Travel Soccer teams around NOVA let's discuss

[Anonymous]

Maybe a separate thread? What is the book?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maybe a separate thread? What is the book?

It's called Single-Digit Soccer: Keeping Sanity in the Earliest Ages of the Beautiful Game.

[Anonymous]

Maybe the writer, based on his research, could give us the top three things every coach of a single-digit soccer player should never forget (I could use this kind of thing right now!).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
There are parts of the article that are depressing, like the kids having to deal with being cut loose from the academy and the thought of 5 year olds being seriously scouted. But there's a lot to be impressed by too. I like the way they focus on making sure the training is age-appropriate and tailor the training to individual kids. And if you actually go to Ajax and watching the training, it's amazing. They train hard, but include sessions of soccer tennis to make it fun, and things like judo and gymnastics to help the boys develop agility and strength. I'd love to see more of their methods incorporated into travel training here. That plus implementing the move to a year round college soccer schedule would be moves in the right direction, IMO.

I think some of it is impressive, but if it comes at the cost they describe in the article, it's not worth it. I don't want children identified as potential profit centers at age 8 with the understanding that most of them will get used up and spit out without even a solid college degree. I'm all about adding gymnastics and judo to current soccer training here, but not if it comes at that price.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maybe the writer, based on his research, could give us the top three things every coach of a single-digit soccer player should never forget (I could use this kind of thing right now!).

1. Patience. They're not going to learn something the first, second or even third time you teach it. I once had an assistant coach who rarely showed up who popped up on a game day and said, "Hey, maybe we should tell them to spread out." Yeah, thanks. Just tell them once? Hadn't occurred to me!

2. Everyone has a right to be there. The application of this might not be as obvious as it seems. You'll have a couple of people who have behavior difficulties or other issues. You cannot spend all of your time with them. Help them, but eventually, you have to remember that the other 12 kids out there had parents who paid the same amount of money to be out there, and they need your attention, too.

3. Ignore the know-it-alls. You may see other coaches or parents who say, "Well, in EUROPE, they do blah blah blah." They're usually wrong. They may have seen some footage of Arsenal's U16s and think it applies to your U7s.

The questions to ask yourself:

1. Are the kids having fun?

2. Are they learning something?

If you can say "yes" to those questions, you're doing well.

And you will be tying shoes. A lot. Get used to it.

[Anonymous]

Thanks, great advice, and just what I need to get in the right frame of mind for practice.

Related to the tying shoes part: I remember when seven or eight of my players chose the same moment to run to the portapotties. They were four years old or so at the time. They were playing tag and one kid took off, then another. Dear God.

Regarding point (2): When a season ends (not just a soccer season, but lacrosse, too), I sometimes find that I spent way, way too much time trying to help the "difficult" kids and deal with the pushy parents without really noticing. Another of the fifteen things to work on this fall.

Again, thanks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maybe the writer, based on his research, could give us the top three things every coach of a single-digit soccer player should never forget (I could use this kind of thing right now!).

I can only speak as a parent, but when my children were little, it was the coaches who taught good sportsmanship that I appreciated the most and that I think helped my kids the most.

Show up. Work hard. Be a good teammate. Play fair. Congratulate your opponent. Thank your refs.

Most likely, none of your players are going to be amazing adult soccer players. Hopefully all of them will become adults - help them be amazing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
There are parts of the article that are depressing, like the kids having to deal with being cut loose from the academy and the thought of 5 year olds being seriously scouted. But there's a lot to be impressed by too. I like the way they focus on making sure the training is age-appropriate and tailor the training to individual kids. And if you actually go to Ajax and watching the training, it's amazing. They train hard, but include sessions of soccer tennis to make it fun, and things like judo and gymnastics to help the boys develop agility and strength. I'd love to see more of their methods incorporated into travel training here. That plus implementing the move to a year round college soccer schedule would be moves in the right direction, IMO.

I think some of it is impressive, but if it comes at the cost they describe in the article, it's not worth it. I don't want children identified as potential profit centers at age 8 with the understanding that most of them will get used up and spit out without even a solid college degree. I'm all about adding gymnastics and judo to current soccer training here, but not if it comes at that price.

The legal structure in the US is such that there is very little chance of children becoming profit centers, no matter how much clubs here might wish to receive compensation for training them. With respect to being used up and spit out, I think the article is a bit slanted in that regard. It would be interesting to see a much broader survey of parents and kids who made it part of the way through before being dismissed. All of them were devastated at the time of course, but it's not like the kids' time there was a waste. They were received absolutely top notch training for free, while living at home and attending their regular schools (albeit on an abbreviated schedule). It seems likely that at a minimum they ended up being in a good position to be youth stars at other local clubs, and potentially get recruited for college in the States because of their soccer resumes.

I think that in general the path to potentially becoming a professional athlete of any sort has a lot of really unpleasant compromises along the way, though they vary from sport to sport. For the families who are sending their kids across the country to Casa Grande AZ to play on the (excellent) Real Salt Lake academy teams after years of paying travel soccer fees, the idea of an Ajax-type academy program within 45 miles of home would seem like heaven.

[Anonymous]

Show up. Work hard. Be a good teammate. Play fair. Congratulate your opponent. Thank your refs.

+1000

[Anonymous]

So two weeks ago, my son's team played SYC in U9 travel. After stopping a shot, the goalie would pick it up and run to the edge of the box, drop it, and dribble as far as he can and stay on the attack, leaving the goal wide open. The GK was often down in the opponent's box on attacks. Also, SYC didn't play in any shape or anything. It looked like U6-U7 rec swarm ball. Is this the club's philosophy on player development? How do the parent's tolerate it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So two weeks ago, my son's team played SYC in U9 travel. After stopping a shot, the goalie would pick it up and run to the edge of the box, drop it, and dribble as far as he can and stay on the attack, leaving the goal wide open. The GK was often down in the opponent's box on attacks. Also, SYC didn't play in any shape or anything. It looked like U6-U7 rec swarm ball. Is this the club's philosophy on player development? How do the parent's tolerate it?

Once a few teams strip the SYC goalie (or his teammates) and quickly counter and score into SYC's empty net a couple of times, the runaway goalie (and his teammates) will tone it down. In my opinion this is not really a big deal - probably just the coach allowing the kids to have fun and add some excitement into the game.

My team's goalie used to do this all the time when he was U9 and U10. He still likes to do it at U13, but his teammates have forced him to scale it way back since they hate having to cover for him when he leaves the box to go up-field.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So two weeks ago, my son's team played SYC in U9 travel. After stopping a shot, the goalie would pick it up and run to the edge of the box, drop it, and dribble as far as he can and stay on the attack, leaving the goal wide open. The GK was often down in the opponent's box on attacks. Also, SYC didn't play in any shape or anything. It looked like U6-U7 rec swarm ball. Is this the club's philosophy on player development? How do the parent's tolerate it?

To my knowledge, SYC does not have any philosophy on player development as a whole. They are really just a club that houses individual teams, rather than a club that has an overall path to making players better and getting them to the next level.

[Anonymous]

Getting back to the age group change, this is a huge issue for our family. My daughter is U17 and plays on a top premier club team. She is currently fielding college offers and is deciding whether she wants to play D1 or D3 soccer. She struggles academically due to a learning disability so would probably be better suited on a D3 team where it won't be so much of a 'job'. She is the only player on her team that is a 1998 and a junior. The rest of the team is made up of 1999 players and a small number of 1998 seniors, who will be playing college soccer next year. She was looking forward to next year being her last club year with this team that she has played with for years. IF for some reason, the 1999 players decide not to play up for next year, she will be the only player without a team. So, she will have to attend tryouts and pick a team of girls she doesn't know, for one season, or not play club at all. For a kid who has worked for over 10 years to play at the top of her age group, this is disheartening. Take a look at some of the ECNL rosters for the U17 teams in the area. Many teams have girls in the same boat. Why ussoccer has totally abandoned these top elite players is beyond me. Why there was not a grandfathered clause for the U17 teams is beyond me. All I know is this is adding anther layer of stress at a time when she really doesn't need it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Getting back to the age group change, this is a huge issue for our family. My daughter is U17 and plays on a top premier club team. She is currently fielding college offers and is deciding whether she wants to play D1 or D3 soccer. She struggles academically due to a learning disability so would probably be better suited on a D3 team where it won't be so much of a 'job'. She is the only player on her team that is a 1998 and a junior. The rest of the team is made up of 1999 players and a small number of 1998 seniors, who will be playing college soccer next year. She was looking forward to next year being her last club year with this team that she has played with for years. IF for some reason, the 1999 players decide not to play up for next year, she will be the only player without a team. So, she will have to attend tryouts and pick a team of girls she doesn't know, for one season, or not play club at all. For a kid who has worked for over 10 years to play at the top of her age group, this is disheartening. Take a look at some of the ECNL rosters for the U17 teams in the area. Many teams have girls in the same boat. Why ussoccer has totally abandoned these top elite players is beyond me. Why there was not a grandfathered clause for the U17 teams is beyond me. All I know is this is adding anther layer of stress at a time when she really doesn't need it.

This sucks and you're not the only family facing this issue. Unfortunately US Soccer doesn't care about your problem or the ones facing 99.99% of soccer families. All they want is for kids with Jan-Mar birthdays (and national team potential) to enjoy the benefit of the "relative age effect" instead of the Aug-Oct kids (and national team potential) who currently get that benefit because every other country in the world gives the RAE benefit to Jan-Mar kids. Why they think this shift will result in the US Men's National team becoming competitive can only be attributed to willful stupidity (the women's team continues to win despite under the current birthdate cutoff).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Getting back to the age group change, this is a huge issue for our family. My daughter is U17 and plays on a top premier club team. She is currently fielding college offers and is deciding whether she wants to play D1 or D3 soccer. She struggles academically due to a learning disability so would probably be better suited on a D3 team where it won't be so much of a 'job'. She is the only player on her team that is a 1998 and a junior. The rest of the team is made up of 1999 players and a small number of 1998 seniors, who will be playing college soccer next year. She was looking forward to next year being her last club year with this team that she has played with for years. IF for some reason, the 1999 players decide not to play up for next year, she will be the only player without a team. So, she will have to attend tryouts and pick a team of girls she doesn't know, for one season, or not play club at all. For a kid who has worked for over 10 years to play at the top of her age group, this is disheartening. Take a look at some of the ECNL rosters for the U17 teams in the area. Many teams have girls in the same boat. Why ussoccer has totally abandoned these top elite players is beyond me. Why there was not a grandfathered clause for the U17 teams is beyond me. All I know is this is adding anther layer of stress at a time when she really doesn't need it.

This sucks and you're not the only family facing this issue. Unfortunately US Soccer doesn't care about your problem or the ones facing 99.99% of soccer families. All they want is for kids with Jan-Mar birthdays (and national team potential) to enjoy the benefit of the "relative age effect" instead of the Aug-Oct kids (and national team potential) who currently get that benefit because every other country in the world gives the RAE benefit to Jan-Mar kids. Why they think this shift will result in the US Men's National team becoming competitive can only be attributed to willful stupidity (the women's team continues to win despite under the current birthdate cutoff).

Immediate PP, are you the person pushing that silly petition? Seems like a massive waste of time since there is about 0.0% chance of the mandate being overturned any time soon.

PP with the U17 daughter--I've noticed that a lot of ECNL and other top teams seem to lose players between the girls' junior and senior years, presumably because some of the girls decide they are not going to pursue D1 and want to enjoy their last year of high school. Have you approached any teams in the area to see if there might be a spot on one of them for your daughter for next year? Assuming you live around here, there should be a variety of options to choose from at the ECNL level or among teams playing EDP, Region 1, etc. Hopefully she could at least practice with her current team too, even if she's not able to play with them in games next year.