hi mark

i think its vitaly important that players have the opportunity to play up or down an age in football if the need is there and the player in question feels comfortable with it. 

its an ongoing issue where age bias is concerned that children playing in school related years are not getting the correct personal development they desreve

The feeling of not being able to compete with peers in their own years can have long term damge, socially, physically and mentally for them, as adults wether its parents, teachers or coaches we have to understant and recognise the importance that these children could be nearly a year younger than others in their team. It can also work the other way where older children in their years are showing more maturity in their team and could risk becoming bored and disillusioned with where they are as a footballer.

with that in mind we as coaches need to make sure our training is varied in our approach to personal development as well as coaching the team

all the best lee

This might be an interesting thread on twitter to provoke some through about playing up and down........ https://twitter.com/paulmcg8/status/1346116874560557056?s=12

it should be lee in my opinion, the assumptions made by adults on how good children are in there teams can have serious implications on childrens progression and mental state