Anyone with MYS Travel Experience?

[Anonymous]

Our son is on the gold team of his age group, but he's able to play up to white team level. He's guest played several times for white and has done very well. Long story short: We want him to practice with the white team this winter because he develops, learns, and has more fun. During his gold team practices he's bored and everything is at 20% game speed. I spoke with the white team coach and he's happy to have him, but all age groups practice at the same time.

To preference, this is not a brag post. I just want to know how to do this. Who do I speak with to make this happen? I know MYS has an age director/manager per age group. Do I reach out to him? Does the gold team coach have to approve since the white team coach is agreeable already? What's the protocol? This is our first time with MYS Travel. Appreciate any feedback.

[Lasso911]

What age group? It can vary, my DS plays 2015 currently and I asked to play up an age to challenge him, Age group director was open to the idea. We are in MD

[Anonymous]

If white team coach is ok with it, he should talk to gold team coach and make it happen. Kids get moved around in practice all the time.

Having been in this situation before though, my recommendation is to practice 50% of the time with each team. Until he gets moved up, your son is still on gold, and needs to bond with his teammates / learn that coach’s playing style.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If white team coach is ok with it, he should talk to gold team coach and make it happen. Kids get moved around in practice all the time.

Having been in this situation before though, my recommendation is to practice 50% of the time with each team. Until he gets moved up, your son is still on gold, and needs to bond with his teammates / learn that coach’s playing style.

Thanks for this feedback. My son knows the white team fairly well. He's guest played 5-6 games with them already and is easily middle of the pack in terms of skill set and ability. That's another reason he wants to join them for practice because he knows he can hold his own. My concern is the protocol regarding moving a kid up because I don't know if his gold team coach has a say in it. I don't want to step on coaches toes or whatever, but at the end what's best for my kid is what's important to me. Does anyone know if the age director has any authority over this or is it just between the two coaches?

[Anonymous]

In our experience there, the AGD has authority over these decisions. But sometimes prompted by the individual team coaches. Most focus is on how to make the top team strongest and keep everyone else happy enough to not leave.

[Anonymous]

If its JF, run away!

[Anonymous]

I would go for it. In our experience at McLean the lowest team always gets the shaft even at the older groups when there’s only three teams. Inexperienced or gruff coaches, bringing up kids from rec that have no business being on the team, not offering the same training opportunities, etc..

[Anonymous]

Go the other teams practice, drop your kid off, return an hour and fifteen minutes later and pick him/her up. MYS coaches are very open to players attending multiple practices.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Go the other teams practice, drop your kid off, return an hour and fifteen minutes later and pick him/her up. MYS coaches are very open to players attending multiple practices.

MYS practices the same age group at the same time normally. So if there's silver, gold, white, and green 2015 they all practice same day/time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Go the other teams practice, drop your kid off, return an hour and fifteen minutes later and pick him/her up. MYS coaches are very open to players attending multiple practices.

MYS practices the same age group at the same time normally. So if there's silver, gold, white, and green 2015 they all practice same day/time.

This is not always true as they get older especially since some coaches have multiple teams.

[Anonymous]

Your coach already knows your son is guesting with the other team. Ask your coach to have your son practice with the other team once a week. Coaches understand how this works. If the new team becomes a fit for your son and that's where he'll be in the future, both coaches will know. If it's not a good fit, your son can go back full time to his original team.

[SocAnon]

We did something similar with our club last year. I had a verbal agreement with both coaches prior to practice that my kid could practice 1 time per week with the other team. The only problem was, the kids on the lower team and some of their parents became overly concerned and voiced their displeasure to the coach! But my kid did get a big head and tell the other kids that they were better than them, which ticked off some kids. I for sure would have a conversation with your kid about what to say to their teammates: I would recommend you tell your kid say something like you want to challenge yourself more and get better -vs- you are better than them. --Just be aware there could be some parental/ kid jealousy issues with this. But hopefully not!