Is it possible to go straight into travel soccer without any prior experience as U13?
![[Post New]](/jforum/templates/default/images/icon_minipost_new.gif){kind=icon}
Anonymous
| Daughter's friend is interested in playing together in travel soccer, and would like to attend travel tryouts next year. She's never played soccer before, but have played other sports such as basketball and volleyball. She's above average height, and does not enjoy a lot of running. Is it possible for her to become a full-time goalie at that level by next year's tryouts? What is a recommended path next year, and is this realistic? |
Anonymous
| She wants to be a soccer goalie even though she's never played soccer before? |
Anonymous
|
Sure, on the girls side. There are always girls teams that need players.
If she doesn't enjoy running, this probably isn't the sport for her. |
Anonymous
She has hand-eye coordination from her other sports (basketball and volleyball), and the ability to jump and dive. Would it make sense to do a few seasons in Rec or challenge? Or get a personal goalie trainer? There does seem to be a shortage of goalies on the girls side. |
Anonymous
| It just is weird to me to go from never playing to wanting to be a goalkeeper. |
Anonymous
|
I think you are under estimating the level of play and what is expected of a goalie by that age in travel soccer. They will expect the goalie to have good foot skills (goalies are involved in that aspect of the game and players will pass back to them etc) and they will expect good game judgment. It’s a lot more involved than standing in the goal and having good eye-hand coordination.
Also the mental toughness aspect is very very real. You don’t know how any kid is going to respond to the position and I wouldn’t find out in a travel soccer game for the first time with a bunch of kids and parents who are pretty invested in the whole thing. |
Anonymous
| Sign her up for a rec team and see if she even likes it first. It’s definitely not for everyone. |
Anonymous
| Absolutely she can jump in. After the first and maybe second team at a bigger club, most girls teams are rec level. Some teams don’t even have goalies. It’s not that serious. |
Anonymous
| Tougher at U13 since by then most goalies have years of experience and training. You can tryout and at least see how she stacks up but would set expectations low unless her athleticism is exceptional. |
Anonymous
|
OP yes, I would just go for it. Be sure to sign her up for GK specific training in addition to the Club training. Obviously, she would start at the bottom team and go from there.
There are breakout GKs who have little soccer background all the time. Matt Turner started playing GK in HS for the 1st time and now he is one of our current USNT Goal Keepers and likely to be in the World Cup this summer. |
Anonymous
| Also, Hope Solo was never a GK until College...she was one of the best female GKs we've ever had due to her athleticism. |
Anonymous
Both with exceptional athleticism |
Anonymous
| Yes, because the big clubs have so many teams that play "travel," but the kids are on the 4th team (or 5th or 6th), might as well play Rec and save your money and your time, because the competition amongst 4th teams is about the same as Rec |
Anonymous
This No it’s not likely OP. |
Anonymous
|
Are you trying to get her on a specific team with your daughter? Does your daughter’s team already have a goalie?
Typically, a club wouldn’t displace a current goalie unless the new meat was either clearly better or coming from a team (not: no soccer ever) that they thought produced decent goalies. Goalie is the one position you can come into later and with the volume of teams in the DMV - her friend can absolutely do a year of private training and end up a travel soccer goalie. Getting her one specific team seems way less likely though. |