels of progression for training which precisely match the logical progression for youth competition formats.

Level 1	Games for basic abilities and capabilities
Level 2	Games for mini-soccer (3v3, 4v4)
Level 3	Games for 7-aside soccer
Level 4	Games for 8-aside soccer
Level 5	Games for 11-aside soccer

"These levels represent a progressive sequence of exercises and simplified games supplying the most common game situations for this age group. There may be fewer players, reduced dimensions in the playing field, fewer or less-complicated rules, and so forth. Young soccer players progress slowly from one unit or game to the next one and are continually confronted with slightly more complex and difficult problems. They progress to the next level only after understanding and mastering the technical and tactical requirements of the previous simplified game or competition. Their training thus becomes a developmental process of gradually increasing demands." - Horst Wein.

Summary of Advantages to a Progressive System

1) Link Between Training and Competition

2) Increase in Successful Actions

3) Enjoyment of the Game

4) Ease of Application for Coaches

Graduation (Age-Appropriate and Level-Appropriate)

It's important to consider the stage at which players are ready to advance to the next level, in training games and official competition formats. Horst Wein describes readiness to progress in the following way, "the final goal of each level of accomplishment or formation: being able to perform well in the respective competition of that particular age group." This is to say that a group of players should not graduate to a 7v7 format, for example, if they have not sufficient mastery of the 1v1, 2v1, and 2v2 situations to play even 3v3 or 4v4 soccer well. Or if they are forced to graduate due to age restrictions, then they were not prepared properly for the next level, and we, as coaches and administrators, have failed the children.

We should do our best to prevent the all-too-common "early graduation" in our soccer culture by taking the following steps: 1) Put in place age-appropriate formats for all official competitions. 2) Adhere steadfastly to level-appropriate incremental training progressions. 3) Use sound adult logic and the body of available applicable knowledge to determine what is appropriate for children.

Bibliography

Ellinger, John. US Soccer Federation Position Statements & Best Practices for Player Development

Wein, Horst. 2001. Developing Youth Soccer Players. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics

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