Playing and Coaching Environment

• Our focus is to develop the skills of individual players over winning and results.

• Coaches and parents are encouraged to devote more time teaching individual skills.
  • Player development has no shortcuts and overall success is fruit of a long term process.
  • Opportunities to learn more about soccer are available here.
• Players are encouraged to have fun and express themselves.

Individual Player Development

• Improve field awareness by using small sided game standards. i.e. 3v3, 4v4, 6v6, 7v7, and 9v9.
  • As players gets older, and numbers increase on bigger fields, this approach builds on itself.
• Small sided games develop players with more: 

• Individual skills on the ball by increasing the number of touches and control
• Intelligence on the field by promoting faster decision making and better awareness
• On-the-field Creativity with and without the ball by stimulating self expression and inspiration
• Confidence as a result of better skills on the ball

• Players should be having fun, and feel free to make their own decisions.
• Building block that allows players to better integrate into a team model where they develop partnerships with other players that make up the team.
• Alignment with national U.S. Soccer and U.S. Youth Soccer standards.

Birth Year Registration

• Alignment with national U.S. Soccer and U.S. Youth Soccer standards.
• For more information about age group categories and seasons is available here.
• To assist with any confusion, for instance in the U-6 age group, the "U" listed before the number means 6 and younger.
• Allow for the continued development of players by forming teams with a balance of players born throughout the entire year 
  • Address the potential for bias given the variance of growth rates and physically maturity (taller, faster, stronger, etc.)
  • Studies from a variety of sports, including soccer, show that physically mature players are often selected ahead of their more talented but less physically developed peers at key developmental years.
  • It may be the case that taller and stronger players have far less talent, and once the physical maturation levels out, these players may not fulfill their misleading potential.
• U.S. Soccer recommends that a player's individual skills be prioritized ahead of their physical maturation and this is especially true for the ages before and during puberty.

• Jaguars United board strongly discourages playing up to maintain age group cohesion