Asking to attend a practice

[Anonymous]

I am a parent of a rising U11 boy in his second year of travel soccer. There's a good chance he will stay with his current club next year, but coaches have not yet been announced and there have been a lot of changes lately. It seems like a good idea to have options just in case. From what I have read here, it's a good idea to attend practices at a club before attending tryouts. I have noticed a couple of kids from outside the club at our son's club practices lately.

Can anyone explain how this works? Do you email the coach of a team, or someone else? Director of the age group? Do you tell them which level team your child currently plays on, and they tell you which team the child can come practice with? Or do you ask if your child can practice with a specific team? Will coaches generally be honest with you/your child about whether they think the child has any shot at making a specific team? I have seen kids practice with my son's team and then end up on a lower team once they actually join the club. Do we need to be wary of clubs dangling the possibility of making a top team only to place our son on a lower team once we have paid?

Any advice on this topic would be much appreciated. Neither parent played soccer so we are not sure how all this works.

[Anonymous]

Email the coach, age group director, or whatever contacts you can find on the club website. Just tell them your player’s birth year and ask about attending a practice. They should give you honest feedback afterwards by you might need to ask for it

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Email the coach, age group director, or whatever contacts you can find on the club website. Just tell them your player’s birth year and ask about attending a practice. They should give you honest feedback afterwards by you might need to ask for it

This is exactly what you need to do. Also, whenever you send the e-mail, tell them what team level your player is on so you get set-up for an evaluation with the right coach. Some clubs will automatically put your player with the top team to evaluate the player. Some coaches will try to match your player against their best players to evaluate. This could go well for your player or very poorly. Also, talk this over with your player. At U11, they might not be totally on-board with switching clubs and not understand the purpose of practicing with another team. But in general, this is a good way to go before trying out with the club at that age. Tryouts can be overwhelming when you're the new kid. More than once have we seen a kid show up to just 1 tryout and not want to come back.

[Anonymous]

When my DS did this, the coaches were upfront and quick and responsive with us on placement (first team). They followed up first even. Note we did not get the same responsiveness with our other kid who practiced with a lower team and we did not bother following up.

[Anonymous]

OP here — thanks! Do you say which club you are currently on or just birth year and team level? I guess they will probably ask which club anyway?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here — thanks! Do you say which club you are currently on or just birth year and team level? I guess they will probably ask which club anyway?

Either way is fine. If they want more info they’ll ask. We’re talking about a 10 year old they don’t have a resume or formal process