Do Rankings Hurt Our Daughters' Development?

oldboot wrote:

fourfourtwo wrote:

bwgophers wrote:If you are going to ask this question, then IMO, you need to ask the same question about leagues that post their game results on-line and keep standings, and tournaments that have semi-finals and finals that lead to trophies being awarded.

Bigtex has is correct. Parents who make decisions/moves based on what is published on this board would simply find other avenues for making those same decisions if this stuff didn't exist.

Unfortunately, people put too much stock in the exact number next to their team in the ranking, and whether or not their DD's team is ranked above or below another team(s). I have ALWAYS maintained that the primary value of the rankings that I publish is to give people a general idea of the relative strength of teams. If used properly by parents, coaches, and league/TD's, the rankings can provide value by helping guide people to search out leagues/tournaments where there is an appropriate level of competition. This would actually help development, wouldn't it?

Frankly, I think you are giving me waaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyy too much credit to suggest that what I post on a weekly basis has any kind of seismic impact on our DD's development. Most who know me will tell you that my head is big enough already , don't try to inflate it any more...

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I wasn't referring to you specifically, more the idea of rankings in general and their impact on coaches, not so much parents. This may be the wrong venue for the question since not many coaches post much other than advertisements. However, it would be interesting to know if parents believe coaches pay attention to the rankings. My experience has been that they do. So are the rankings just a by product of the pressure on paid coaches to win, or do the rankings actually contribute momentum in driving coaches towards focusing more on the W/L than they otherwise would.

I think the coaches focused on win now will always look to recruit first, develop second, and rankings don't impact their behavior other than to guage how they're stacking up against the rest. The DD's under the umbrella of those coaches have to accept the good with the bad. I'm curious how rankings impact coaches who aren't so clearly focused on chasing Ulittle championships every season, and ultimately the resulting impact on the DDs.

My guess is in the crazy world of COMPETITIVE North texas youth soccer, "rankings" are probably the least worrisome influence on our kids' development and enjoyment of the game.