NYSWYSA would like to provide the following information to help clarify the US Soccer Player Development Initiative (PDI) and to encourage our members to align themselves with both the PDI mandates as well as with its recommended best practices.  Each club/league will be expected to adopt the mandated items August, 2017 and each club/league will have to decide for themselves to what extent they wish to align themselves with the recommended best practices for the upcoming seasonal year.

The US Soccer PDI can be found in its entirety here.  You will notice that each Small-Sided Games section of the document (4V4, 7V7, 9V9) is broken down into “Player Development Philosophy”, “Concussion Initiative” and "Standards of Play".  

IMPLEMENTATION

• All information about the Concussion Initiative is implemented with immediate effect.

• Birth year registration and the small sided standards are mandated with immediate effect.

• The Player Development Philosophy information is provided as best practice standards. Although not currently mandated, U.S. Soccer believes members should adopt these     principles to align with our values and objectives for player development

More specifically:

“Player Development Philosophy” – includes but is not limited to, coach licenses, training to game ratios, roster sizes, number of games, events, results/standings, playing time, travel, rest days, etc.

These items are not mandated. They are recommended best practices. That said, we have noticed that the trend of US Soccer for the past two years has been to issue the newest PDI with some mandates and also a list of best practices for a season.  Then, the following season, move to make those best practices a mandate for the following year.  So we would advise that club/leagues prepare now for that which, in the 2018-2019 season, could become mandated.

“Concussion Initiative” – includes but is not limited to, suspected head injury guidelines, evaluation, substitution, return to game protocol, deliberate heading/modified rules of play, teaching heading technique, etc.

All information regarding the Concussion Initiative should be implemented immediately.

“Standards of Play” – includes but is not limited to, small sided game standards, field sizes/markings, goal sizes, ball sizes, team size/composition (4v4, 7v7, 9v9), game duration, use of off-sides law, modified laws of the game, use of build out lines for 7v7 play, etc.

 

The following items are mandated by USSF for ALL soccer programs starting August 2017.

Small-Sided Games Chart

	U6 6 Years old and younger	U7 7 Years old and younger	U8 8 years old and younger	U9 9 years old and younger	U10 10 years old and younger	U11 11 years old and younger	U12 12 years old and younger
Field Size Ranges (yards)	Length 25-35 Width 15-25	Length 25-35 Width 15-25	Length 25-35 Width 15-25	Length 55-65 Width 35-45	Length 55-65 Width 35-45	Length 70-80 Width 45-55	Length 70-80 Width 45-55
Maximum Goal Size (feet)	Height 4 Width 6	Height 4 Width 6	Height 4 Width 6	Height 6.5 Width 18.5	Height 6.5 Width 18.5	Height 7 Width 21	Height 7 Width 21
Ball Size	3	3	3	4	4	4	4
Players	4v4 No GK	4v4 No GK	4v4 No GK	7v7 GK	7v7 GK	9v9 GK	9v9 GK
Game Time (minutes)	4x10	4x10	4x10	2x25	2x25	2x30	2x30
Offside	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes