NVA (Loudoun) going MLS NEXT?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of people just don’t want to acknowledging how bad the Alexandria MLS teams currently are. Cant blame them. Hopefully the future is better for that club.

Among MLS Next teams in area (other than DCU), only the following are ranked higher in each group

05/06: Bethesda, Armour (barely)

07: Nobody

08: Armour

09: SYC, Bethesda, Armour

10: SYC, Bethesda, Armour

011: SYC (barely)

So Armour is ahead in 4/6, Bethesda and SYC are ahead in 3/6. I'd say that's pretty solid.

Yeah. I think they hold their own fairly well except in the 2010 and 2009 age groups. I think some of that might be attributed to a young coach working to find his footing. Some of it is talent. And some of it is organizational philosophy. Alexandria's train by playing approach might not be the best fit for a 4-day a week practice schedule. I think they'd do well to incorporate more individual skill work and team conditioning/speed training.

Can you elaborate on this? And any particular years that you know of specifically? Ds is considering trying out there for next year.

Ex-ASA parent here. The traditional Alexandria philosophy was that individual/technical work and fitness were activities that can and should be done outside of practice. I happen to agree with this, strongly. And ASA top players tend to play futsal as well, which enhances technical/individual skill development, at least in the off season. But it is also noticeable that ASA players may be a little less fit or 1 v 1 oriented than players developed at other clubs, with some very notable exceptions among ASA players who have gone to DCU.

Practices are heavy on buildup, shape and positional play. My son learned more at early ages there than the rest of his years in soccer combined. He took care of skills at HP.

The club has a philosophy that goes against 1v1's and focuses primarily on team tactics?

What about dribbling and creativity?

How do you coach creativity?

Every player wants to be creative.

Creativity can be coached out of them by not allowing them to dribble and be imaginative.
Critiquing them for doing ball mastery moves and constantly encouraging them to pass.

If you focus on decision making instead of joystick 🕹 coaching and allow them to make mistakes instead of just Booting It and Sending It.... You're coaching to be creative.

Isn't there a time and place for that? Luckily in areas of the world where soccer is everywhere, including just out on the street, that fosters individuals ability to be creative in 1 vs X situations. Here there are private opportunities to get a large amount of touches against other players in small settings. If you're lucky you live in an area that may have kids getting together to play some street ball or pickup at a field.

I don't think it's an awful thing for a coach to critique players that constantly make it all about themselves when they have the ball, doing fancy footwork and losing the ball in a team setting during a match when teammates are available to help. Letting players learn to fail helps for sure but there always has to be some balance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If Loudoun-NVA wants to be the best like they say they … get MLS NEXT

Ha they will never be the best because they don't have any direction and can't get out of their own way. A too big to fail mentality.

Loudoun is not afraid to jump ship. They have done it 2x before and everyone else followed.


I would love to see Loudoun playing with MLS Next and GA next year.

Why would Loudoun leave ECNL for GA? Or more to the point, why would you love for Loudoun to join GA?

Because they care a lot more about the boys programs than the girls....(hint: follow the money).

Most kids and parents care more about the girls than the boys. Much more likely to play college soccer and get scholarships for girls than boys. Boys it is almost all international players except for colleges you have never heard of.

Most clubs and parents I mean.

I would agree in general.....but not at NVA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of people just don’t want to acknowledging how bad the Alexandria MLS teams currently are. Cant blame them. Hopefully the future is better for that club.

Among MLS Next teams in area (other than DCU), only the following are ranked higher in each group

05/06: Bethesda, Armour (barely)

07: Nobody

08: Armour

09: SYC, Bethesda, Armour

10: SYC, Bethesda, Armour

011: SYC (barely)

So Armour is ahead in 4/6, Bethesda and SYC are ahead in 3/6. I'd say that's pretty solid.

Yeah. I think they hold their own fairly well except in the 2010 and 2009 age groups. I think some of that might be attributed to a young coach working to find his footing. Some of it is talent. And some of it is organizational philosophy. Alexandria's train by playing approach might not be the best fit for a 4-day a week practice schedule. I think they'd do well to incorporate more individual skill work and team conditioning/speed training.

Can you elaborate on this? And any particular years that you know of specifically? Ds is considering trying out there for next year.

Ex-ASA parent here. The traditional Alexandria philosophy was that individual/technical work and fitness were activities that can and should be done outside of practice. I happen to agree with this, strongly. And ASA top players tend to play futsal as well, which enhances technical/individual skill development, at least in the off season. But it is also noticeable that ASA players may be a little less fit or 1 v 1 oriented than players developed at other clubs, with some very notable exceptions among ASA players who have gone to DCU.

Practices are heavy on buildup, shape and positional play. My son learned more at early ages there than the rest of his years in soccer combined. He took care of skills at HP.

The club has a philosophy that goes against 1v1's and focuses primarily on team tactics?

What about dribbling and creativity?

How do you coach creativity?

Every player wants to be creative.

Creativity can be coached out of them by not allowing them to dribble and be imaginative.
Critiquing them for doing ball mastery moves and constantly encouraging them to pass.

If you focus on decision making instead of joystick 🕹 coaching and allow them to make mistakes instead of just Booting It and Sending It.... You're coaching to be creative.

The question was, how do you coach creativity?

And the question was answered. But probably too much in high soccer acumen terms.
Repeat, if the coaching focuses on Decision Making and less on criticizing mistakes and focuses less on having players treat the ball like a hot potato, you are coaching/encouraging creativity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of people just don’t want to acknowledging how bad the Alexandria MLS teams currently are. Cant blame them. Hopefully the future is better for that club.

Among MLS Next teams in area (other than DCU), only the following are ranked higher in each group

05/06: Bethesda, Armour (barely)

07: Nobody

08: Armour

09: SYC, Bethesda, Armour

10: SYC, Bethesda, Armour

011: SYC (barely)

So Armour is ahead in 4/6, Bethesda and SYC are ahead in 3/6. I'd say that's pretty solid.

Yeah. I think they hold their own fairly well except in the 2010 and 2009 age groups. I think some of that might be attributed to a young coach working to find his footing. Some of it is talent. And some of it is organizational philosophy. Alexandria's train by playing approach might not be the best fit for a 4-day a week practice schedule. I think they'd do well to incorporate more individual skill work and team conditioning/speed training.

Can you elaborate on this? And any particular years that you know of specifically? Ds is considering trying out there for next year.

Ex-ASA parent here. The traditional Alexandria philosophy was that individual/technical work and fitness were activities that can and should be done outside of practice. I happen to agree with this, strongly. And ASA top players tend to play futsal as well, which enhances technical/individual skill development, at least in the off season. But it is also noticeable that ASA players may be a little less fit or 1 v 1 oriented than players developed at other clubs, with some very notable exceptions among ASA players who have gone to DCU.

Practices are heavy on buildup, shape and positional play. My son learned more at early ages there than the rest of his years in soccer combined. He took care of skills at HP.

The club has a philosophy that goes against 1v1's and focuses primarily on team tactics?

What about dribbling and creativity?

How do you coach creativity?

Every player wants to be creative.

Creativity can be coached out of them by not allowing them to dribble and be imaginative.
Critiquing them for doing ball mastery moves and constantly encouraging them to pass.

If you focus on decision making instead of joystick 🕹 coaching and allow them to make mistakes instead of just Booting It and Sending It.... You're coaching to be creative.

Isn't there a time and place for that? Luckily in areas of the world where soccer is everywhere, including just out on the street, that fosters individuals ability to be creative in 1 vs X situations. Here there are private opportunities to get a large amount of touches against other players in small settings. If you're lucky you live in an area that may have kids getting together to play some street ball or pickup at a field.

I don't think it's an awful thing for a coach to critique players that constantly make it all about themselves when they have the ball, doing fancy footwork and losing the ball in a team setting during a match when teammates are available to help. Letting players learn to fail helps for sure but there always has to be some balance.

The first hurdle with this issue is everyone not on the same understanding of what creativity is in this context.
Creativity doesn't mean doing circus tricks.

It means using individual technical skills and applying imaginative tactical execution to solve a problem.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with losing the ball as a young player. It's about what you do after.
It's adults creating this fear of making mistakes early why kids grow into being predictable robots who boot the ball all over the place.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of people just don’t want to acknowledging how bad the Alexandria MLS teams currently are. Cant blame them. Hopefully the future is better for that club.

Among MLS Next teams in area (other than DCU), only the following are ranked higher in each group

05/06: Bethesda, Armour (barely)

07: Nobody

08: Armour

09: SYC, Bethesda, Armour

10: SYC, Bethesda, Armour

011: SYC (barely)

So Armour is ahead in 4/6, Bethesda and SYC are ahead in 3/6. I'd say that's pretty solid.

Yeah. I think they hold their own fairly well except in the 2010 and 2009 age groups. I think some of that might be attributed to a young coach working to find his footing. Some of it is talent. And some of it is organizational philosophy. Alexandria's train by playing approach might not be the best fit for a 4-day a week practice schedule. I think they'd do well to incorporate more individual skill work and team conditioning/speed training.

Can you elaborate on this? And any particular years that you know of specifically? Ds is considering trying out there for next year.

Ex-ASA parent here. The traditional Alexandria philosophy was that individual/technical work and fitness were activities that can and should be done outside of practice. I happen to agree with this, strongly. And ASA top players tend to play futsal as well, which enhances technical/individual skill development, at least in the off season. But it is also noticeable that ASA players may be a little less fit or 1 v 1 oriented than players developed at other clubs, with some very notable exceptions among ASA players who have gone to DCU.

Practices are heavy on buildup, shape and positional play. My son learned more at early ages there than the rest of his years in soccer combined. He took care of skills at HP.

The club has a philosophy that goes against 1v1's and focuses primarily on team tactics?

What about dribbling and creativity?

How do you coach creativity?

Every player wants to be creative.

Creativity can be coached out of them by not allowing them to dribble and be imaginative.
Critiquing them for doing ball mastery moves and constantly encouraging them to pass.

If you focus on decision making instead of joystick 🕹 coaching and allow them to make mistakes instead of just Booting It and Sending It.... You're coaching to be creative.

The question was, how do you coach creativity?

And the question was answered. But probably too much in high soccer acumen terms.
Repeat, if the coaching focuses on Decision Making and less on criticizing mistakes and focuses less on having players treat the ball like a hot potato, you are coaching/encouraging creativity.

No, you stated a negative outcome of joy sticking. I asked a very simple question, "how do you coach creativity?"

Is it your assertion that teaching ball movement and positional movement is all joy sticking?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of people just don’t want to acknowledging how bad the Alexandria MLS teams currently are. Cant blame them. Hopefully the future is better for that club.

Among MLS Next teams in area (other than DCU), only the following are ranked higher in each group

05/06: Bethesda, Armour (barely)

07: Nobody

08: Armour

09: SYC, Bethesda, Armour

10: SYC, Bethesda, Armour

011: SYC (barely)

So Armour is ahead in 4/6, Bethesda and SYC are ahead in 3/6. I'd say that's pretty solid.

Yeah. I think they hold their own fairly well except in the 2010 and 2009 age groups. I think some of that might be attributed to a young coach working to find his footing. Some of it is talent. And some of it is organizational philosophy. Alexandria's train by playing approach might not be the best fit for a 4-day a week practice schedule. I think they'd do well to incorporate more individual skill work and team conditioning/speed training.

Can you elaborate on this? And any particular years that you know of specifically? Ds is considering trying out there for next year.

Ex-ASA parent here. The traditional Alexandria philosophy was that individual/technical work and fitness were activities that can and should be done outside of practice. I happen to agree with this, strongly. And ASA top players tend to play futsal as well, which enhances technical/individual skill development, at least in the off season. But it is also noticeable that ASA players may be a little less fit or 1 v 1 oriented than players developed at other clubs, with some very notable exceptions among ASA players who have gone to DCU.

Practices are heavy on buildup, shape and positional play. My son learned more at early ages there than the rest of his years in soccer combined. He took care of skills at HP.

The club has a philosophy that goes against 1v1's and focuses primarily on team tactics?

What about dribbling and creativity?

How do you coach creativity?

Every player wants to be creative.

Creativity can be coached out of them by not allowing them to dribble and be imaginative.
Critiquing them for doing ball mastery moves and constantly encouraging them to pass.

If you focus on decision making instead of joystick 🕹 coaching and allow them to make mistakes instead of just Booting It and Sending It.... You're coaching to be creative.

Isn't there a time and place for that? Luckily in areas of the world where soccer is everywhere, including just out on the street, that fosters individuals ability to be creative in 1 vs X situations. Here there are private opportunities to get a large amount of touches against other players in small settings. If you're lucky you live in an area that may have kids getting together to play some street ball or pickup at a field.

I don't think it's an awful thing for a coach to critique players that constantly make it all about themselves when they have the ball, doing fancy footwork and losing the ball in a team setting during a match when teammates are available to help. Letting players learn to fail helps for sure but there always has to be some balance.

I agree completely. There are good and bad decisions on every play at any age, and coaches should be teaching fundamentals of good decisionmaking. You can be creative within the confines of good judgment and decisionmaking. I think we are talking more aggression that creativity here, whether it is going 1 v 1 (imprudent for most players at most positions on most teams in any given situation) or playing very high-risk long passes vs. multiple high-percentage shorter passes.

Losing the ball is not necessarily the worst thing you can do on the field, but the ability to possess and successfully pass the ball without losing it is, to me, the most important asset of any players on the field other than strikers/wingers/keepers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of people just don’t want to acknowledging how bad the Alexandria MLS teams currently are. Cant blame them. Hopefully the future is better for that club.

Among MLS Next teams in area (other than DCU), only the following are ranked higher in each group

05/06: Bethesda, Armour (barely)

07: Nobody

08: Armour

09: SYC, Bethesda, Armour

10: SYC, Bethesda, Armour

011: SYC (barely)

So Armour is ahead in 4/6, Bethesda and SYC are ahead in 3/6. I'd say that's pretty solid.

Yeah. I think they hold their own fairly well except in the 2010 and 2009 age groups. I think some of that might be attributed to a young coach working to find his footing. Some of it is talent. And some of it is organizational philosophy. Alexandria's train by playing approach might not be the best fit for a 4-day a week practice schedule. I think they'd do well to incorporate more individual skill work and team conditioning/speed training.

Can you elaborate on this? And any particular years that you know of specifically? Ds is considering trying out there for next year.

Ex-ASA parent here. The traditional Alexandria philosophy was that individual/technical work and fitness were activities that can and should be done outside of practice. I happen to agree with this, strongly. And ASA top players tend to play futsal as well, which enhances technical/individual skill development, at least in the off season. But it is also noticeable that ASA players may be a little less fit or 1 v 1 oriented than players developed at other clubs, with some very notable exceptions among ASA players who have gone to DCU.

Practices are heavy on buildup, shape and positional play. My son learned more at early ages there than the rest of his years in soccer combined. He took care of skills at HP.

The club has a philosophy that goes against 1v1's and focuses primarily on team tactics?

What about dribbling and creativity?

How do you coach creativity?

Every player wants to be creative.

Creativity can be coached out of them by not allowing them to dribble and be imaginative.
Critiquing them for doing ball mastery moves and constantly encouraging them to pass.

If you focus on decision making instead of joystick 🕹 coaching and allow them to make mistakes instead of just Booting It and Sending It.... You're coaching to be creative.

The question was, how do you coach creativity?

And the question was answered. But probably too much in high soccer acumen terms.
Repeat, if the coaching focuses on Decision Making and less on criticizing mistakes and focuses less on having players treat the ball like a hot potato, you are coaching/encouraging creativity.

No, you stated a negative outcome of joy sticking. I asked a very simple question, "how do you coach creativity?"

Is it your assertion that teaching ball movement and positional movement is all joy sticking?

Didn't you read the part about facilitating decision making and allowing them to make mistakes?

How did you get from ball movement to joysticking? Ball can't move without a player being told real time?

I'd assume someone engaging on such a topic is clear on the definition of coaching joysticking?
Constantly, consistently yelling step by step directions and instructions without giving the players the opportunity to be autonomous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of people just don’t want to acknowledging how bad the Alexandria MLS teams currently are. Cant blame them. Hopefully the future is better for that club.

Among MLS Next teams in area (other than DCU), only the following are ranked higher in each group

05/06: Bethesda, Armour (barely)

07: Nobody

08: Armour

09: SYC, Bethesda, Armour

10: SYC, Bethesda, Armour

011: SYC (barely)

So Armour is ahead in 4/6, Bethesda and SYC are ahead in 3/6. I'd say that's pretty solid.

Yeah. I think they hold their own fairly well except in the 2010 and 2009 age groups. I think some of that might be attributed to a young coach working to find his footing. Some of it is talent. And some of it is organizational philosophy. Alexandria's train by playing approach might not be the best fit for a 4-day a week practice schedule. I think they'd do well to incorporate more individual skill work and team conditioning/speed training.

Can you elaborate on this? And any particular years that you know of specifically? Ds is considering trying out there for next year.

Ex-ASA parent here. The traditional Alexandria philosophy was that individual/technical work and fitness were activities that can and should be done outside of practice. I happen to agree with this, strongly. And ASA top players tend to play futsal as well, which enhances technical/individual skill development, at least in the off season. But it is also noticeable that ASA players may be a little less fit or 1 v 1 oriented than players developed at other clubs, with some very notable exceptions among ASA players who have gone to DCU.

Practices are heavy on buildup, shape and positional play. My son learned more at early ages there than the rest of his years in soccer combined. He took care of skills at HP.

The club has a philosophy that goes against 1v1's and focuses primarily on team tactics?

What about dribbling and creativity?

How do you coach creativity?

Every player wants to be creative.

Creativity can be coached out of them by not allowing them to dribble and be imaginative.
Critiquing them for doing ball mastery moves and constantly encouraging them to pass.

If you focus on decision making instead of joystick 🕹 coaching and allow them to make mistakes instead of just Booting It and Sending It.... You're coaching to be creative.

Isn't there a time and place for that? Luckily in areas of the world where soccer is everywhere, including just out on the street, that fosters individuals ability to be creative in 1 vs X situations. Here there are private opportunities to get a large amount of touches against other players in small settings. If you're lucky you live in an area that may have kids getting together to play some street ball or pickup at a field.

I don't think it's an awful thing for a coach to critique players that constantly make it all about themselves when they have the ball, doing fancy footwork and losing the ball in a team setting during a match when teammates are available to help. Letting players learn to fail helps for sure but there always has to be some balance.

I agree completely. There are good and bad decisions on every play at any age, and coaches should be teaching fundamentals of good decisionmaking. You can be creative within the confines of good judgment and decisionmaking. I think we are talking more aggression that creativity here, whether it is going 1 v 1 (imprudent for most players at most positions on most teams in any given situation) or playing very high-risk long passes vs. multiple high-percentage shorter passes.

Losing the ball is not necessarily the worst thing you can do on the field, but the ability to possess and successfully pass the ball without losing it is, to me, the most important asset of any players on the field other than strikers/wingers/keepers.

A player having individual technical skills to protect the ball under pressure from opponents is not the same as a team moving the ball around out of reach of the opposing team re: possession

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of people just don’t want to acknowledging how bad the Alexandria MLS teams currently are. Cant blame them. Hopefully the future is better for that club.

Among MLS Next teams in area (other than DCU), only the following are ranked higher in each group

05/06: Bethesda, Armour (barely)

07: Nobody

08: Armour

09: SYC, Bethesda, Armour

10: SYC, Bethesda, Armour

011: SYC (barely)

So Armour is ahead in 4/6, Bethesda and SYC are ahead in 3/6. I'd say that's pretty solid.

Yeah. I think they hold their own fairly well except in the 2010 and 2009 age groups. I think some of that might be attributed to a young coach working to find his footing. Some of it is talent. And some of it is organizational philosophy. Alexandria's train by playing approach might not be the best fit for a 4-day a week practice schedule. I think they'd do well to incorporate more individual skill work and team conditioning/speed training.

Can you elaborate on this? And any particular years that you know of specifically? Ds is considering trying out there for next year.

Ex-ASA parent here. The traditional Alexandria philosophy was that individual/technical work and fitness were activities that can and should be done outside of practice. I happen to agree with this, strongly. And ASA top players tend to play futsal as well, which enhances technical/individual skill development, at least in the off season. But it is also noticeable that ASA players may be a little less fit or 1 v 1 oriented than players developed at other clubs, with some very notable exceptions among ASA players who have gone to DCU.

Practices are heavy on buildup, shape and positional play. My son learned more at early ages there than the rest of his years in soccer combined. He took care of skills at HP.

The club has a philosophy that goes against 1v1's and focuses primarily on team tactics?

What about dribbling and creativity?

How do you coach creativity?

Every player wants to be creative.

Creativity can be coached out of them by not allowing them to dribble and be imaginative.
Critiquing them for doing ball mastery moves and constantly encouraging them to pass.

If you focus on decision making instead of joystick 🕹 coaching and allow them to make mistakes instead of just Booting It and Sending It.... You're coaching to be creative.

Isn't there a time and place for that? Luckily in areas of the world where soccer is everywhere, including just out on the street, that fosters individuals ability to be creative in 1 vs X situations. Here there are private opportunities to get a large amount of touches against other players in small settings. If you're lucky you live in an area that may have kids getting together to play some street ball or pickup at a field.

I don't think it's an awful thing for a coach to critique players that constantly make it all about themselves when they have the ball, doing fancy footwork and losing the ball in a team setting during a match when teammates are available to help. Letting players learn to fail helps for sure but there always has to be some balance.

I agree completely. There are good and bad decisions on every play at any age, and coaches should be teaching fundamentals of good decisionmaking. You can be creative within the confines of good judgment and decisionmaking. I think we are talking more aggression that creativity here, whether it is going 1 v 1 (imprudent for most players at most positions on most teams in any given situation) or playing very high-risk long passes vs. multiple high-percentage shorter passes.

Losing the ball is not necessarily the worst thing you can do on the field, but the ability to possess and successfully pass the ball without losing it is, to me, the most important asset of any players on the field other than strikers/wingers/keepers.

A player having individual technical skills to protect the ball under pressure from opponents is not the same as a team moving the ball around out of reach of the opposing team re: possession

The latter requires the former, so they are not the same, but they are directly related.

[Anonymous]

Can you two just get a room and not hijack the thread into your personal chat room?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can you two just get a room and not hijack the thread into your personal chat room?

Education is key

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of people just don’t want to acknowledging how bad the Alexandria MLS teams currently are. Cant blame them. Hopefully the future is better for that club.

Among MLS Next teams in area (other than DCU), only the following are ranked higher in each group

05/06: Bethesda, Armour (barely)

07: Nobody

08: Armour

09: SYC, Bethesda, Armour

10: SYC, Bethesda, Armour

011: SYC (barely)

So Armour is ahead in 4/6, Bethesda and SYC are ahead in 3/6. I'd say that's pretty solid.

Yeah. I think they hold their own fairly well except in the 2010 and 2009 age groups. I think some of that might be attributed to a young coach working to find his footing. Some of it is talent. And some of it is organizational philosophy. Alexandria's train by playing approach might not be the best fit for a 4-day a week practice schedule. I think they'd do well to incorporate more individual skill work and team conditioning/speed training.

Can you elaborate on this? And any particular years that you know of specifically? Ds is considering trying out there for next year.

Ex-ASA parent here. The traditional Alexandria philosophy was that individual/technical work and fitness were activities that can and should be done outside of practice. I happen to agree with this, strongly. And ASA top players tend to play futsal as well, which enhances technical/individual skill development, at least in the off season. But it is also noticeable that ASA players may be a little less fit or 1 v 1 oriented than players developed at other clubs, with some very notable exceptions among ASA players who have gone to DCU.

Practices are heavy on buildup, shape and positional play. My son learned more at early ages there than the rest of his years in soccer combined. He took care of skills at HP.

The club has a philosophy that goes against 1v1's and focuses primarily on team tactics?

What about dribbling and creativity?

How do you coach creativity?

Can't coach it, you can only coach it out of the players. Once you have taught the fundamentals just SHTFU and let the kids play its no secret. Creative players just play that way typically from playing pick-up and just fun juggling games, no coach is going to make a player creative, maybe they can cultivate one by staying out of the way. You want to create creative players, leave the coaches out of the actual playing (no Joysticking) of soccer and go play pick-up like they do everywhere else there is a soccer culture. Don't tell me pick-up doesn't exsist either, its out there its just not being posted on DCUM for you to show up in your gas guzzling monster SUVs in neighborhoods you would politely call "rough"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If Loudoun-NVA wants to be the best like they say they … get MLS NEXT

Ha they will never be the best because they don't have any direction and can't get out of their own way. A too big to fail mentality.

News flash: kick and run coming to MLS Next.

This is accurate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of people just don’t want to acknowledging how bad the Alexandria MLS teams currently are. Cant blame them. Hopefully the future is better for that club.

Among MLS Next teams in area (other than DCU), only the following are ranked higher in each group

05/06: Bethesda, Armour (barely)

07: Nobody

08: Armour

09: SYC, Bethesda, Armour

10: SYC, Bethesda, Armour

011: SYC (barely)

So Armour is ahead in 4/6, Bethesda and SYC are ahead in 3/6. I'd say that's pretty solid.

Yeah. I think they hold their own fairly well except in the 2010 and 2009 age groups. I think some of that might be attributed to a young coach working to find his footing. Some of it is talent. And some of it is organizational philosophy. Alexandria's train by playing approach might not be the best fit for a 4-day a week practice schedule. I think they'd do well to incorporate more individual skill work and team conditioning/speed training.

Can you elaborate on this? And any particular years that you know of specifically? Ds is considering trying out there for next year.

Ex-ASA parent here. The traditional Alexandria philosophy was that individual/technical work and fitness were activities that can and should be done outside of practice. I happen to agree with this, strongly. And ASA top players tend to play futsal as well, which enhances technical/individual skill development, at least in the off season. But it is also noticeable that ASA players may be a little less fit or 1 v 1 oriented than players developed at other clubs, with some very notable exceptions among ASA players who have gone to DCU.

Practices are heavy on buildup, shape and positional play. My son learned more at early ages there than the rest of his years in soccer combined. He took care of skills at HP.

The club has a philosophy that goes against 1v1's and focuses primarily on team tactics?

What about dribbling and creativity?

How do you coach creativity?

Can't coach it, you can only coach it out of the players. Once you have taught the fundamentals just SHTFU and let the kids play its no secret. Creative players just play that way typically from playing pick-up and just fun juggling games, no coach is going to make a player creative, maybe they can cultivate one by staying out of the way. You want to create creative players, leave the coaches out of the actual playing (no Joysticking) of soccer and go play pick-up like they do everywhere else there is a soccer culture. Don't tell me pick-up doesn't exsist either, its out there its just not being posted on DCUM for you to show up in your gas guzzling monster SUVs in neighborhoods you would politely call "rough"

Most coaches around here would have killed the career of a Mbappe, Vini Jr, Rodrygo, Dembele, Doku, Silva etc at 11 years old

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of people just don’t want to acknowledging how bad the Alexandria MLS teams currently are. Cant blame them. Hopefully the future is better for that club.

Among MLS Next teams in area (other than DCU), only the following are ranked higher in each group

05/06: Bethesda, Armour (barely)

07: Nobody

08: Armour

09: SYC, Bethesda, Armour

10: SYC, Bethesda, Armour

011: SYC (barely)

So Armour is ahead in 4/6, Bethesda and SYC are ahead in 3/6. I'd say that's pretty solid.

Yeah. I think they hold their own fairly well except in the 2010 and 2009 age groups. I think some of that might be attributed to a young coach working to find his footing. Some of it is talent. And some of it is organizational philosophy. Alexandria's train by playing approach might not be the best fit for a 4-day a week practice schedule. I think they'd do well to incorporate more individual skill work and team conditioning/speed training.

Can you elaborate on this? And any particular years that you know of specifically? Ds is considering trying out there for next year.

Ex-ASA parent here. The traditional Alexandria philosophy was that individual/technical work and fitness were activities that can and should be done outside of practice. I happen to agree with this, strongly. And ASA top players tend to play futsal as well, which enhances technical/individual skill development, at least in the off season. But it is also noticeable that ASA players may be a little less fit or 1 v 1 oriented than players developed at other clubs, with some very notable exceptions among ASA players who have gone to DCU.

Practices are heavy on buildup, shape and positional play. My son learned more at early ages there than the rest of his years in soccer combined. He took care of skills at HP.

The club has a philosophy that goes against 1v1's and focuses primarily on team tactics?

What about dribbling and creativity?

How do you coach creativity?

Can't coach it, you can only coach it out of the players. Once you have taught the fundamentals just SHTFU and let the kids play its no secret. Creative players just play that way typically from playing pick-up and just fun juggling games, no coach is going to make a player creative, maybe they can cultivate one by staying out of the way. You want to create creative players, leave the coaches out of the actual playing (no Joysticking) of soccer and go play pick-up like they do everywhere else there is a soccer culture. Don't tell me pick-up doesn't exsist either, its out there its just not being posted on DCUM for you to show up in your gas guzzling monster SUVs in neighborhoods you would politely call "rough"

Hey, I think I know you from another forum. re: City Sporting Club you said this: "In my opinion, this is for DC kids who don't want to drive around the surrounding counties for high level soccer training, so you wealthy, sheltered suburbanites need not apply. You'd probably be scared off by the surrounding neighborhood they train at in DC either way to notice what they are building so stick to Bethesda and McLean and leave City to the ballers and development process that happens in soccer "culture" playing countries (i.e. not the U.S.) were the best talent is developed not the kids with biggest trust funds." yeah? is that right? If so, I'm really proud of my recollection and the ability of my old brain to make connections.